The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Author: Josias Conradie
Date: 03.04.2010
Category: Prosperity Gospel
There is a 5 letter word that is worse than a swear word for many Christians and many if not most people involved in world mission. It is the elephant in the room of many mission discussions although few will admit that it is there. It is not mentioned in churches unless there is a new building project. When I was interviewed a few months ago by a South African Christian radio station, the interviewer said that I must not mention this word despite being the manager of the Global Mission Fund. We pray about it but we feel to talk about it is as close to sin as alcohol is for teetotallers. On the other side, 15% of what Jesus said deals with this word…
By now I expect that everyone would have realised that I am talking about MONEY! Yes that dirty word that we all need but are too embarrassed to admit that we need it. If we do, then we feel that our faith is not strong enough to trust God to provide in all our needs. I wonder whether this could be the reason that Christians give about 1.8% (some researchers estimates it is somewhat higher) of their income to Christian causes which would include giving to churches. Giving to world mission is even lower – only $10 per Christian per year!
Yes, the proper use of money and possessions is an important topic that is being addressed throughout the Bible. However, in today’s mission community it is seen as ‘worldly’ and has become one of the big taboos in discussion. It might be that we want to give God our whole hearted attention that we make as if money is not important at all. Even though Paul for example wrote the letter to the Philippians to thank them for their material support of him while he was in prison. Or we might want to follow the examples of some of the heroes of the global mission movement such as Hudson Taylor and George Mueller who never mentioned their financial needs to others.
I just wonder – could it be that Christians give so little to Christian causes in general and to world mission in particular because we have not followed the real Biblical approach to money and possessions? That we have put so much emphasis on the dangers of money and wealth that we neglected proper teaching of Biblical stewardship to use financial resources effectively in God’s Kingdom? Might we have forgotten that God desires people to prosper both spiritually and financially to accomplish His purpose in fulfilling the Great Commission?
The Lausanne Resource Mobilisation Working Group had been established within the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation to catalyse a culture of Biblical stewardship within the wider world mission movement. People involved in this Working Group realise that we cannot accomplish God’s mandate for world evangelisation without the mobilisation of God’s resources and better stewardship of those resources. The vision and passion of the Working Group is a global culture of generosity and effective stewardship of God’s resources to support world evangelisation. We started facilitating a process to enable the discovery of God’s financial for world evangelisation, the development of those resources and the more effective deployment of those resources to see more people transformed through the Gospel. Do you have a similar vision and passion? Then why not join us in discussions and initiatives to make this vision a reality.
Keywords: resources, stewardship, mission, wealth, poverty, finances, global mission, evangelism, Lausanne, resource mobilization
Views: 12111
Comments: 5
Recommendations: 1
Conversation Post Comment
Costa Rica
I would like share a story that I believe is pertinent to the topic:
I am very grateful to Fred Malir, a missionary friend of mine from Uruguay, who shared with me his fundraising philosophy, which has not changed in over 60 years of ministry. He said God showed him very early on not to worry about raising funds.
He said, "if you go around asking people to give, you might have some success, but it is like praying to man, and you will get what man can give. Why not try praying to God, and see what God can give?"
Our ministry is 5 years old now, and we have yet to go about soliciting funds. I publish an operating budget, project budgets, and am glad to talk explain them. Our finances are an open book, and I publish them on our website, but I never ask anybody to give. I leave it up to God.
I even have had people approach me and say, "you let us know if you need something." "If??" hah! So I ask my friend Fred if he has had that experience. He said, "I tell them, ’you are asking the wrong person. You should be asking God what you should give, not me."
It sounded kind of terrifying to me, but preferable to the "begging letters" (Fred’s words) method. I am not shy about public speaking, I go where I am invited, I tell the story about the people and our ministry, and about life in the jungle, but never ask for funds. First, it gives the potential donor with a sense of power--the power to give and the power to withhold. That’s not biblical. Second, it’s just not in me to do. It was my #1 concern about starting up a ministry. Sure, there may be donations that we have not received because we have not asked, but God has been merciful, God has supplied. We only ask for what we truly believe we need, and nothing more, and God has met our needs, 100%, five years running. If, next year, we fall short, I will have to conclude that it was because we were not asking for the right things.
There are many ways to approach the funding issue, and I am not implying that this be the only way. I would say that we need to be biblical in our approach, just as churches and individual donors need to be biblical in the way that they give.
Ruth
05.10.2010
United States
@ Ministerios_SIGA:
This is such a fantastic story! Thanks for sharing it. This is a great example of walking and working in faith that God will provide. I’m just not sure if I would have the guts to follow it. I do really like the principle of removing the giving process from human-to-human interaction and centering the whole thing on God.
14.04.2011
South Africa
While I might not really be qualified to contribute to this topic, my experience on the taboo topic is a bit different. Having been sent as a missionary to South Africa we had to gather our own support through donors, friends and churches.
We discovered that some people felt extremely uneasy to talk about money. There will probably have been lots of reasons for that, but 1 big reason was the issue of comparison. As soon as ta sum is mentioned, the justifications begin - from both sides. I have to justify why that amount of money is needed. Surely the ministry could be done cheaper. At the same time my "opponent" begins to justify why he/she really can’t afford to support with a larger sum or at all.
We could continue for hours on the topic of "them" and "us". What THEY should be doing and what WE deserve. But I found out that it is far easier and relaxing to be open and honest about money matters and to build up a trusting relationship. Our giving answers without the need of the sending church to ask for them is one of the most relaxing experiences the churchs treasurer has ever had - he said.
As money is so closely related to power, the temptation is huge to connect these two even in the missions setting. "If you don’t do as I tell you, the donations will stop." This is one of the common perceptions. Neither the sending church, nor the missions agency, nor the missionary have possibly ever mentioned it, but all of them believe it to be real.
I believe money not to be the real taboo. Our emotions and fears connected to money are.
11.05.2010
Singapore
Josias, your unexpected observations could be due to cultural differences. In your attempts to understand the financial habits and practices of people in Christian mission, you probably asked a few probing questions about their values and thoughts. While people in some cultures will readily answer your questions (though meeting you for the first time), others may hesitate to respond.
Sometimes, people must establish a relationship with you (an outsider), before they begin talking about financial issues. In some cultures, people avoid difficult topics because of their sense of social responsibility towards their own group, not wanting to cause shame to their leaders nor to offend you (their guest). In such cultures, it could take several meetings and conversations before you establish sufficient understanding and trust.
Others may be reluctant to discuss “money” due to a corporate culture where differences in status and wealth are accepted and tolerated. They believe that those at the top of their social hierarchy should be entitled to more privileges. However, they may not want to explain the details.
22.04.2010
Nigeria
Thanks Josias for breaking the ’taboo’. While, from your experience, mission is not talking about money, it looks to me as if the Church is on the other side of the divide. It seems as if everything is about money. The prosperity ministry is about money and its inflence even on orthodox denominations is outstanding. The means for raising it is not always biblical nor are accounts straight. While about $10 a year is given to world missions. It is my opinion that so much more are being collected in the name of missions. Part of the problem may be lack of awareness leading to lack of understanding of what is world mission. The head of Church group once said that he ’is not interested in wolrd missions’ but someone had given him about $27,000.00 a few weeks back for ’missions’. 98% of that money remained at headquarters.The influence of faith missions in world mission also contributes. Its not that we dont need money, neither are missionaries pretending that we don’t need it in large amounts but honestly missionaries are not willing to do what the church is doing to get it. While agreeing that we need to discuss more honourable means of raising more resources, I posit that we may need to do more awareness. There are many well meaning people who are already contributing resources to world missions doing secular work that we may have to organise to increase the mobilization work force. There are other sides to the issue that may come out as we discuss.
21.04.2010
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