How to Have a Missions-Minded Church: Financial Support

TylerR
Church & Ministry
Jeff Straub
Missions

Dr. Jeff Straub: One real gauge of a church’s missions-mindedness is its missionary support structure; how many missionaries a church supports, how much it gives them and how often, and whom it supports all say something of its commitment to missions

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Larry Nelson
Mon, 03/30/15 10:06 am

Excerpt: “Churches mistakenly think they are doing more to reach the world by giving less money to more missionaries. However, churches that support fewer missionaries with greater support levels do more for the missionaries as a whole. They show a real commitment to individual families and can subsequently ask more of them in return.”

Speaking on behalf of my church, this summarizes our approach to missionary support. We have a good number of missionaries that we support in the $1,000 to $1,500 per month range. Joining with other like-minded, large churches, at that level a small number (handful) of churches can fully support one missionary/family.

There are (can be) economies of scale in missions support that can ease the burden for missionaries. We would never “demand” that our supported missionaries be present for our “Missions Weekends” (assuming they’re home), but it’s pretty much a given that they make it a priority to be with us when they can. We have meaningful, significant relationships with them. Instead of running themselves ragged driving thousands of miles to visit a multitude of churches, they are able to know well (and vice-versa) their supporting churches.

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Bert Perry
Mon, 03/30/15 12:47 pm

Having been a summer missionary myself, one of the things that has always seemed amiss to me is churches that care enough to “support” missionaries so they can have their picture on the missions board and have them speak one weekend or Wednesday over furlough, but don’t pay enough to actually leave something left over after that visit. Have been a proponent of fewer missionaries with higher payments ever since.

And it ought to be noted that this may also deal with Dr. Straub’s first column, which noted that pastors ought to be in more intimate contact with missionaries. Hard to do with 40 of them, but four, on the other hand…..

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.