Here are a few quick thoughts (no particular order) I’ve had about why God loves support-raising:
1) It spreads His fame. The reality is, I share God’s work in my life and the lives of others more passionately and frequently because I need people to help me. The seasons where my need for support are greatest result in the greatest amount of people hearing about the victories of God. He loves receiving the praise due His name.
2) It humbles proud men like me, who would easily take the credit for the fruit of ministry. You can be organized, winsome, well-networked, and everything else that people use to get an edge, but you are still asking people to give money to YOU, without anything material in return. No one has to give me anything; anything is grace that I do not deserve; God controls the wallet. I must rely on Him.
3) It give people an opportunity to tangibly store up more treasure in heaven and not on earth. I raise funds so that I can win people to Christ as growing disciples and train them to do the same. This means that those who are affected by my ministry can say to supporters, “Your money resulted in my life being changed for eternity. Thank you for investing your treasure in people like me.”
Personally, I love to support other missionaries and watch their progress because I know that I am directly contributing to their growth and the lives they are being used to transform. I’m not sure what happens in my 401(k), but I will bet blindly that these changes are more exciting.
4) It makes people aware of places and people who are greatly in need of God’s grace. If people like me didn’t have to gather a team of supporters, how would the masses ever know where the needs were? This is how I first heard that there was even a need in Japan–receiving the newsletter of a family friend who served with Athletes in Action in Japan.
5) It helps people have deeper faith in God’s word. The reason I specifically ask people to support me financially, and not just through prayer, is because your heart (and prayer) follows your money. Giving $100 a month to something is felt by most people, and it begs the question, “Why?” Giving money to gospel ventures like missionaries only makes sense if the Bible is true, God is who He says He is, eternity is real, and the gospel can truly save.
Thank you for all who are supporting me, financially and beyond. You are truly my support in this mission to reach Japan. None of my efforts could exist apart from your faith and generosity. As cliche as it may be, we are a team.
July 15th, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Some thoughts off the top of my head that I’d like to add from the other side.
Supporting missionaries has a couple of “personal” benefits. As a business guy, I invest in a lot of different areas: I own one business, but own pieces of other companies and investments etc. I get to put the majority of work behind one effort but still get to use other resources to make a large variety of things fruitful. I see this being true in supporting you as well: I get to put the majority of effort on the road to church planting, but I also get to spend some of my time and money supporting you can seeing great fruit there. It would be easy to give a majority of my life to the Gospel, and then come home at the end of the day and keep little parts of my life for myself. No! I don’t want to do that! I want all of my life to reflect God’s glory, I want to humbly serve a mission that’s not my own, and I want not just the major things but every minor thing to reflect that glory. It also gives me a ground-view vision of who I’m serving. This may be somewhat selfish – I want to see who God is using with “my” money, but at the same time, I want to partner with you, celebrate God’s movement in your life and in Japan, and labor for the Gospel with you and not just write a check to fulfill a duty. Sometimes that’s what God asks for, but thankfully I get to see you act. It opens me up to a mission field I honestly didn’t think existed before you came along, and I’m glad I’ve gotten to see that.