We can't talk about ministry without talking about money
Or: how I'm wrestling with the question of sustainability in my own work
I’m fasting for Lent and training for a half marathon.
The Coast Guard Half Marathon is April 12th - just a week after Easter. So the most intense part of both the fasting and the training are happening simultaneously.
It remains to be seen if this is a wise plan.
I’ve had a couple of uncomfortable moments.
I get a little shaky sometimes when I first start my runs, or at about an hour into them.
Yes, I’m fueling. Taking gels and sports drink, along with water.
I’m also learning how my spiritual practice of fasting - taking in a little less at each meal, eating only simple, nutritious food, and lengthening my overnight ‘fasting window’ - has to be coordinated with my workouts.
I eat a banana in the early morning, for instance, even though it may not have been a full 14 hours since I last ate, because I need that extra fuel for the run.
I’ve also learned that even though I technically stop eating at 5pm, on the night before a long run, I’ll have half a bagel and some peanut butter close to bedtime, so my carb stores are full the next day.
I don’t think of this as 'cheating’ my Lenten discipline, I think of it as combining my physical and spiritual disciplines in the most productive - and most faithful - way possible.
This morning on my run, when I got a little shaky (before the next gel kicked in), it made me think about my relationship with God and abundance. Having enough of what I need.
And it didn’t take too long - since running has a way of opening me up to my soul - to start drifting into thinking about abundance in other areas of my life and ministry.
It made me start to think about money. And specifically: the financial sustainability of my ministry.
Hearts up!
During Lent, I’m inviting paid subscribers into my process (or in this case, into my creation of a process…) while I sort out how to:
Develop Christian Practices to share with individuals and communities
Build a network of innovative ministers
Walk with the small congregation I serve as they face the challenges of today’s church landscape and get ‘unstuck’
Create a series of ‘mini consultations’ I’m calling ‘re-imagination packages’
It’s sort of like inviting you to watch while I rehab a house - there’s things that are messy and hard, but underneath, there’s good bones.
I’ll also keep you updated on the training and the fasting, in case you’re interested.
I’m building all this into what I’m calling the Stained Glass Project - all four of my separate ministries (the Four ‘Panes’) and how they work together…
I have a love/hate relationship with talking about money and ministry.
I’m a fierce advocate of ministers being paid!
I do not think ministers paid a salary by a congregation is any more (or any less) ‘spiritual’ than ministers charging directly for things like consulting, teaching, leading worship, and pastoral care/counseling.
I think ministers who don’t charge for their services (‘I don’t need the money!’) are actually doing damage to the church.
I can see that the whole concept of ‘tithing’ and ‘stewardship’ has been failing for decades.
I know the concept of congregations being able to pay for programs, buildings, and staff based on parishioner giving alone absolutely does not add up anymore.
I see how congregations are left with so much stress as they wait for big donors (who are aging) to drop checks on them at the end of the year so they can stay afloat. Or else they have endowments that back stop the costs. Or else they’re just white-knuckling through.
I get how we don’t think money is ‘spiritual’, we feel guilty ‘asking for money’, charging for ministry, and plenty of people still think ministers should not get paid (the closest I’ve ever gotten to being harassed online is the people who tell me I’m not truly a minister because if I was I would not even think about getting paid).
Money has been an issue since the beginning of the church. Jesus says ‘the laborer must be paid.’ Collections were being taken all through Paul’s letters.
Paul was a tent maker (or was he? I tend to see that passage as Paul creating community with those he’s converting. He certainly gets mad that ministers aren’t getting paid for their ministry…)
My feelings about this are clear, and my struggles with it personally are becoming clearer.
My husband points it out to me:
I give my time away to anyone who asks, and am reluctant to charge people who just ‘want to talk’. (after which I proceed to give them by best consulting/advice/tech help without ever mentioning that this is what I get paid to do).
I drag my feet creating processes by which people can pay me for my services and expertise (It’s not them - it’s me!).
When I am getting paid for my ministry, I feel like I have to give way over and above what was contracted for because I ‘owe’ my clients (because they paid me, and I feel somewhat guilty).
When I’m not getting paid for my ministry, I feel guilty. I want to show other ministers that it’s possible to re-imagine sustainability. That we do not have to be ‘bi-vocational’ if that means working a secular job to pay our bills because we’re not getting paid for our ministry.
Although I’m conflicted about it (see ‘guilt’ above…), I DO equate financial success with ministry success. I DO believe that when we add value to people’s lives, they want to pay for it! And when people aren’t paying for something, it’s because they don’t see the value in it. Having a relationship with God is the most valuable thing there is - it’s priceless. Facilitating that relationship should have value.
Bringing all of this back to God. And back to running and fasting. Having enough. Abundance.
There’s something about fasting (and running, for that matter) that helps pare everything down to its essentials. There are things we absolutely need, though they are very few.
At the same time, I believe that Jesus’ first miracle - water into wine - was a deliberate sign of a Kingdom where we all have more than we can imagine. Before he heals, before he teaches, before he raises the dead - Jesus makes (good) wine for a party.
It’s not frivolous. It’s life abundant.
There’s something about the tension of these two things that it makes me believe that we shouldn’t get too caught up in the issue of money and ministry, but we shouldn’t be afraid of it, either.
The essence of ministry - to share the Gospel, to bring Good News - is so much more valuable than any amount of money.
Which simply puts it in perspective - but doesn’t mean we have to reject (or feel guilty about) being paid fairly for our work.
But just like fasting and running, it’s a balancing act that sometimes leaves me a little shaky.
’I’m not in charge’. ‘I’m dependent on God’. ‘What I need will be provided’. These are some of my mantras while I’m running. While I’m working, too.
But my favorite one these days: ‘Don’t be afraid of abundance.’
Each ministry in the Stained Glass Project has its own Substack site:
Free Range Priest
Substack Seminary
Trexo: a gym for your soul
St. Paul’s, Salisbury, NC
You can subscribe - Free, Paid, or Founding - to each of these to be part of each community.
If you want to be part of everything - and get the discount, and support the Future of Church - you’re invited to become a Founding member of Free Range Priest.
This will give you access as a monthly paid member to all four communities (Subscriptions to St. Paul’s go directly to them. The others support Free Range Priest).
Hearts up!
