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Author Topic: Tom Short Campus Ministries?  (Read 10940 times)
J
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« on: August 13, 2007, 08:46:13 pm »

The following was sent by Tom Short to his mailing list recently:

Quote
Late this spring, I made an organizational switch which I believe
will enhance my opportunities to advance the gospel. After many years
of employment with Great Commission Ministries, I began a new organization
called Tom Short Campus Ministries.

The only significant change this means for most people relates to
financially supporting my ministry. If you would like to support my work
of preaching on campuses, you must now give to

Tom Short Campus Ministries

PO Box 224

Worthington, OH 43085

Of course, all gifts are tax-deductible and I will always do my best
to use any gift to this ministry as a faithful steward of Jesus Christ.

And, just in case you were wondering, yes there are needs and
your contribution would be greatly appreciated. In addition to regular
operating costs, there are a number of special costs associated with getting this ministry up on its feet. Thank you for considering supporting TSCM.


So, is Tom breaking away from GC to start his own ministry.. or is he just playing the age old GC*-name-changing game on his 'portion' of GC so he doesn't have to be associated with the negative information about the rest of the movement that is out there? I believe he's on salary for GCM so if he really did leave GCM completely, as in not even on their payroll anymore, that would be quite something, given his past and current importance in the organization.
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namaste
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« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2007, 07:08:42 am »

Playing Devil's Advocate (no pun intended) here:

As someone *highly* familliar with organizational structures and their tax implications, there are any number of tax reasons why Tom's move would have made a lot of sense.  The biggest, of course, is that you can get *all kinds* of special tax breaks when you run a business out of your own home.  You can pay your family to do stuff for you, get all kinds of cool tax breaks on health insurance, etc.

So...such a move would make sense from a purely financial perspective.

If anyone feels like it (I don't right now), you could look up how he chose to organize his ministry.  As an FYI, unless this has been going on for quite awhile, Tom's non-profit status is provisional/probationary for the first few years.  

As another FYI, it probably cost several thousand dollars to have a new non-profit set up properly.  So this probably wasn't a decision to be taken lightly.

OTOH, it certainly looks weird for Tom to do this.  He could have put the matter to rest in one sentence or less ("This is a purely financial move; I remain affiliated with the GCM organization.").....so I'm a bit surprised he neglected to do so.
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Om, shanti.
namaste
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« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2007, 08:56:52 am »

I was talking with my husband last night about GC somthing-or-other, and hadn't mentioned Tom's new organization yet.  Ironically, he asked, "So...has Tom left yet?  Because I predict he'd be one of the first to go if something weird was going on."

Interesting, eh?

Again, there are plenty of benign reasons for Tom to make the switch to his own organization.  I'm just a bit surprised he didn't address the issue and nip any concern in the bud in his letter outright.
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Om, shanti.
Linda
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« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2007, 09:21:18 am »

As of 2 minutes ago, he was still listed as a member of the board of GCC so he hasn't distanced himself completely from the organization!

http://www.gccweb.org/gcc/board/bios.asp
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Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
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