A Pastor's Guide To Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

Let’s not come to the end of our lives and realize we missed out on opportunities.

That’s what motivates us at EntrePastors. We love helping pastors and other ministry leaders learn how to thrive in new ways as they seek to please their Creator, develop their potential, and bless others in the process.

By seizing – and sometimes creating - opportunities, we challenge ourselves to overcome limiting beliefs, develop helpful habits, and chart out new territory that the Lord may have us to possess.

Remember, Sir Winston Churchill, said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” We can train ourselves to look for those opportunities – even the ones that lie in the midst of hard or confusing circumstances.

 The First 3 Steps To Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

There are five steps we take pastors through to help them overcome their limiting beliefs and have the mindset they need to step into a more abundant life of impact and margin. Here are the first three:

1.  Reject the narrative of the starving pastor.

Through the years, a common framework arose within much of the evangelical church that it is normal for a pastor to not make much money and just barely be making it financially. There doesn’t seem to exist much of a mindset among Christians of pastors who thrive financially.

Yes, we are certainly aware of and reject the prosperity gospel or the idea of becoming super wealthy off of the donations of widows. We’re not talking about that.

However, the other side of that ditch is an equally unbiblical mindset. You know, the one when a church lay leader says about the pastor, “We’ll keep him poor and God will keep him humble.”

At EntrePastors, we’re done with that narrative. We want to challenge you, pastor, to learn a more holistic – and we believe a more biblically accurate – mindset when it comes to your financial life.

 2. Give yourself permission to build wealth and have financial margin.

Poverty is not synonymous with being righteous. Actually, many godly people existed within the pages of Scripture who were also wealthy. Think about Abraham, David, Solomon, and Barnabus, just to name a few.

History records countless people who loved God, blessed others, but also experienced financial prosperity. Consider just a few examples:

• Businessman, engineer, and college founder R. G. LeTourneau, whose earth-moving machines were used to build much of the interstate system within the United States. As the Lord blessed him financially, LeTourneau made an agreement with the Lord that he would live off of 10% of his income and give away 90%.

• Entrepreneur and Chick-Fil-A restaurant founder Truett Cathy, who built one of the most successful fast-food restaurants in history – and who for many years taught a young boys’ Sunday School class at First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia.

• Motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar, who became known as the world's most popular business and motivational trainer. Zig masterfully wove biblical principles and the gospel into so many of his books and talks through the years. In many of his presentations, he humbly but boldly shared how Jesus Christ changed his life.

3. Realize that it's okay to be more than just a pastor.

If being a pastor is the only vocational role you ever want to serve, that is perfectly fine. And we are not trying to sway you from that. However, we realize you may have something inside of you wanting more.

And that likely doesn’t mean you are running from something – but moving towards something. God in His creativity puts multiple gifts and desires within us. At different stages of our lives, different gears shift. For many of us, our ministry looks like multiple things – both inside of the church and outside of it in the marketplace.

We want to help you know and fully embrace that you have permission from God to pursue talents, passions, and opportunities that are not only limited to the local church.

We believe God’s view of reality is bigger than thinking we are limied to only making our money from pastoring. God owns it all, sees it all, and is great at distributing His gifts in a variety of ways.

Don’t limit what He might do through you and for you and your family by adopting limiting mindsets and beliefs.

Walk through the remaining steps to overcoming limiting beliefs by joining us for our next free four-day challenge, 4 Days to a Profitable Business Idea.

During these challenges, we lead pastors and the ministry-minded through the four steps we’ve found pastors and ministry leaders need to go through on their journey to building a side income:

Day 1: Mindset - Challenge the model of the starving pastor, give yourself permission, and develop the abundance mindset you need to succeed.

Day 2: Assessment - Assess your own spiritual gifts, strengths, personality, passions, and experiences and look at your goals (financial, time, and impact).

Day 3: Pathway - Choose the Pathway that meets your strengths and goals the best: Information-Based, Online Business, or Service-Based Business Path.

Day 4: Strategy - Develop the first steps of your Strategy to reach your goals: business plan, product, offer, marketing plan, and team-building plan.

Click here to participate in the four-day challenge, 4 Days to a Profitable Business Idea.