Transition to Full-Time Ministry

[Christina M]

I own my own accounting firm - since 1988.

In 1997 I founded a ministry to the poor and homeless. We have done this ministry part-time since. In the past year, God has been preparing us to do this full-time. We incorporated a few years back, and now have a board of directors, a board of advisors, and have applied for our non-profit status. It seems like "all of a sudden" it is all being taken to a new level!

My business has prospered greatly in the past few years. After 18 years in business, this past year sales have been 281% over the previous year!! WOW. Incredible.

My feeling (sensing, knowing in the Spirit??) is that God is blessing my secular business in order to allow me to do the ministry. My plan is to grow the business to a point where - hopefully in one year - I can sell it, or bring in a manager to run it for me. Then I will be in the position to lead the ministry full-time.

Questions of all you full-timers:

1. Were you scared?????

2. What were some of the ways God spoke to you when He led you to full-time ministry?

Thanks!

 

[foundationguy]

Was I scared ... absolutely. I'm still scared. We made the transition about 3 months ago into fulltime ministry and moved to a new town. My wife is in the process of opening up a small business which will allow us to connect with people in the community as well as hopefully put food on the table.

God has confirmed the call many times. One example was we put our house on the market in early June. My last day at work was July 29th. The first person who looked at the house in early June made an offer. She was within 2000 dollars of our asking price. In addition, she didn't want to close until July 28th. Talk about God's perfect timing.

Another was our refrigerator broke before we moved and we didn't have the money to get it fixed. A friend of ours installs windows and he "just happened" to stop by. Oddly enough, he had the refrigerator part we needed in his truck. Even he couldn't remember why he had that part in a truck full of windows.

In addition, since moving, God has really shown himself faithful, whether it's in meeting the exact person I needed to meet or providing for our daily needs. It's still scary to be so reliant on having to ask God for everything, but it's also very strangely comforting. It's exciting to see what's going to happen each day.
I can tell you, there will be moments when you feel you've made the biggest mistake in your life. Make sure you right down in a journal all the times God has confirmed your call. You'll need to go back and review them to strengthen your faith during the weak times. God bless you abudantly on your journey with Him and in serving him.

 

[Christina M]

Thanks for sharing, FoundationGuy........ yep.... God is good. I am finding the part true where you said: "he "just happened" to stop by" and "meeting the exact person I needed to meet". This is happening almost daily for me!


God bless you guys!

Was I scared ... absolutely. I'm still scared. We made the transition about 3 months ago into fulltime ministry and moved to a new town. My wife is in the process of opening up a small business which will allow us to connect with people in the community as well as hopefully put food on the table.

God has confirmed the call many times. One example was we put our house on the market in early June. My last day at work was July 29th. The first person who looked at the house in early June made an offer. She was within 2000 dollars of our asking price. In addition, she didn't want to close until July 28th. Talk about God's perfect timing.

Another was our refrigerator broke before we moved and we didn't have the money to get it fixed. A friend of ours installs windows and he "just happened" to stop by. Oddly enough, he had the refrigerator part we needed in his truck. Even he couldn't remember why he had that part in a truck full of windows.

In addition, since moving, God has really shown himself faithful, whether it's in meeting the exact person I needed to meet or providing for our daily needs. It's still scary to be so reliant on having to ask God for everything, but it's also very strangely comforting. It's exciting to see what's going to happen each day.
I can tell you, there will be moments when you feel you've made the biggest mistake in your life. Make sure you right down in a journal all the times God has confirmed your call. You'll need to go back and review them to strengthen your faith during the weak times. God bless you abudantly on your journey with Him and in serving him.