Youth ministry is not a vocation one gets into because of the money, if it was, we must all be blind and deaf.  Youth ministry is often only part time, and therefore needs to be supplemented with something.  I have been in paid youth ministry since 1998 and have never been paid more than $8,000 a year, and I have a family of six.  How do we survive?  With lots of prayer and good stewardship.  I went into ministry straight from the RAAF where I was earning over $30,000 a year plus free medical & dental, so it was a big change in income.

 

It took us a couple of years to get the hang of handing everything over to God in relation to our finances.  My first ministry position came about through a subject at Bible College that I hated and was only doing to gain an extra point I needed to graduate.  I had to research and draft a proposal for a youth ministry outreach in my area.  After getting excited about the possibilities I could see through doing this project, I handed the proposal to the church council, who then took it to the Uniting Synod.

 

In the project I had proposed that the funds for this Outreach Youth Workers position would come from support that I would raise, like missionaries do, and from grants from various organizations.  After about six months of meetings between my minister and the Synod, it was eventually approved, and I became the youth worker at my local Uniting Church.  It took awhile to raise the funds to make it work, and I had to do a lot of ground work.  I had to send off a lot, and I mean a lot, of letters asking for pledges and support.  The stats say that only one percent of this type of fund raising are actually met, and that was about right. 

 

Over the course of the next three years, both the minister and I applied for a number of grants that we got from various organizations, such as Morialta Trust to name one.  There are a number of organizations and some churches out there who will support youth projects, but mostly if the project helps disadvantaged kids.

 

I also worked for Pizza Hut as a delivery driver for a number of years off and on, it doesn’t pay much, but they are always looking for drivers and any extra bit helps.  If you have a family you also need to make sure you are getting all you are entitled to from Centre Link, you have to push for the information, they will not volunteer that they are underpaying you.

 

There are two other ways that we have found very effective in financial support while I have been in ministry.  While I was in the RAAF I learnt how to budget.  We were in the red by over $1,000 in bills, so I went to my boss, who happened to be an accountant, for advise.  I was promptly informed that I had two weeks to get out of dept or I would be formally charged, you see when you are in the military you are not aloud to be in the red, because you become a security risk.  So I learnt to budget very well in a short time.

 

The other was is to hand everything over to God and to ask for his help and provision.  You might be saying at this point, “Yer, yer, I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work!”  It took us over three years to learn the lesson of trusting in God for our needs.  As Jesus says in Mathew 6:33 “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”   When we started to hand our finances over to God and spent time seeking his kingdom rather than material possessions etc, things started to work out and God provided. 

 

One day our Hot Water Service blew up, and I mean blew up, water everywhere.  We had just recently extended our personal loan so we could get a second car which we really needed with my work and looking after four kids, so we could not borrow any more.  We were still paying back a loan from our in-laws, so we couldn’t borrow from there.  We had no idea what to do.  It was going to cost just over $1,000 for a new one, and we couldn’t do without a hot water service.  The next night at our bible study after we had shared with the group what had happened, someone suggested “Why don’t you pray about it?”  After some grumbling that God was not going to put $1,000 in out letterbox, I decided to pray and really hand it over to God.

 

Two days later we got a cheque in the post for $1,000, and it was not a loan.  We learnt a very valuable lesson that day, that God really will answer prayer when you hand it over to him.  A few months later I lost my youth workers position and we ended up having to sell the second car.  I had it advertised in three papers and a note on the car for three weeks and no phone calls.   Again a friend suggested that I pray about it, I’m a bit slow on the uptake, so when I got to school, I left the car as usual on the side of the main road, and I prayed and handed it over to God; and walked into the school.  I was in the middle of making myself a drink when I got this phone call on my mobile, it was a man who was standing looking at the car and wanted to see inside, I couldn’t get out to the car quick enough.  It sold that night.

 

Since leaving the RAAF we have only been on Parenting & Family payments and while on Austudy we are still able to pay off our home and pay all the bills etc.  Since being a school chaplain and receiving only an Honorarium of $6,000 a year and my wife only receiving the family payments, we have still been able to pay off our house, buy a new lounge suite, fridge, washing machine, stereo, computer and pay almost every bill on time.  That was something we couldn’t even do while in the RAAF.  God has been good.  When we step out in faith, and completely trust in him, he is good and will look after us and our needs. 

 

To see an example of how we budget, click here.

 

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