Independently wealthy …?
While I’m at it about the absurdity of “retirement,” I have some energy on another related topic. Might as well spit it all out.
Frequently I encounter people (particularly those who are successful in business, or younger men and women who want to be successful) who are contemplating what God would have them do with the latter half of their lives, and the line I hear runs something like this:
“I would love to serve God with more of my time and talent in the coming years. But I want to have made enough money to be independently wealthy. I really don’t think it is right to ask other people to support me when I could pay my own way. So I want to wait until my nest egg is secure and then Jesus can have all my time and attention.”
I have rarely seen it work out this way, where independent wealth becomes an essential stepping stone for future ministry. Rather, it can become a curse for several reasons:
1. Behind such a desire can be an unwillingness to live a life of dependency, either dependency on God or other people. The need for financial security trumps one’s ability to step out and trust God for the most basic of economic necessities.
2. There is a subtle, unhealthy independence that such wealth can engender. I’ve seen it several times when we’ve accepted folks to minister with CRM who didn’t need to raise money. They had it all. Inevitably, when times got tough in the crucible of ministry, or there was conflict, or things didn’t go their way, they could pack it up and leave. Having one’s own resources makes it a lot easier to cut and run.
3. When I’m independently wealthy, it can put me at odds with those in the apostolic community or team with whom I minister. I have options they do not have. I have resources they do not have. No wonder historically in the missionary orders of the Catholic and Orthodox tradition, one would divest themselves of such material attachments so that all would be laboring together on level ground.
4. Unfortunately, needing to make my fortune can become an excuse for never responding to what may be God’s clear calling on my life. It’s a smoke screen. It’s a way to rationalize away the voice of God. Movement toward that calling can be inhibited because the nest egg is never considered by the individual to be sufficient enough.
Let me be clear. I’m not dissing anyone who is doing well financially and particularly those who have learned the grace of giving and sacrificial stewardship and are called to the marketplace. Rather, I am calling into question when the drive to attain such financial “freedom” is used as the justification for delayed obedience to God’s leading.
When I look for people who are grappling with the calling of God toward ministry that is apostolic in nature, one of the true tests of that calling is that money and financial security are the last and least issues to be considered. What’s healthy is when these issues are the stubby little tail and not the dog. When it is the other way around, it’s a portent for trouble.
October 13th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Been there, tried it for several years, and have just recently decided God’s calling for my life is a much better option. Well said Sam!
October 16th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Sam,
As you know in my own life, having an extra source of additional passive income has allowed us to go and serve in places that are often prohibitive for many living on support. We have been able to use our extra resources in the service of our team, and because we have done that, and been up front about our abilities with those around us, those on our team have seen our resources as a favorable resource to them as well.
That being said, it is as you say. Those resources have not been a priority for us, but rather a contributor to the unique and clear calling on our life to live in dependence upon God. The resources are adjunct to the support we have raised which are the foundation of our material support. We still need God’s sovereign provision to make it each month. That has been the best of both worlds for us.
Because we have to trust God each month to pay the bills, we have learned that He is trustworthy and we get to watch the miracle each month of God somehow, someway, making it work. This has allowed me to speak with credibility into the lives of those to whom we minister, to trust God completely, even, or especially with their finances. Though I am tempted every now and again to find something “more secure”, I am reminded each month, that their is nothing more secure than trusting God. That is no more evident and tangible than in the financial times we now find ourselves.
October 17th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Well said Sam. In addition to those who rely solely on the gifts of others to pursue their ministry, there’s another big group of people out there like Tom who have also found ways of generating collateral income that has helped leverage their ministry. And then there is an even bigger and growing group of people who are funding their ministry while they are serving by working bi-vocationally. But all three of those groups share something in common. They didn’t wait to obey. They jumped in and trusted God to provide through others or through their jobs (which in this economy also requires faith) as they stepped into their calling…when they were called. Regardless of where the funding comes from, it seems like that’s what we’re asked to do.