Dear Prospective Inviting Party (and Generous Donors),

Helping people have better souls is difficult work. Difficult, because many human souls long for freedom and care for the soul isn’t as tangible or visibly impressive (at first) as meeting physical needs.

But when the soul tastes freedom and begins to walk in freedom, the result is priceless.

Yes, priceless. When Jesus asked, "What would it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?" he was asking an economic question—a question anyone who labors for wages would understand. Yet the irony in the question is that the worth of a soul cannot be measured. Freedom cannot be calculated.

Such is the work of Soulation, helping change lives and change a tattered church in incalculable ways.

But setting souls free isn’t a free enterprise. When you sell a widget, you have a few dollars to buy a meal. When you spend your time shaping souls (though you could be selling widgets), no dollars suddenly appear to buy your meal. And it is often inappropriate to ask a weary soul to donate money to you when you've helped them. In our work we call this "taking advantage of someone." It clouds love and the message we share. And we won't do it.

While we can debate whether the world needs more widgets, there is no debate on whether our souls need to be healthy and equipped to shine Jesus brightly in this world.

Since Soulation's founding six years ago, we've done speaking engagements for no required honorarium or speaking fees. Apart from covering minimal expenses, all speaking fees has been at the discretion of the inviting party to give back into the work that they have benefited from. Some events are generous. Many are not. Now six years into our work, we realize that leaving honorariums to the inviting party's discretion has not been enough to sustain an income, to put food on the table.

Consultants charge $150 an hour. Psychologists receive $100 an hour. We put in countless hours to offer water to thirsty souls. With three graduate degrees between us (and the hopes to hire more graduate degreed voices to join our team in the future), we find it appropriately human that event coordinators be as aware of finances for their speaking guests as they are in other practical matters, like their organization's budgets for salaries and events. How much does your pastor or resident expert make a week? Consider that perspective with the amount of time, study, travel, and preparation that an outside speaker puts into your event. Our time is spent in loving and preparing to love the people at your event beyond the hours you see us on the stage.

Soulation has been giving to others for the last six years but our resources are thin and consequently we have no room for growth. Souls need to be set free. But who is equipped to speak into this generation, to slice through the religious gobbledygook of church talk or secular spirituality, to spend one-on-one time with those in need in unexpected places, to reach those who disdain Jesus but need good reasons and new hope to give him a second look?

We say all this to let you know we're shifting our speaking fees policy. While we will continue to treat speaking fees as a donation for now, we will be letting each inviting party know what an appropriate speaking fee would normally be. Our speaking remains Soulation's primary fundraising effort. We consider this a win-win scenario: Soulation benefits as your event benefits.

And, of course, we accept donations at any time.

We're counting on you who read this to catch the vision, see the need, and feel the weight of each human soul.

Yours in the work,

Dale and Jonalyn Fincher