What does “thriving” actually look like?
Why sustainability is personal, not just financial
The chair business that never was.
Most people who have began some kind of creative or craft hobby eventually face the same question:
Could I sell this stuff!?
A few years back, during COVID, I started making Adirondack-style wooden chairs from some online plans a relative shared with me. She wanted the chairs, knew I had some basic woodworking skills, and commissioned me to build them.
I enjoyed the project.
I even made a couple for my own family.
Then something happened that probably feels familiar to many of us.
A neighbor stopped while driving by, admired the chairs, and asked about them.
And immediately my brain shifted from:
This is fun
to:
Could this be something more?
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When hobbies become systems
I don’t remember the exact numbers, but I think materials ran around fifty dollars per chair. Each one took a few hours to build, plus additional time for painting or staining.
The relative who first commissioned me suggested selling more online.
So I did what everyone does:
I checked Facebook Marketplace.
Sure enough, people were selling similar chairs for somewhere around $120–150.
And while I never built a spreadsheet or pro forma, it became obvious pretty quickly:
If this was going to be worth my while, I’d need an assembly-line type system.
And that realization stopped me cold.
Because I already knew what assembly-line work felt like.
The hidden cost of “making it work”
During seminary, I worked at a lumber warehouse that also built modular wood decks. When business slowed in one division, we’d get shifted into repetitive assembly work.
The kind where you drill the same hole into the same product again.
And again.
And again.
I learned something there:
Once something becomes work, it often stops becoming fun.
Obviously ministry is still work. There will always be administrative tasks, difficult conversations, and obligations we don’t enjoy.
That’s not the point.
The question is different:
How do we minimize the work that drains us and maximize the work that brings life?
Redefining what thriving means
This is why I think ministries and initiatives need to become clearer about what it means to thrive.
Even highly successful public speakers—people charging five- or six-figure speaking fees—often admit the lifestyle becomes exhausting.
Travel.
Hotels.
Time away from family.
Part of why they charge so much is because the compensation has to justify those costs.
But most of us in ministry operate in a very different financial ecosystem.
Which means thriving cannot simply mean:
more revenue
more exposure
more opportunities
Sometimes thriving looks smaller.
To stay with the speaking example, maybe thriving means:
limiting overnight travel
staying closer to home
accepting fewer opportunities
even sacrificing visibility or income
Because for that person, thriving doesn’t mean maximizing revenue.
It means preserving joy.
The deeper question
This is where sustainability becomes personal.
We spend a lot of time asking whether a ministry can survive financially.
That matters.
But another question matters too:
Will this way of doing ministry still feel life-giving five years from now?
Only you can answer that.
And if you don’t know yet—now might be the time to ask.
Why this matters for Substack Seminary
This is the kind of work we’re doing in Substack Seminary.
Not simply helping people build ministries or projects—but helping them think honestly about what sustainable thriving actually looks like.
Because faithfulness is not just about endurance.
It’s about building work that remains meaningful, joyful, and grounded in real life.
If you’re trying to clarify what thriving means for your calling—not somebody else’s definition, but your own—this is the work.
Join us.
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