Our ministry plays itself out through our actions.

Our actions speak louder than our words or our thoughts.

We serve our Lord, our employers and employees.

We are dutiful to our families and we derive joy from the things we accomplish, the money we earn and our ability to protect, treasure, raise, and nurture our loved ones.

We also find and cherish acts of kindness, and in giving we find a higher purpose. We work every day to understand that God has put us here to do charitable causes and help those less fortunate than ourselves.

This meaningfulness, this purpose, this life changing ministry is what gives our existence value. So when the paycheck stops and the kids are grown up and it’s just you and your spouse together there to live out your days, then new or additional ministry can flourish. Oh, and yes you need to get out and play a little golf or travel to Paris or Suriname. It’s in this balance that we thrive. Here is where we find the power to answer the call, and to serve as ministers together.

In order to truly serve your individual call for a lifetime, to live, love and give back or help others do that, you need a plan. It’s imperative to prepare, and a critical element is funding your future ministry. You truly have to start as early as you can. Perhaps that time is now? There is no earlier time than now if you are just starting.

Retirement needs rethinking. The future must be funded and ministry must continue or new ministries begun. So let’s redefine it. Henceforth we will refer to this state of preparedness for retirement officially as: Future-Funded Ministry.

So, realize there is a dream, maybe not that one from your youth, but the one that includes a meaningful life of value and power you can continue – one that has a true balance between what you give back to the world and what the world gives back to you. You have your common and personal ministry to accomplish through the last three stages of your life, ages: 67-77; 77-87 and 87 and on.

Realizing that there are those three stages is an important piece of the life after “retirement”. We will expound on those stages in another blog. The bottom line is that there are three, they are each different, and you can bring value and experience joy in each of them.

I encourage you to head over to www.futurefundedministry.com and download a free copy of my newest eBook: Live with Meaning: Understanding the Power of Future- Funded Ministry. The book will challenge the way you view retirement and give insight into why it’s important to plan for the years ahead where the paycheck stops but the call to ministry continues.

Discovering our future together,

Bruce