Raising Support?

[Lady Julian]

I know some of you are former missionaries: Was your church for or against raising support? (Right now, many of my colleagues belong to a denomination that discourages support raising. A typical "sending church" will tell the missionary: Don't expect us to send you a dime. You should rely on God, not other people, for money.)

I ask because I'm reading Ross Douthat's Bad Religion right now, and according to Douthat, Dallas Theological Seminary (which is conservative and therefore popular with the kind of denomination that discourages fundraising) once believed that with sufficient prayer and faith, "no fundraising would be necessary". Douthat has linked this to a variant of the prosperity gospel.

I'd also be curious whether any of you are familiar with references (books, websites) espousing the no-fundraising style of ministry. I'd like to read up more on it and see if there is a legitimate connection between this incredibly weird and illogical method of "fundraising" and the prosperity gospel.

[Bonhoeffer]

(05-12-2013 09:17 PM)Lady Julian Wrote:  I know some of you are former missionaries: Was your church for or against raising support? (Right now, many of my colleagues belong to a denomination that discourages support raising. A typical "sending church" will tell the missionary: Don't expect us to send you a dime. You should rely on God, not other people, for money.)

I ask because I'm reading Ross Douthat's Bad Religion right now, and according to Douthat, Dallas Theological Seminary (which is conservative and therefore popular with the kind of denomination that discourages fundraising) once believed that with sufficient prayer and faith, "no fundraising would be necessary". Douthat has linked this to a variant of the prosperity gospel.

I'd also be curious whether any of you are familiar with references (books, websites) espousing the no-fundraising style of ministry. I'd like to read up more on it and see if there is a legitimate connection between this incredibly weird and illogical method of "fundraising" and the prosperity gospel.

I remember that one of the first foreign missionaries, maybe William Carey or David Livingstone, or someone like that, just went, and told the churches in his part of the world about his work, and trusted God. That is where it probably comes from. the problem is that Paul went around asking for money to give to the Jerusalem church and he says he never asked for money for himself. he says he had the right to do so, but did not do it. So I conclude that missionaries have the right to do it or not as the Lord leads.

[Tiarali]

My brother-in-law (one of the ones I no longer have contact with) took his family to Japan as missionaries. They decided to be 'tent-makers', and got their support while employed teaching ESL over there. Their main missionary work, as I understand it, was to preach at the English services at a church for expats.

They came back when their oldest child needed to go to school. They couldn't make a profit off of it anymore.

(Not joking or just being narky either. This guy paid cash for his own house, made money off the stock market, and was the stingiest guy I've ever met. If anyone could have afforded to support himself on the mission field, it would have been him. He went there for the profit, I'm sure of it).

[semp]

" Don't expect us to send you a dime. You should rely on God, not other people, for money.)":huh:

I wonder ... do the people who say this work for a living? That is trusting a company, or if self-employed, trusting customers. I betcha they do get a paycheck from somewhere. Do they have health insurance, car insurance, life insurance? Do their churches take up offerings?

[seenthelight]

I grew up in fundy churches where missionaries made the rounds to get support. I noticed a few things (b/c even as a kid I did not accept everything told to me as the truth):
*missionary men and boys wore nice suits......the wives and girls wore too-large frumpy worn dresses
*missionary men preached WAAAAAY too long and I always wondered how the lost souls on the mission field listened that long.......I never liked people who were not considerate of my time!! (Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys started at 8pm people!!!!)
*missionary families must be large.......five children was considered small and unfruitful
*missionary families must sing/play instruments no matter how young, how old, how bored, or how off-key they are

I remember ONE missionary family that came that I liked. ONE out of an entire life of fundy church! It was a man and his wife and his two kids. They were trying to raise support to go somewhere hideous to help the people farm to have food to eat. The man didn't preach---he just talked about his life as a farmer and how God had called him to go and help people have food to eat. I listened intently. He was not pretentious. His suit was not new or flashy. His family didn't sing or entertain with uniformed children.

I asked my dad, a deacon, later if the family would be support by the church. The answer was "no." I asked why and Dad said that it was because the man's main purpose was to help the starving people have food rather than to preach the gospel. Therefore, our church would not support them. I always wondered how starving hungry people would accept someone who came with a Scofield Bible instead of a rake, hoe, and some corn seeds.

[FinallyFree]

I drug my family around most of the staes east of the Mississippi river to raise support. I sucked, but to have tried to to the mission field without raising support would have been far worse. While it wasn't much, at least we had some sort of income each month.

[free2_be_me]

(05-13-2013 06:45 PM)seenthelight Wrote:  I grew up in fundy churches where missionaries made the rounds to get support. I noticed a few things (b/c even as a kid I did not accept everything told to me as the truth):
*missionary men and boys wore nice suits......the wives and girls wore too-large frumpy worn dresses
*missionary men preached WAAAAAY too long and I always wondered how the lost souls on the mission field listened that long.......I never liked people who were not considerate of my time!! (Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys started at 8pm people!!!!)
*missionary families must be large.......five children was considered small and unfruitful
*missionary families must sing/play instruments no matter how young, how old, how bored, or how off-key they are

I remember ONE missionary family that came that I liked. ONE out of an entire life of fundy church! It was a man and his wife and his two kids. They were trying to raise support to go somewhere hideous to help the people farm to have food to eat. The man didn't preach---he just talked about his life as a farmer and how God had called him to go and help people have food to eat. I listened intently. He was not pretentious. His suit was not new or flashy. His family didn't sing or entertain with uniformed children.

I asked my dad, a deacon, later if the family would be support by the church. The answer was "no." I asked why and Dad said that it was because the man's main purpose was to help the starving people have food rather than to preach the gospel. Therefore, our church would not support them. I always wondered how starving hungry people would accept someone who came with a Scofield Bible instead of a rake, hoe, and some corn seeds.

Nailed it!

I've also known of several families in our former churches who had sick kids or parents all the time, whether it was malaria or some unknown kidney or other issues and I always thought it was foolish for them to stay on. But the general feeling of others in the church was one of martyrdom.