SUBSTACK SEMINARY | Q2 IS COMING — AND SO IS HOLY WEEK
A Live Conversation with Cathie Caimano & Sierra Ward
OPENING: We’re Live - From a Car in South Dakota and an office in North Carolina
Cathie and Sierra discuss that next week is Holy Week, which means — as every minister knows — that April seems a long way away. But it’s not.
“That’s a really good reason to sign up for Substack Seminary now — because it’s about to get really intense with Holy Week, and then it’s Easter, and then ministers all over the world will lie down for a little while... and then we’re going to start this thing.” — Cathie
The Church is in crisis - and money is at the center of It
The uncomfortable truth churches are collapsing not because of a lack of faith, but because of a lack of sustainable financial models.
Baby Boomers are the backbone of congregational giving - and they are aging out
Even a thriving church has a decade at most before its primary givers are gone
The endowment trap: Cathie tells the story of a Kansas church with $3 million sitting in the bank while their dream project (a school for underserved kids) died for lack of willingness to use it - and the congregation slowly followed
“If the church dies and you still have all that money in the bank, what are you doing with it?”
Cage Free Ministry — rethinking ‘bi-vocational’
The word ‘bi-vocational’ needs to go (when it means ‘you’re not getting paid for your ministry’.
Ministry isn’t a job — it’s a vocation. You can’t clock out of it
“Cage Free” ministry (task-based contracts, multiple contexts) is actually less risky than a single-congregation call right now
Cathie’s model: paid for specific, agreed-upon work at a congregation AND online, while remaining a priest with every fiber of her being
“Cage Free. Because you just deserve to get paid.” — Cathie
Sierra adds the generational lens: millennials are reshaping what commitment looks like - and the subscription model may be exactly the right framework for the next generation of ministry relationships.
You Can’t Imagine the Future Alone
We talked about Loren Richmond, Jr.’s recent blog for Substack Seminary, based on Jane McGonigal’s book Imaginable: “You Can’t Imagine the Future Alone.”
The future of the church won’t be figured out in isolation
The most meaningful things in life are the relationships we build
Substack Seminary exists to be those people for innovative ministers — the ones in the trench with you
“We’re not islands. We’re not alone. The most meaningful things are the relationships we have with each other.” — Cathie
What Substack Seminary actually is (more than a networking group)
Substack Seminary is:
A covenant Christian community for ministers thinking outside of the institutional box.
A think tank: bring your business plan, your fears, your bad ideas, and your good ones
A collaboration incubator — Cathie, Sierra, and Loren literally met online and built something together. More of that is the goal!
An accountability structure — someone to say ‘you’re doing better than you think’ AND ‘wait, are you sure about that?’
Loren does something like what BNI and other business networking groups do — but shaped around ministry, covenant, and the Gospel.
What’s new in Q2 — Sustainability as the theme
Q1 taught them a lot. Q2 is building on it:
Theme: Sustainability - the scary, necessary, urgent thing
Homework: Yes, there is homework (Sierra’s fault, apparently)
Partners: Members will be paired with one or two others for deeper conversation across the quarter
Live streams: Ongoing, with the possibility of featuring your ministry, your struggles, your wins
Big news: Cathie and Sierra are meeting in person for the first live stream of Q2
The weirdos table has seats
Substack Seminary calls itself ‘the home for orphaned weirdo pastors’ - tongue in cheek, but also kind of accurate. Ministers are a particular kind of strange, and that’s a feature, not a bug.
Q2 starts April 13 (the Monday after Easter Monday)
Price goes up April 3 (yes, that’s Good Friday — purely calendrical, apologies)
Limited to 10 enrolled members
Sign up at SubstackSeminary.org — choose the Enrolled (Founder) level
Already a paid member? It should prorate — if not, reach out directly
Blessed Holy Week to all of you. Walk through it. Don’t rush past it. And then — come join us on the other side.
