Kevin Feldman: When God Transforms Career into Calling

Kevin Feldman was making good money as an art director at GMC Truck operations in Pontiac, Michigan. He had job security, benefits, and a clear path to retirement. But something gnawed at him every time he volunteered as a Boy Scout leader for disabled youth or taught therapeutic horseback riding on weekends.

There had to be more to life than collecting a bigger paycheck.

"I said to myself, you know what? There's more to life than working in General Motors," Kevin recalls. "I would like to have a career working with nonprofit organizations, serving people."

He wasn't an evangelical Christian yet—just a man baptized Lutheran with Jewish heritage, raised by parents who had divorced when he was young. But he prayed about this career shift anyway, committing it to God for quite a while before making any moves.

The Answer Came at a Conference Booth

Soon after, Kevin found himself at a conference representing the Boy Scouts. A woman named Mary Kennedy approached his booth. They talked briefly. She looked at him and said something that would redirect his entire professional life: "You would be an ideal person to work for our organization."

Mary represented the Metropolitan Detroit Youth Foundation, serving impoverished youth, high school dropouts, and young people rebuilding their lives after incarceration and addiction. Kevin interviewed and was hired as a program director, running Youth Graphics—a job training program teaching young people printing and design skills.

For the first time, Kevin created a fundraising stream, convincing businesses to have their materials printed by youth learning the trade. It was innovative. It was effective. It was exactly the work he'd prayed for.

Then the leadership was caught embezzling government funds. The organization shut down almost immediately.

Kevin was out of a job—but he had five years of nonprofit experience and a track record of success. More importantly, he had discovered his calling.

A Faith That Shapes Every Decision

By the time Kevin joined Reverend Eddie Edwards at Joy of Jesus Ministries in Detroit's Lower East Side, he had become an evangelical Christian. The woman he would marry introduced him to a Baptist church where the pastor's messages captivated him week after week. "I came to the conclusion that Jesus is the only way and I am and I want to be saved," Kevin says. "From then on, that has been my mission—to serve Jesus through my work with nonprofits."

That mission has been tested repeatedly. At one organization doing excellent community work, Kevin's boss asked him to do something unethical. He refused. The next day, he lost his job.

You can never go wrong by doing the right thing, what God wants you to do.

Kevin chose not to sue for wrongful discharge. "I didn't want the cause and the people receiving the services to suffer because I'm suing my former employer and exposing their dishonesty," he explains. The decision cost him financially but preserved his integrity—and protected the vulnerable people the organization served.

Over 38 years, Kevin has directed fundraising and communications for the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and dozens of smaller faith-based nonprofits. He's learned that losing a job doesn't scare him. Sinning does.

Raising Five Children in a Two-Bedroom Apartment

Kevin's personal life tested his faith just as profoundly as his career. After a difficult divorce, he raised five children—four sons and a daughter—as a single dad in a two-bedroom apartment. The settlement cost him most of his retirement savings. They went from a nice new home to tight quarters and a much smaller budget.

"God can take the worst experiences and turn them into some of the most positive life-changing experiences," Kevin reflects. "That really is what he has done for me."

His children, now young adults, all live locally. He sees each of them multiple times a week—a blessing he doesn't take for granted. But some of them, affected deeply by the divorce, are no longer believers. They were baptized as teenagers in the Baptist church. Now, they sometimes laugh at Kevin's devotion to faith.

He prays for them anyway. Out loud. In their presence.

Even if I thought I offended them by praising God and asking to pray with them, I would still do that. That is one of the most important ways in my personal life that I'm living out my faith.

Kevin prays throughout each day—at length in the morning and at night—for his children and his eight-year-old grandson Malcolm to come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ before they die.

Seeing Generosity Through God's Eyes

Today, Kevin works as a full-time consultant, specializing in smaller and startup nonprofits—many of them Christ-centered. Most people don't realize that 85 to 90 percent of nonprofits in the U.S. have annual budgets of $1 million or less. These organizations struggle against wealthier, more recognizable names. But they're also more innovative, more nimble, easier to adjust to meet current needs.

Kevin loves writing fundraising letters, especially for faith-based organizations. He loves talking with donors who don't yet recognize that their giving is part of discipleship—that their generosity fulfills a calling and leaves a legacy others can follow.

He's learned to see generosity differently than most fundraisers. When consultants point to a $10 million gift from someone like Bill Gates and call it generous, Kevin redirects their attention to the woman living on Social Security who gives $1,000 a year in small increments.

She is being far more generous than Bill Gates. She is taking a much higher percentage of her income and giving it to a cause she believes in, a cause that honors Christ.

It's why Kevin's motto since becoming a Christian has been: Treat all donors like major donors, because we don't know the sacrifices they make to give us what they have.

The Work of a Working Disciple

Kevin has been disabled for a couple of years now and can't drive anymore. He stepped down as an elder at Village Church in Dyer, Indiana, because he couldn't attend meetings at the church building. But he hasn't stopped working. He hasn't stopped serving. He hasn't stopped witnessing.

"I consider myself a working disciple," Kevin says. "I have great appreciation for discipleship and wanting to continue to grow in being a disciple until the day I die."

His advice to Christian business leaders is straightforward: If you're unhappy and not experiencing joy as a Christian, pray and ask God to give you work that exposes you to using your gifts and skills to bless others—or at least to show you how your current work is already blessing people.

"A lot of people do very high quality work, but they don't see the blessing they are to other people," Kevin explains. "Sometimes people really need to witness and experience the blessing they are to others."

Kevin's career has had ups and downs, painful moments, and a high turnover rate typical of nonprofit work. He never had the luxury of starting at 25 and retiring at 65 with a pension. But he wouldn't trade it.

I owe it all to Jesus. It was an answer to prayer.

The man who left corporate security to follow his heart now helps faith-based organizations thrive. He's learned that God can turn embezzlement scandals, wrongful terminations, and raising five children alone in a two-bedroom apartment into a ministry that touches thousands.

And every day, he thanks God for it—even as he prays that his children who've walked away from faith will one day return.