Now comes the big question for me: What am I going to do with my life in this next season?

This transition is a profound one. I was seventeen when I felt/sensed/thought/intuited/believed that I was called to the ministry. Thirty years have gone by and I feel/sense/think/intuit/believe that the time has come for me to move on from paid local church ministry. Of course there is the rather annoying matter of making a living. I have to replace the income I was making at Covenant. This wasn’t a complete leap of faith on my part. My work at Jethro has increased. I am a contract employee, which means that as long as Jethro has work, I have work. I’m currently getting more hours at Jethro than I did last year, which is nice.

I’ll tell you what the ideal life would be for me. I would average 20 to 25 hours a week working for Jethro, leaving the rest of my work time for writing and Real Live Preacher. Basically half of my life would be web design work and the other half writing and RLP. The problem is that writing does not bring in much money. Nor does blogging. I have a group of wonderful people who kick $5 or $10 bucks a month my way to maintain this blog. That money has been a life saver. Thanks for all of you who do that.

What I’ve got to do now if figure out how to parlay the traffic at rlp, my love for writing and blogging, and the few professional writing gigs I have into something that approaches half of a living.

Jeanene and I have been looking at numbers and talking since the fall of 2009. I did not resign from Covenant without careful thought, prayer, and consideration. We’re taking a pretty big risk, but it seems like the right thing to do. What I described as a “call” to pastoral ministry has been replaced by a “call” to writing and RLP. Everything feels right to us. I just have to work out the details and be willing to admit that I have to earn money as a writer to justify the time it takes.

I wonder if you would be willing to talk with me about this? I’d like to hear your thoughts and ideas. I don’t want to turn rlp into a forum for how I’ll make a living, so I’m taking the conversation off the front page. I’ve set up a forum for discussion. If you have an interest in talking with me about this, you are invited to join us.

NOTE: You don’t have to have a user account to participate in the discussion. But if you do, please do log in so we can see who you are.

New RLP Discussion Forum:
The Future of this Blog