'The biggest challenge is a regular, sustainable paycheck'
Substack Seminary and the future of church
Meet my friend
We’ve never met in person - we met here, on Substack. Loren invited me to be a guest on his podcast. Our conversation flowed, and we were both energized to discover we were on similar ministry paths - what I call ‘Cage Free Ministry’.
Loren describes his:
I work right now as a hospital chaplain, for a Christian ministry nonprofit that supports worship leaders, and a church and organizational consultant via my own business, Resonate Purpose. I’m also active in the UMC church my family attends and with a podcast, Future Christian, which I lead with my co-host, .
Personally, I started my own Free Range Priest ministry in 2016 to explore what ministry could look like outside of the traditional congregational system, and both my work and the world evolved to a place I could not have imagined a decade ago.
Today I am building ways to share the Gospel from within and around the mainline church - and supporting others doing the same. And of course I’ve discovered I’m far from the only one doing so.
This is why I was so thrilled to meet Loren, and so excited about the energy around our conversation.
Almost the first thing we discussed is how to build a community of others on similar paths.
We both have a sense that the church is transforming and emerging in new ways, and some frustration that the institutional system is simply (and literally) not built to support this.
Being in this pioneering place is a true adventure - inspiring and energizing, as well as frustrating and precarious at times.
More from Loren:
I think the title of my podcast, Future Christian, says it all. I started the podcast with the idea of it being future oriented. I tell people that it is an “ecclesiology centered” podcast, focused on topics like church & pastoral health, revitalization, and new church.
For the longest time, I thought I was just weird or different, but recently it has struck me that I am just early
My ministry and how it is structured is very early for the future, post-denominational, post-institutional world coming. It has also struck me that I’m someone who believes a future is possible, even for the Mainline church, whereas I think so many current Mainliners think there is no future, which grieves me.
It seemed pretty obvious to both of us that finding ways to band together could make this work less lonely - and more powerful. Especially if we widened the circle to include as many other ‘cage free’ ministers as we could.
To share what we’ve all learned and experienced - and try to create some kind of framework around what one needs to thrive in this new church landscape.
‘Cage Free’ ministry is a term I developed to describe ministry that is basically entrepreneurial. Applying the ideas and tools of solo small businesses to the world of ministry.
Though I coined the term, the concept has been exploding in the past decade, especially in evangelical circles. Both Loren and I have been wondering how to bring this more fully into the mainline Christian world.
AND - to face the issue that a lot of us in ministry struggle with…
‘The biggest challenge is just trying to achieve a regular and sustainable paycheck.’
More from Loren:
I like having some amount of security, so part of the reason for the hospital chaplaincy job is that it does provide at least a dependable--even if very small--check.
To this point, because my income and ministry path is “nontraditional,” I’m largely dependent on my wife’s job and income, meaning moving elsewhere or out of state for a job is not realistic.
Also, people and church leaders entrenched within institutional Christianity just do not and cannot understand “the hustle” required as a sort of ministry solo-preneur (to use your words).
More, entrenched institutions tend to promote from within, meaning they tend to create a sort of self-perpetuating cycle where those on the inside, playing the game by the existing rules, get opportunities and advancement, especially when those on the outside or on the edges could really benefit from more opportunities and the system or institutions need a different perspective.
Money and ministry is a challenging topic no matter where we start from.
But when speaking of the future of church - and those of us actively exploring it - it is inescapable.
Ministry needs to be sustainable, or it won’t happen. Like Loren, I’ve had to rely on the support of my husband (‘Jeff, my patron saint’) to make ends meet.
But one of the driving forces in my work is to help create a path for myself and others that is both spiritually and financially sustainable for ministers.
Whether we’re serving in traditional congregations, as ministry entrepreneurs, or like so many of us - doing both.
From our first conversation, Loren and I were sowing the seeds of Substack Seminary. And now we’ve launched it!
We’re enrolling new participants already…
We’re starting the new year with a 12-month workshop to create a framework to launch (or clarify) our own ‘cage free’ ministries - and yours. Participants will each have a project: the roadmap for their own ministry in the future of church.
We will face the challenges and the joys of this new way of sharing the love of God.
And we’ll work through four ‘quarters’ of the framework we’re developing from our own experience:
Q1: GET UNSTUCK - Vision & Systematic Change
The big picture of institutional collapse and the focused picture of where your ministry fits in - and thrives.
Q2: CREATE SUSTAINABILITY - Structure & Business Model
It may be hard to picture your ministry as a business. But using small business practices: What is your ‘why’? How are you bringing transformation? How will this be paid for? - will help you clarify your calling.
Q3: BRING CHURCH TO PEOPLE - Theology & Community
How is your work Gospel-centered ministry? What part of Christian tradition are you bringing forward in a new way?
Q4: CONNECT IN AGILE NETWORKS - Technology & Collaboration
How do we move beyond denominations and siloed congregations to create flexible partnerships and multi-layered engagement?
One conversation between two ‘future of church’ ministers transformed into a third creation designed to exponentially increase the power of sharing Good News in the world.
Maybe it’s as simple as this: together we can bring church to people.
Join us.
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