Pastoral Internship > Financial Planning

While it may not seem like helping your interns with financial planning is very spiritual or within the scope of what you normally think of as pastoral development, but in today's world, you are giving your interns an incredible gift if you are willing to go there with them.

Especially when they are just starting out, interns and spouses may feel like they have their whole life ahead of them to worry about such things. But the landscape of pastoral retirees is littered with desperate stories of pastors who could not afford to retire when the time came or who found themselves in such deep debt that only bankruptcy could help them. In addition, with retirement planning now falling squarely on the shoulders of pastors, the more education they can receive, the better off they are.

Early decisions are often the most important ones. Getting started on an investment program of some type in addition to their retirement account through the church will turn out to be enormously helpful down the line.

And it's not for just down the line. When a pastor gets in deep financially, it colors their whole outlook on many things. It starts to impact their family life. If funds are scarce, pastors cannot make the best use of their vacation time or afford to get away for occasional breaks that could otherwise re-energize them for their ministry. School expenses can start to be overwhelming.

Recognizing that this is a very personal thing and pastors may not want to open up to you about this, you can still take the initiative by inviting financial professionals come to visit with your interns group on occasion. Allow them to not only speak to the group, but provide a way for some one-on-one private time with your interns. Make it a regular part of the rotation of training that you offer. When you run across a good book on personal finance, use some of your budget and buy it for your interns. Or perhaps offer to pay for all or part of the cost for a pastor and their spouse to attend one of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace seminars. Another option would be to buy the kit and show it as the sole subject of a workers meeting sometime.

Don't assume that your pastors are all okay in this area, especially your interns. If they are fresh out of school, they likely are wondering how to manage their huge student loans. If they are second-career pastors, perhaps they are coming from a better paid type of work than what they are entering now. Either way, they will benefit from some guidance.

Since this area of a pastor's life will impact virtually every other aspect of their life, this is well worth your time and attention.