| In Napoleon Hill's classic, Think and Grow Rich one | | | | The Associated Press article by Dave Carpenter |
| will find a detailed account of the power of | | | | began by stating that clergy seemed an unlikely |
| thought, how the mind actually works, the | | | | group to be "facing a retirement security crisis." |
| immutable laws of the universe, and the key | | | | Yet the article goes on to explain that clergy are |
| elements necessary for profound personal | | | | not only in a generally low-paying profession, often |
| development and success. Not readily drawn to | | | | with a modest pension and frequently lacking |
| the idea of accumulating riches in my younger | | | | home equity, but there is something even more |
| years, I was only vaguely aware of the existence | | | | fundamental at issue. According to the Rev. Dr. |
| of this book. It was not until I left the world of | | | | Bert White, a retired Methodist minister and a |
| employee and ventured into the realm of business | | | | lecturer at Boston University, there is a lack of |
| owner and my new education began in earnest, | | | | financial literacy. White observes, "Clergy are so |
| that I become keenly aware of Hill's seminal work. | | | | focused on the hereafter, but we should know |
| That awareness quickly developed into an intimate | | | | more about planning for life after work." |
| relationship with the essential tenants of the book, | | | | The article goes on to recount several stories, not |
| and daily practice of its principles. | | | | unlike my own in some respects, that highlight the |
| As a Presbyterian clergywoman, ordained in 1987, | | | | issue of a life of service with little thought to |
| I have spent most of my career in non-profit | | | | serious retirement planning. I remember when I |
| leadership, the interfaith movement and | | | | told my Dad that I was leaving my management |
| philanthropy. It was only after losing nearly all of | | | | position to go to seminary. While supportive, his |
| my retirement in the stock market that I made a | | | | first question was, "Will you be able to make a |
| significant mid-course correction, and became an | | | | living doing that?" I chuckled and told him that the |
| entrepreneur. Now, I am having the adventure of | | | | pay probably wouldn't be great, but that the |
| my life. I have for many years been committed | | | | benefits would be "out of this world." Today I |
| to life-long learning. Still, I never imagined the | | | | don't think that is quite as clever as I did back |
| exhilaration I would feel as a student of Hill's | | | | then; and I am much more likely to observe that |
| philosophy. It is as energizing as my years in | | | | while truly one "does not live by bread alone," one |
| Seminary. | | | | doesn't live too long without it, either. |
| Mid-way through Think and Grow Rich, while | | | | As a now successful entrepreneur engaged in |
| examining some of the professions where | | | | Internet marketing, I feel absolutely called to this |
| emerging leaders might find fertile opportunities | | | | enterprise, and find helping others attain financial |
| for a "new brand of leadership," (such as politics, | | | | security immensely rewarding. It is a great joy |
| finance, industry, law, medicine, education and | | | | for me to provide personal coaching, and to be |
| journalism) Hill makes this remarkable statement | | | | able to point the way to all the tools and training |
| of one other field: | | | | which are available for those who want to |
| Religious leaders of the future will be forced to | | | | become successful in this industry. |
| give more attention to the temporal needs of | | | | I doubt that I would have embraced Hill's book |
| their followers in the solution of their economic | | | | during my years at seminary. And frankly I can't |
| and personal problems of the present, and less | | | | imagine it being part of any reading list I had at |
| attention to the dead past and the yet unborn | | | | the time. But the lack of financial literacy among |
| future. | | | | my clergy colleagues is stunning, especially given |
| I found this remarkable the first time I read the | | | | the needs of parishioners and congregants who |
| book. During my second or third reading of this | | | | regularly seek counsel from their spiritual leader on |
| life-transforming volume, I noticed an article on | | | | all matters of life - including jobs and career, |
| entitled, "Many clergy ill-prepared for retirement." | | | | retirement and financial hardship. |