When I first committed by life to ministry I think there was an unspoken assumption that if God called you to preach and if you were faithful to that calling that God will supply all of your needs out of his riches in glory through Christ Jesus. Now that is not just a high sounding phrase, it’s the truth. I believe that when we are faithful to serve the Lord in accomplishing the things where unto he has called us he will supply our needs. I know that not only because the Bible teaches it but because it is been my experience throughout my life. God has always supplied my needs. This does not mean however that I do not have a responsibility to reduce the need for God to intervene and supply my needs in some special extraordinary kind of way. And that is where I hope to go in this discussion.
The corollary to this is that I also believe that God is the defender of those who faithfully serve him. I have never felt the need widow oppressed or the betrayed to do a great deal in my own defense. Again, from my experience God has always vindicated me when unjustly or wrongly accused. You see as a called out minister of the gospel by life is the Lord’s. I am his to command and I am his to reprimand. It is not the responsibility of any earthly being to either give me instructions on what to do in serving the Lord or to punish me for not doing what God has called me to do. Whether I live or whether I die I am the Lord’s. I might add at this point when it comes to the called out of God he has not surrendered his prerogative to bless or to judge to any man. We answer to our master and to our master alone.
However, having said that I need to add that I was not oblivious to the fact that I had a great deal to learn when it came to being a pastor/preacher. In fact, because I was keenly aware of this, I had begun studying Greek with my pastor.
So I want to begin by saying that I suppose I had as good a seminary education as anyone could have. As I said, I took a language degree from Southwestern Baptist theological seminary where I studied under some of the finest teachers of the day. During that three year course of study I took courses in theology, pastoral education, Christian ethics, interpretation of particular books of the Bible, psychology of religion, church music, Christian education and even a couple years of Greek and Hebrew. Every single one of these courses of training were beneficial to my ministry in the years that followed seminary. I actually got a pretty good education.
However that doesn’t mean that everything I needed to know about being a successful Baptist minister was offered or taught at the seminary. And really that’s what I’ve been thinking about. I’ve been thinking about what did I not get at seminary that I wish I had gotten. In recent days a number of things of cross my mind that I suspect would’ve been very helpful at my seminary education included at least an introduction to the financial world.
Now don’t get me wrong Southwestern Baptist theological seminary address this in an almost perfunctory manner. At least once a year they would allow a representative from the Southern Baptist annuity board to have a presence on campus where students could stop and visit during breaks in class. I remember stopping there. I remember having a delightful conversation with a wonderful retired Baptist minister who was offering his time as a representative of the products annuity board offered to Baptist ministers. He told me about the two plans that the seminary had and suggested that I sign up one of them. And that was the extent of my education regarding the financial affairs of Baptist minister.
I think that I should add at this point that most of us who feel the call of God to preach the gospel are not of the mind set where we focus on material possessions. My observation over the years is that the principal focus of most of us who are pastors/preachers has been all the spiritual well-being of the people we serve and to whom we minister. We are also focused on developing and building programs to reach the unchurched.
With that mind set and the understanding that God is going to take care of his servants we just sort of muddle our way through financially. Somehow someway everything’s going to work out in the end. After all this world is not our final home so we are not focused on building a nest it. We’re too busy in our effort to lay up treasure in heaven that we fail to take care of our retirement and/or our widows in the event of our premature death.
It seems to me that somewhere in the process there needs to be an emphasis that focuses on an appropriate response to our basic human needs in the here and now as well as our hopes and expectations for the event and then there. Because the truth of the matter is no matter how wonderful the pie-in-the-sky is it will not pay the rent, buy the groceries, any other financial need in this life.
So I suspect what I’m looking for is a mechanism that will help young theologians dedicate themselves completely to the task to which God has called them without sacrificing their well-being in retirement and old age.
After I graduated from seminary and became the pastor of the Highland Park Baptist Church in Kilgore Texas the church treasurer asked me if I was in the annuity program of the Southern Baptist convention. I told him no and he then assisted me in enrolling in that program. In my mind that settled the issue of my retirement. I felt really good as a young theologian/pastor that I’d taken care of my retirement at such a young age and didn’t have to think about it anymore.
It wasn’t until my first year of ministry in it came time to file my federal income tax that I realized the taxes for ministers weren’t exactly the same as that of a working man. So confusing! There were the issues of housing allowances and Social Security payments and fire rental values of parsonages and the business of self-employed versus employee…… Can you be both at the same time. And so the local CPA took me under weighing them explain much of that to me.
I also learned in that first church that my annual salary (total package) as a Baptist minister in Highland Park Baptist Church was nearly what I made as a retail clerk at Safeway grocery stores. How to make ends me was a major issue. Someone along the way said you know you need to increase what you’re putting into your retirement and I thought how do you do that and present yourself as a minister.
This is especially difficult when you discover you are expected to have a nice car, nice clothes, and all the other things that go with entertaining in your home, attending public functions, and all the other duties attended with your office. $9800 didn’t go very far when it came to paying for insurance, groceries, clothes, car, and 1000 other things. Keep in mind that $980.00 of that was going back to the church in the form of a tithe not to mention about a half dozen other special offerings that take place in Baptist churches.
I don’t point out all of this not to evoke any sympathy for those early years of struggle but rather to stress the fact that one needs to be very creative and knowledgeable of finance to make this kind of situation were. Unfortunately in many cases a part of the creative dealing with this difficult situation is that your retirement gets pushed further and further down the road. Until you while you got one day and you discover that your 70 years old and you can no longer function of the level of full-time salary. Or, God forbid, you die in a premature age and leave your widow with no income. It is that in this matter of which I’m speaking becomes really important if not a crisis.
As an aside I would venture the guess that most of the stress in a pastor's home is occasion ed by financial limitations. There used to be an old saying among Baptist when speaking of pastors and it went something like this, "Lord you keep him humble and we'll keep him poor." It is said of Wouldrow Wilson's father, a Presbyterian Minister, that on one occasion as he tied his horse to a hitch one of church members commented to him, "Reverend Wilson, you're horse fairs better than you." Rev. Wilson replied, "Indeed he does, but you must remember I take care of my horse and you take care of me."
It’s true that you can learn about retirement, budgeting and other financial matters on your own you can swallow your pride and visitor friendly local CPA and let him help you work out a plan for your finances and retirement. You might even find worth a few dollars to invest a financial advisor to help you do the same. Your local investment banker can help you with investments. But after years of ministry I have learned that the finances of a Baptist pastor and his retirement are often not within the expertise of these people.
So today I’m wondering why my alma mater, Southwestern Baptist theological seminary, did not offer in its Pastoral Ministry Department for our professional development some sort of mandatory class or series of seminar seminars that address these areas. Truth is I vaguely remember when I was in Dr. Siegler’s pastoral ministries class he in passing mentioned that the local Baptist pastor all to cultivate a relationship with other professionals in the community. He ought to have a doctor, a lawyer, accountant, and other professionals in a circle of friends. Now the reason that I “vaguely” remember that is because it was sandwiched between things such as personal integrity, moral and ethical behavior and personal and professional development.
I honestly believe that every seminary should offer a one semester course the content of which is the pastor and his personal finances. This class should cover the pastor’s responsibility for his own personal finances but more importantly should also give him the tools to build a secure financial future. I don’t know what the financial circumstances of most seminary graduates today is but I know what it was in my day – – – it was minimal. Most seminarians are living day-to-day. I know it was an exciting day with we went to the mailbox and someone from our home church and sent us a card and we opened it we found there in the check along with a note that they were praying for us.
This course of which I’m speaking should go a long way in helping young pastors manage their personal finances which will be limited in the early years of ministry and establishing a retirement program that includes not only a retirement income but insurance as well. It needs to includes information on how to do this as well as how to finance doing this. In my view this course should be light on principles and heavy on practical’s. It might even include toward the end of the semester it’s taught a practicum in which each student prepares a written financial guide for their future.
I suppose the reason I think this is so important is because I myself failed to learn how to provide for financial security even though I knew the necessity of providing for financial security. Ministers do not like worrying about financial matters. We like to think that God takes care of his own and he will meet our financial needs and he does. But how he does that hinges a great deal on what we have done to provide for our own financial need. The truth is, if taught how to properly establish a retirement plan would probably do so. Once establish these plans become virtually automatic. But the sad truth is if you don’t know how and you don’t know anyone who does know how you’re not going to do it.
Too many ministers and their wives reach the end of their ministry only to live on a minimum of financial resources. If you want some evidence of that all you need to do is contact the offices of Guidestone’s Mission:Dignity office and get the number of people who are being assisted through their ministry. I think you’ll be surprised how many people are dependent upon Mission Dignity.
I think sometimes people feel that because there are so many high profile ministers that they see week in and week out on television and traveling around the country speaking in large venues that all pastors have adequate incomes and retirement plans. The truth of the matter is these large churches are a very small percentage of the churches being served by ministers. Most churches are small and have limited financial resources from which to pay their pastors an adequate salary.
The Southern Baptist Convention has a ministry to assist Baptist staff members whose retirement income does not even allow them to live at the national poverty level. This ministry is provided through the Guidestone Financial Services and is called Mission Dignity. The goal of Mission Dignity is to enable these people who have faithfully served all of their lives to live out the end of their lives with a modicum of financial dignity. However, my experience in dealing with these retirees is that they are reticent to ask and/or accept this help. You see they have spent their entire life giving so that they have never learned how to receive humbly and gracefully. These people are not takers they are givers by nature and that is to a large measure why they find themselves where they are financially.
Quickly let me say a word about Mission Dignity. Mission Dignity is my charity of choice. When asked where to make a contribution that would do the greatest amount of good for the neediest of people I always recommend Mission Dignity. One of the reasons, besides who it helps, that I promote this particular charity is that it’s overhead is fully funded from resources from Guidestone Financial Services’ revenues. This means that all personnel expense and office expense is paid by Guidestone Financial Services. Every penny that you donate goes to the people serviced by Mission Dignity. Mission Dignity provides a small stipend to retirees and/or their widows on a monthly basis. It also provides from time to time funds to cover unusual but necessary needs of the same people. Recipients of funds from Mission:Dignity must have an annual income below the federal poverty level.
Amen and Amen
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