Giving up the salary

For almost 30 years I was an ordained minister of a mainline denomination. For the first twenty of those years, I served as a pastor of two different congregations — ministry for which I received  a salary.

For the next eight years I was the executive director of the mission agency of the denomination, and I received a salary for this as well.

Following this, I re-entered pastoral ministry, serving for about one year as the pastor of a small mostly independent congregation not far from where I lived. I received a salary for this work until the church ran out of money and I was forced to seek other employment.

That was over five years ago. During that time I have worked for two employers at different times and done some consulting work on the side. Somehow, my wife (who is also employed) and I have paid the bills, avoided debt, helped a daughter pay for a wedding, loaned money to our children, and generously supported mission causes at home and abroad. We have also received many, sometimes large, unexpected gifts from family and from friends who remembered and appreciated our ministry. To say that the Lord has taken care of us hardly says enough.

But on the day I received my last salary check as a pastor in 2004, I did not have the faith to anticipate any of that. I will never forget the feeling of looking into an unknown future, knowing that I would probably never again serve a local congregation as pastor and receive a salary for it.

Ministry was my profession. From the time I left college in 1971 it was all I had ever done, the only way I had  ever supported my family. Though I had a B.A. in political science, I had no real qualifications or experience to do anything but be a pastor or mission executive.

But as my wife and I embraced and pursued a home-based model of church — simple church, house church, organic church — I had nothing but uncertainty about what in the world I would do for a living.

My hunch is that there may be quite a number of salaried pastors who are thinking about organic church and asking themselves the same question. “What in the world could I do for a living when being a pastor is all I’ve ever known?”

I also have a hunch that the absence of an answer keeps no small number of pastors right where they are, doing ministry in the time-honored and traditional way where they are mostly unable to equip the saints for real ministry and let the church be the church — when what their heart longs for is the simplicity, beauty and power of doing church organically.

To any pastor in this bind, I would say these things:

First, the Lord is well aware of your situation and is as willing to take care of you outside paid ministry as he was inside paid ministry. God does not favor the clergy with his provision. God cares about all those who belong to him.

Second, you have skills and abilities, either innate or learned, that helped you succeed as a pastor that can be plied in the marketplace. Former pastors are doing all kinds of things — teaching in public and private schools, doing financial advising, selling real estate, playing the organ and directing church choirs, working as stock brokers, and driving a bus. Since leaving the pastorate, I have been a bookkeeper, office manager, and controller of two small businesses. I have also delivered free publications. And I have done side work as a consultant, writing reports for a telecommunications company.

Third, there are Christians who will appreciate the step you’ve taken and come alongside you to help. My first employer outside the pastorate is such a person. We’d known each other for a few years and I’d done some light work  for him. When I left the pastorate he almost immediately offered me part-time work. That quickly grew to full-time work. Recognizing my abilities, he paid me more than he’d paid any previous employee, even for the same work. He gave me all the hours I needed to make a decent living. Several years after I left his employ, another friend asked me to help with contract work for the telecom company she was working for. I was working full-time for my current employer but was  able to take the telecom contract work as a side job as long as it lasted. When the economy went into the toilet, I was cut back to part-time and qualified for unemployment compensation. It isn’t fun being in this situation, but I still experience God’s provision.

Lastly, you will find great satisfaction in being a “tent-maker” who discovers a whole new mission field in the businesses, large and small, where most of those who do not know Jesus and might never grace the door of  a church spend eight or more hours a day. I went to work for someone who almost did not  hire me because of certain biblical convictions he questioned me about. He has still not become a disciple of Jesus. But I can humbly say that he has seen the fruit of  such a life in me and he trusts me with the finances of his company.

If you are a pastor wrestling with a desire to do church organically rather than organizationally, but who can’t imagine how to make a living outside pastoral ministry, be of good cheer. A grace-filled adventure is awaiting you.