Thoughts on Careers and My 5 Year Plan

So, now that I'm no longer a professional (and I use that term very, very loosely) student minister I thought I'd share some thoughts about my pending career change into a field that I have absolutely no knowledge of at all: car sales.

Let me digress here for a moment and let you know that having searched for jobs over the last month I can assure you, without hesitation, that I am qualified for absolutely nothing except entry level work. What with the nearly useless-outside-of-the-church Bible College degree that I have, I quickly discovered that not too many places are looking for a displaced, nomad-esque ex-minister.

Back to the thought at hand, namely, car sales, and my ignorance there of. The potential for fairly ridiculous income is good, and the field of auto sales can be rather lucrative (keep in mind that I've been a minister for the last nine years, so "lucrative" to me is paltry to, say, anyone that isn't a minister or Taco Bell employee. Now, I'm to the point in my life where I'm not concerned with making piles o' cash. I would like to be able to give to different missions that my wife and I believe in furiously. I wouldn't mind having cable T.V. either. Or the ability to put my kid through college, which should cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million a semester by the time he is 18. But, honestly, I'm okay with driving a 1992 Saturn, sans roof liner, and with an engine that sounds like a go-cart. I am rather terrified at the prospect of having to learn a new job, in a field I'm completely unfamiliar with, in an environment where everyone isn't always friendly and can be downright hateful to you (oh wait...that sounds a lot like working in a church actually). Learning a new job, being the "new guy," as anyone who has done it can tell you, sucks. You don't know anything, anyone, and everyone knows this. You feel like a tool going through all the training, learning the ropes, making endless mistakes simply because you can't keep it all straight. Couple that with customers who may not be very understanding of the fact that you are as new as a freshly born fetus or a toddler learning to let go of the table and you have a recipe for a peptic ulcer.

On the upside of things, I've haven't working in a "secular" environment since my high school days at Bob Evans cleaning tables, washing dishes or flipping flapjacks for five hours (actually, I flipped them for eight hours, but I wanted to make use of the literary device known as alliteration here and "five" made it work better than eight). When you work in a safe church environment your own personal discipleship can stagnate and become like a hibernating bear in the midst of an endless winter, never having a chance to wake and stretch its muscles and ligaments. You are so busy making sure everyone else is awakened from slumber that your faith becomes cob-web-y and narcoleptic. Mixing it up with people who think vastly different about things than I do will give me the opportunity to live the life of the kingdom--instead of just yammering on about it endlessly for the sake of others.

They asked me in my second-interview with them at the dealership if I had a five year plan.

Right. I'm lucky if I have a 5 day plan, much less long term planning. I was honest with them though and simply said that I have no idea what I'll be doing in 5 years. If being a car dealer works out, and I can be a volunteer youth worker somewhere, then I'm all for that and I see no reason to give up on a job that I'm good at. But if down the road the right opportunity comes along for a ministry, which is and always will be my first love and passion, then I could do that again as well. I'm not much into long range planning like that because it tempts us to stop listening to direction and leading that the Spirit might bring our way. That's why I'm not much into long range planning in a ministry setting either, especially in a ministry setting, I should add. Long range planning communicates to God that we don't need direction anymore, at least for the next X number of years. After that, YHVH, we'll get back to you for more direction. It's like God isn't going to involve himself in the church for the rest of that time now that He has it set in the right direction. I hate mission/vision statements for that very reason. Besides being useless and meaningless to everyone that isn't in a leadership position, they only serve to close our hearts and minds off to new and different (and sometimes better) ideas that might be revolutionary and life-altering.

At any rate, let me shamelessly promote myself and let you know that if you need a car, or know someone who does, come see me down in Bloomington and I'll be happy to serve you.

shalom, matt