This post has been prayed over for a long time. Because of how taboo any topic regarding finances can be, I want to be extremely careful with how I deal with this. Especially because I don't want to come off as using a post like this to manipulate others into feeling obligated to financially support me. Yet I, myself, had many misguided views when I was first approached with this issue of support raising and as I have been in the process, I have noticed similar misunderstandings in others. So I feel this post is necessary for two reasons. One, I have friends who will someday be following my footsteps into missions and full-time Christian work. I have the opportunity to blaze the trail for them as they someday will figure out how this will come about in their lives. Having a right view on support raising will be essential for their future ministries, whether it's the soon-to-be doctor working in another country, the social worker who wants to fight injustice in Costa Rica, or the friend who has forsaken a job to fully commit to pastoring a campus ministry. Secondly I believe for us to correctly steward our resource of money, we can't be afraid to talk about it and explore the different ways God may be calling us to use it.
Let's start with the basics. Many missionaries (and some full-time Christian workers) receive no salary for the work that they do. However although these Christian workers work for no material reward, there still is a need for material things. So it becomes the church's responsibility to act as a body and care for their basic physical needs like food and shelter. When the early church started in Acts 2, we saw this sense of responsibility for one another: All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. (Acts 2:44-45). Even when it came to material possessions, these believers had no sense of "mine". I personally am under the impression that the "mine" mentality has plagued the church and kept it from reaching its fullest potential in the Western Hemisphere. Jesus told us the way unbelievers would know the Church was the real deal was by the way we loved one another (John 13:35). And a "me" attitude keeps us from loving one another fully as we hold back and take care of ourselves. God never meant the church to be a collection of "me"s but a collective "we". Call me radical but this was the early church functioned and they "added to their numbers daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). And this does not seem to be just a concession for those in Christian service raising support, but also to our brothers and sisters in need (with laziness being warned off in 2 Thessalonians 3:10). Paul furthermore defends missionaries raising support in 1st Corinthians 9:1-14. This set of verses hits their culminating point in verse 13: Don't you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the alter share in what is offered at the alter? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the Gospel receive their living from the Gospel. Paul in other letters thanks churches for supporting him so that he can bring the gospel to other areas "free of charge" (2nd Corinthians 11).
This is the missionary life. Receive from one place to bless in another. We are the transferers of blessing for all. To one we move a blessing to the area by serving and caring for the spiritual and/or physical needs of the area. To another, we offer the service of being spiritual "brokers". A misconception I had before I started support raising is that I would have to go out and beg for money. That I would be at the mercy of people choosing to be generous and would have to sell myself and my ministry like a door to door salesman. This is an attitude I have to battle every day still but several books (The God Ask, Friendraising) and those who have gone before me have encouraged me that this is not the case. God has called us all to an incredibly large task. To go and make disciples of ALL nations (Matthew 28:18-20). But how in the world can we do that when we can only physically occupy one dot on the globe at a time? And if all Christians picked up and took a vacation to each country to spread the Gospel for a day or two, it would be an incredibly inefficient use of our resources that God expects us to be good stewards of. So God has created a system where there are two jobs: goers and senders. Some of us are called to go and take the Gospel with us to some distant land. But God does not expect that of all of us. We would never have the resources to be a sustainable force that way. So God has called most of us to work jobs, to share with our co-workers and customers the Gospel and to make some sort of income while doing so. But contrary to popular belief, once the taxes are taken out of your paycheck the money is not completely yours to do with as you wish in the Kingdom of God. God has given us out of His abundance a portion of money to take home every week. It is not yours, you did not earn it. God gave you the opportunity of your job, the energy to complete it, the favor of your boss to let you keep it, and ultimately all there ever was and is will always be God's anyway. God is the Creator of all things and the owner of all things. He just lets us manage His things for a while. And when the Lord gives us this opportunity to manage this money He gives us choices to make about using it for worldly things or using it to invest in heavenly things. In the book of Matthew, Jesus teaches us on this matter: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth and rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6: 19-21). Becoming a supporter of a missionary allows you to regularly transfer your money from earthly things to investing in heavenly things or "storing up treasures in heaven". When missionaries ask for your support, they are giving you an opportunity to invest in God's kingdom expanding throughout the globe as our Lord Jesus commanded and are giving you the opportunity to move the money from your bank account to be credited to your spiritual account. When you give, you are not doing some big favor to missionaries, you benefit each other.
Additionally I want to just send an encouragement out their to those who read this and are like "Man, that sounds really great and all but I just really don't have the extra to give." While there is in one sense a financial responsibility we need to have, I think sometimes we take it too far. Do we really think that we are going to give so much that we will be out of God's reach? Do we think we will outgive God and He will not take care of us? In Malachi, God invites us to the only time He allows us to test Him in the whole Bible by bringing in the whole tithe aka by giving. And when we do this He says, "And see if I will not open the floodgates of blessing in heaven and pour out so much blessing there will not be enough room to store it!" In Matthew, right after Jesus talks about moving treasures to a spiritual bank account from our earthly one, He tells us also not to worry because God will take care of our needs. After all, God looks after feeding the sparrows and clothing the flowers of the field. Surely He will take care of us! It's like Jesus anticipated this fear and worry that giving caused. And He says, "My little child, don't worry. I, myself, will take care of you." I don't know about you, but I want that experience of God Himself taking care of me rather than always just trusting in my own ability. Going beyond your ability clears up space for God to do His thing.
Finally I write all these things not to tell you that I need your money. But for those who have given, I want to encourage you about the greatness of what you're doing. For those who haven't and are considering, I want to lay before you some of the Scriptures that have guided my changing viewpoint. I am currently at 48% of my monthly support. I have raised about $700 a month and have $800 more to raise. I may not know how I will get this money at this point, but I'm trusting in the Lord. He has called me to this position, He will take care of me no matter what. Even if it can only be done through His miraculous hand, He is faithful and He will do it (1st Thes. 5:24). But at the same time, I want you to have the opportunity to share in this work with me. If you'd like to help in this way, become a partner. Go to give.teachbeyond.org and make sure to write "Kacie Leneway 40354" when it asks you where you want your funds to go. But if you don't feel like you're being called to partner this way, please pray that God does a work and makes a way for me. Because God will provide. He who called me is faithful and He will do it but we still have that responsibility to be praying for it, especially right now when we may not see how the way may be possible.
