Dusty Rhodes – Special Article “Your Job Ended, Your Calling Didn’t”
Your Job Ended, Your Calling Didn’t
A friend recently shared this story about her father:
“My dad worked for RCA Records. Cool job. He did sound tech work for big names at the time such as David Bowie, Charley Pride, John Denver and others. And then he was laid off. He never landed another sound tech job again. Why? In hindsight, he was petrified to interview. Layoff trauma is real.”
Not everyone’s story of job loss must end that way. Maybe my friend’s dad didn’t have another man to walk alongside him during that season. Regardless of whether one gets help or not, the initial shock of a sudden job loss can definitely be traumatic! The effects can be even worse for employees forced to leave cause-oriented organizations because, according to one study,* most employees at those organizations tend to have a deep commitment to their employer’s mission making it much more personal.
Right now across the entire nonprofit and cause-driven sector from national and local nonprofits to faith-based ministries, especially Christian music radio, staff positions are being eliminated but not all for the same reasons. Thousands of nonprofits nationwide who heavily depend on government funding are laying off staff because the current administration has frozen or eliminated federal grants. It is even creating a downward spiral effect because states depend on federal funds, counties depend on state funds, and cities depend on county funds.
There’s a different kind of bloodbath going on right now in the Christian music radio industry, which hits closer to home for me personally having spent 30+ years in that arena. None of the stations involved depend on government funding I’m aware of. The reasons given for job cuts were more about strategy not subsidies. Last December it was reported Salem Media Group was selling 7 of its Christian music stations to Educational Media Foundation (EMF) because Salem “made a strategic decision to exit the Contemporary Christian Music format.”** Since EMF’s model requires fewer if any local staff in each market, many Salem employees lost their jobs. Fast-forward to today, a bigger blow to local radio jobs was announced this week. Moody Radio is making “a broad strategic realignment across its ministries” affecting Moody’s 71 stations, at a minimum replacing all its local morning radio shows.*** That’s a lot of Moody employees losing jobs.
Financial advantages are usually behind strategic decisions made and there’s plenty of opinions about that all over social media. My personal concern right now are the many friends in the industry suddenly and unexpectedly out of work! I’m glad to see other friends trying to help them by posting job openings to check out, sharing encouraging thoughts and extending prayers to those recently released from Salem and Moody. Knowing some of those affected by these “strategic” decisions, I also reached out and am praying for them.
Life has taken a surprise turn or dip from what many had imagined might be a less eventful season. These are skilled professionals with big hearts. Whether it’s a 3 day or 3 week or 3 month advance notice, it still sucks to suddenly lose a job you love. There is definitely some shock and awe around this kind of loss. I hope those directly affected are treated well on the way out. Yet even under the best of circumstances with everyone acting in a Christ-like manner, there can still be a lot of raw emotions, even a grieving process to walk through.
Whole families are affected too and especially those amazing radio spouses. They are our biggest cheerleaders, probably love our employer ministry as we do. They know its flaws and yet respectfully keep things confidential. They now see their radio spouse experiencing this loss knowing their journey together is sailing into uncertain waters for a time. It can be very difficult to process and navigate, even when doing it together.
I don’t have tangible things like a job to offer anyone. But I have experienced similar dynamics of loss in Christian radio, and I want to direct my thoughts now to my friends in Christian radio; some life-changing lessons learned which helped renew me in my season.
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Soon after leaving a job I loved years ago, I sat with a counselor and could already hear myself spewing out a litany of tasks; “I should update my resume. I should reorganize my contacts. I should start applying to job postings.” Before I listed my next task the counselor shot back with a slightly raised voice yet full of love and authenticity, “Stop shoulding on yourself!” I quickly laughed. I found it genuinely funny. And then just as quickly my laughing turned to gut-wrenching sobbing. I tried to control it but I was too exhausted. Anger welled up inside me towards the ministry I just left. I didn’t want to leave it, didn’t have to leave it, but I chose to leave it out of necessity at the time. I was mad at them and mad at myself. I felt so tired. And broken. I even wondered if I’d ever work in ministry again.
My counselor then took some time to show me in the Bible another tired ministry worker who felt exhausted from all the crap he had to deal with. The prophet Elijah had just experienced a back-to-back series of highs and lows; healing a widow’s son, threatened by a king, led hundreds of Israelites back to God, personally killed 450 false prophets, literally outran a king’s chariot for 6 miles, and after all those ministry accomplishments he was now running scared from a king’s wife who wanted to kill him. In 1 Kings 19 we find Elijah alone in the wilderness where he finally cried out in desperation, “I have had enough, God!” Exhausted, he fell asleep. And though there was more ministry work for him coming later, the only thing God wanted Elijah to do right then was to keep sleeping, then wake up to eat and go back to sleep. Wake up again to eat and go back to sleep again.
Elijah’s story segued perfectly into the life of Jesus. I’ve always loved reading what Jesus said. But with my counselor’s help my attention landed more on what Jesus did when I read “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matt 11: 28-30 MSG)
Being challenged by examples from both Jesus and Elijah, I decided to start incorporating these concepts into my life. As one who needed only a few hours of sleep a night much of my life, I was surprised how long and how often I slept for the first few weeks post-job. I never realized how exhausted I really was until I made it a priority to sleep. Over time with a rested body, mind and heart, I was better able to learn new ways to live well.
As Paul described in Ephesians, God now had me right where He wanted me with all the time in the world to shower His grace and kindness upon me (Eph 2:7 MSG) as well as rest, eat and sleep. I somewhat humorously viewed ‘every day as Saturday’ and used that time to recover myself, renew my marriage and healthy relationships with others, recalibrate where I wanted to go professionally and re-engage back into meaningful work.
Here is my summary of lessons learned which I hope will be helpful to my friends in Christian radio who have just found themselves out of work.
Let the feelings flow
Shock and awe, anger, regret, betrayal, fear, raw…whatever. It doesn’t mean the feelings represent facts. It is more like stages in a grieving process. Find a trusted friend you can share all that with.
The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion…that is a friend who cares.
- Henri Nouwen
Your job ended – you’re calling didn’t
A job can be taken away from you. The first time it happened to me I thought “after all these years…building a strategy that worked, creating a successful annual…I have to now drop and run leaving it all behind? It was working so well. It’s all for nothing?”
Listen, no one can ever take away from you the eternal impact you already made in lives and communities. Nor can anyone ever take away everything you have gained in your experiences and accomplishments. You get to take all of that with you – plus your gifts, skills, talent and God’s call on your life – wherever it is you go next!
Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.
- Parker Palmer
Don’t should on yourself
You may feel an urgency to pile on the job search tasks, thinking you should immediately do this or you should do that. I think that’s a normal reaction because we were created to work (Gen 2:15) and, as they say, “finding a job is a full-time job.” However, if you can, wait a while and make your full-time work recovering from the shock and debrief what just happened to you. Follow Elijah’s example; rest, eat and sleep. Then rinse and repeat as Elijah did. Consider the most spiritual thing you can do for yourself right now is rest. At least for a few weeks make recovery and renewal a priority.
The soul is tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, and self-sufficient: it knows how to survive in hard places.
- Parker Palmer
You were given an unexpected gift of time (too soon to hear that?)
Sudden job loss can be a 2-sided coin; one side is recovering. But the other side is recalibrating yourself for your next gig. You’ll know when its time to start ramping back up. Maybe God has more ministry work for you to do as He did with Elijah, or maybe not. Take another position at an organization, or start your own business? Try some assessment tools to get objective and different camera angles on yourself. Explore and see what they reveal about you.
You have made known to me the path of life.
- David, Psalms 16:11
Life has a way of testing our theology at times. Thankfully our God is bigger than our theology and our life. As you begin to think about re-engaging back into the marketplace you will likely find that Salem and Moody survived all the industry-shaking news just fine. And you will survive too! Jesus said He came to make all things new (the Greek word there means “new again”). This is an opportunity to be totally open to whatever new thing God wants to do in your life and where He wants to lead you. The big advantage right now for you is ‘every day is Saturday!’
*93% of nonprofit employees say they are engaged at work – a rate significantly higher than the national average across sectors, per a 2018 report by Work for Good.
**Salem Media Group Sells CCM Portfolio, Cuts FISH Format in $80M Deal, Radio Ink, December 2024.
***Karl and Crew To Replace All Local Moody Radio Morning Shows, Radio Ink, May 2025.
Dusty Rhodes is a strategic executive leader helping Christian radio and other nonprofits grow revenues to fulfill their missions for wider and deeper impact! He works alongside leadership creating visionary strategic plans and the revenue strategies to fund them for sustainable growth. His accomplishments span 30+ years serving in Christian media and ministry as an award-winning radio morning show host, Program Director, Operations Manager, General Manager, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Development Officer and Senior Vice President.
Contact Dusty: DustyRhodes777@Outlook.com and at www.LinkedIn.com/in/DustyRhodes777
