10-12-2006 - Simply Another Pastor Leadership Model. . .
Pastor's Financial Dilemma
Question: Chaplain Paul, what happens if every pastor leaves the ministry, or as you like to reframe it, expands ministry options?
Answer: I know that some would conclude from reading my website articles on pastor burnout and leaving the ministry, it seems I am advocating pastors leave their parish assignments. Remember that I am talking to pastors who have already reached the point where they just want to quit and pursue another career option.
From my perspective, we need not make pastoring a local church and pursuing another field of work as an either-or choice. Why not have an both-and option to pastoral leadership in local churches?
Another Pastor Funding Option
The paradigm I am suggesting is really not all that new. We tend to read the New Testament from a USA, non-profit faith organization mentality. I am not convinced that the concept of a "full time pastor" as we know it in the US was the pastor leadership model for local churches in the New Testament.
I know several pastors who work secular jobs or even ministry jobs for another organization in addition to their pastor position in the local church they serve. They could not fund their ministry by what a local church pays, so they seek another job, usually creating tension in the church body for doing so.
My suggestion is to encourage a pastor work another job as the pastor leadership arrangement of choice, and rather than look forward to the day he or she is full time, start adding staff using the same ministry funding model.
Stop The Revolving Door With Pastors Coming And Going
Here in San Diego I can not see how a small church or a new church plant could exist any other way successfully. To attempt to have a pastor live with our cost of living on the salary most small churches pay means there is a revolving door with pastors coming and going, usually leaving because of financial pressures.
Since this is a blog, I can share my thoughts without developing them to completion. So, let me say that there is more to come as I develop this concept.
Onward with purpose,
Chaplain Paul Slater
Learn to write for the internet:http://www.change-career-with-purpose.com/writing-for-the-internet
Click to see a favorite product or featured website:
To reference this entry in your "change career with purpose" planning, please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)
10-12-2006 - I Do Like Woodworking Tools. . .
Woodworking Tools Near The Top Of The Woodworker's Wish List
OK, let's admit it -- woodworking tools are usually near the top of any woodworker's gift wish list. Not that I consider myself a committed woodworker like my brother-in-law. His home workshop is one any woodworker would want.
Hopefully his family will see the following advertisement of woodworker toys. You see, if he gets new woodworking tool, maybe I will get some of his power tool hand-me-downs.
Since he is what I consider a professional woodworker, there are not many woodworking tools he is lacking. The chances of him not already having whatever woodworking gifts he would receive are pretty slim.
Gladly I Am Not His Woodworking Gift Recipient Of Choice
But the truth is, as much as loves me as his favorite brother-in-law, his woodworking gift recipient of choice would be Bonita Park Nazarene Camp in New Mexico, where he lives.
You see, Darrell just completed a state of the art workshop for them and has been outfitting the workshop with some very desirable woodworking tools. I guess that makes them woodworking tools with purpose.
Onward with purpose,
Chaplain Paul Slater
To reference this entry in your "change career with purpose" planning, please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)
19-12-2006 - Need For Ministry Funding Resources Led To eBay . . .
Ministry And Church Funding Source Possibility
Recently I was intrigued by a possible ministry and church funding resource -- use eBay to generate an income stream. Now I know there are millions of people who use eBay as the basis for a home business but I have never done so to this point.
My sister-in-law in New Mexico buys loads of stuff off eBay. My son has found good computer product deals on eBay too.
He Funded His Ministry Through His eBay Business
Back during the Cedar Fire in San Diego I was serving as a Red Cross chaplain at one of San Diego's disaster centers and met a pastor who said that he was able to fund his ministry through a proftiable home based eBay business.
I have seen lots of eBay Christmas Commercials this holiday season with a very recognizable logo that has come to identify this world famous auction reseller. This company uses their brand identifying logo everywhere. Here is that famous eBay logo but few of us see it as an income stream for a ministry or church:
Now it is that pastor whose eBay business strategy funded his ministry that has my attention. He made money from his eBay home business while those in my family were purchasing items. Entrepreneurs we are not!
I remember a Nazarene pastor's wife who sold some out of print books from her husband's library, hopefully with his permission. She did have his permission to auction some of his books, because he told me she sold one book, an obscure volume that he wouldn't have paid 35 cents for. Her price was $35, bought by a Bible college student who could not find it anywhere else because it was out of print yet needed for a class he was taking. Since he had over 10,000 books, she developed an eBay Used Bookstore.
The Ministry Funding Possibilities that eBay Offers
Of course, back then, I was oblivious to the ministry funding possibilities that eBay offers entrepreneurial type people. I recently told my wife I was going to explore using eBay as a way to generate funds for our world evangelism offering.
I will keep you posted as to whether my eBay ministry funding idea has any merit. Especially since my wife just rolls her eyes at some of my ideas for another Christian business home based.
Onward with purpose,
Chaplain Paul Slater
To reference this entry in your "change career with purpose" planning, please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)
19-12-2006 - Avoiding Career Burnout In Ministry. . .
Avoiding Pastor Burnout: The Need For Further Research
Avoiding pastor burnout is a topic I write about quite often. In fact, in reviewing an article I had written on pastor burnout, I was doing a Google name search just using my name, Chaplain Paul Slater, and came up with several hundred results.
That's the reason I use the title Chaplain along with my name, Paul Slater. Of course the main reason is to create a unique brand of one, distinguishing myself from all other Paul Slaters. You see, there are some Paul Slaters I don't want to be confused with.
But I am surprised that through my web building efforts, my name, using the handle Chaplain Paul Slater, does bring up quite a list of web page articles, most of them on my own websites.
Quoted In Ministry Today Magazine
Surprisingly one of the search engine results was an article in Ministry Today, a church ministry periodical that is promoted as a organization that "provides tools for understanding and seizing the opportunities of 21st century ministry, not merely informing readers about what is working and not working in the church, but inspiring critical thought and creative action."
In the Jul/Aug 2006 of Ministry Today, Chris Maxwell wrote an article entitled Runaway Shepherds? quoting me for some comments I supposedly wrote about avoiding career burnout as a pastor.
Maxwell's approach was to sit down with several pastors who've left vocational ministry, interviewing them to get past the stereotyped concept of leaving the ministry.
I really like the spin this author gives to leaving ministry when he encapsulates his concept in a sports analogy, saying that it is possible many pastors are on God's team but are playing the wrong position.
In quoting my words of wisdom regarding pastor burnout, Maxwell asks: "How can today's pastors avoid burnout, stay in the ministry (if that is God's plan) or leave on good terms if they are playing the wrong position on God's team?"
Of course, I confess that I cringe when we use the term leaving the ministry. But use it we do, usually referring to someone no longer pastoring a local church.
Yet for many, choosing a career other than a ministry career as pastor, we do not leave the ministry, we actually expand our ministry. When see what I am doing now in a health care chaplain career compared to my former ministry career as a parish pastor, I see God using me to reach far more people with the message of God's love.
Recently I attended an Adult Bible class taught by a friend of mine who many would say left the ministry. He had burned out as a pastor of a small, struggling church in San Diego.
Grocery Store Ministry
He now works at a grocery store, yet to me he is more excited about ministry than ever before. When he talks about his job, his conversation is full of references to how co-workers seek him out for spiritual counsel on a daily basis. In fact, I told him he has more enthusiasm about ministry opportunities in his grocery store ministry than he did in his church assignment as a parish pastor.
Did he leave the ministry or expand his ministry? In my book, he expanded his ministry, fulfilling his purpose to impact others with the message of God's love. Of course, had his small church given him permission to create an income stream adequate for what the San Diego cost of living demands for survival, they could be in on his excitement for ministry.
Then again, perhaps he was the one who needed to give himself permission to make up the difference in ministry financial support needs, staying with his congregation, working the secular job, and making it financially in an area with an extremely high cost of living.
Part 2: http://www.change-career-with-purpose.com/how-to-avoid-pastor-burnout.html
To reference this entry in your "change career with purpose" planning, please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)
20-12-2006 - Show Me Your World Famous International Website
We had company over last Sunday, Howard and Pat, good friends who now serve in ministry positions at Point Loma Nazarene College, where my wife is Site Director of the Early Childhood Learning Center.
Show me your ministry website was the first statement I heard Pat say. I shared with her how my website business venture is also a ministry. It helps me fulfill my own purpose, helping others be all they can be by the grace of God.
I told Howard and Pat how my faith based website helps me fulfill my purpose:
- First, helping others be all they can be by the grace of God is a foundational concept throughout scripture -- helping others obey the principles of God.
- Secondly, I find my simple purpose statement to be very practical and achievable. That's because at the end of the day, I can analyze whether I did or didn't fulfill that purpose.
- Thirdly, my personal life purpose can be achieved in every relationship I have, starting at home and spreading out from there, into the workplace, and the world I live in.
- Finally, I can use a multitude of methods to fulfill this God-given purpose. For example, this blog and my website are tools for life changing ministry, helping my readers be all they can be by the grace of God.
When I showed them the website statistic showing that visitors had come from over 70 countries in the month of October, 2006, I realized that I really did have a wider ministry impact than ever before in my 35 year pastoral career.
My desire is that those visiting my international website just may find encouragement and help in becoming all they can be by the grace of God! Perhaps they just want to do what this site is all about -- "Change Career With Purpose!"
Onward with purpose,
Chaplain Paul Slater
More more information on the easiest way to build your own website, and to have your own blog, check out "Click here to check out how you too can impact the world with your message!"
To reference this entry in your "change career with purpose" planning, please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)
22-12-2006 - Need For Ministry Funding Resources Led To eBay . . .
Those seeking ministry funding ideas are discovering that the internet is a gold mine of church stewardship resources. While providing useful ideas on church finance, the internet has resources for improving your parishoner's personal finances, providing income producing ideas for helping church members succeed financially.
Read Change Career Articles
To reference this entry in your "change career with purpose" planning, please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)
23-12-2006 - Non-profit income strategy
Last night I met someone visiting San Diego from Youngstown, Ohio.
She told me about her non-profit ministry to skilled nursing homes and retirement centers, whereby she uses pet therapy to share the message of God's love.
The challenge she faced was she was not generating any income to sustain her non-profit. She may be under the impression that if you start a non-profit corporation, your non-profit designation means she cannot have income strategies to fund her non-profit organization.
While she would do well to explore just how she could generate funding sources for her non-profit organization, a good place to begin for her non-profit organization survival is to understand that non-profit does not mean non-income.
While no expert on non-profit ministry funding sources, having a Christian bookstore or charging a fee for services rendered or even having Google adsense advertising on her non-profit website would be smart income producing strategies to fund her non-profit pet therapy ministry.
Onward with purpose,
Chaplain Paul Slater
What she really needed was a website for her non-profit that she could control and that actually had website traffic to her non-profit website. I suggested she explore http://www.change-career-with-purpose.com/videotour-on-effective-websites
Click to see a favorite product or featured website:
To reference this entry in your "change career with purpose" planning, please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)
23-12-2006 - How To Avoid Pastor Burnout. . .
This article on how to avoid pastor burnout article takes another look at the concept of ministry career burnout , in that what is often thought of as leaving ministry may be, in reality, expanding ministry, reframing career change for pastors into a positive way to change career with purpose.
Read Change Career Articles
To reference this entry in your "change career with purpose" planning, please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)
