Why support raising?

Sometimes support raising is the elephant in the room potential missionaries never want to talk about.

From a practical standpoint, our ministry serves the poorest of the poor. The people God has led us to serve are generally not only spiritually destitute but they also the most economically challenged and poverty stricken people on the planet. We consider it our greatest joy to be their advocates for them and ambassadors from Christ’s Church to them. If we don’t go to them, who will?

From a theological standpoint, God is a God of community. He himself is community (God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit) and delights when His children work together and rely upon one another as a mirror of himself. Thus, we do not consider support raising an act of begging nor something to be embarrassed about. Rather, we fully believe everything the people of God own belongs to God –our home, our cars, our money and our vary lives all belong to Him. Hence, we feel no shame in asking God’s people to use God’s money to do God’s Work. God has given us His Church (the people of God) as His resource to take His message to the nations.

From a spiritual formation standpoint, God uses support raising as a tool for building trust to rely upon God to do hard things. In the process of raising support we see how God tests the heart of the missionary to see if they will follow Him in difficulties, stress, and through things that are counter cultural. In the same way God led the Hebrews of old through the wilderness to test their hearts (I Corinthians 10:1-13), God uses support raising to prepare us for the difficulties of life on the mission field. As you may recall, the Israelites needed to be “battle-tested” before God allowed them to enter into the land of Canaan. In the same way, God often uses support raising to “battle test” us for building earth moving faith, unflappable reliance upon His power, and complete trust upon His promises.

From a practical and theological standpoint, God is real and he has deep pockets. Is there anything too hard for the Lord to accomplish (Genesis 18:14)?

Questions for your spiritual formation:

• Which would be a greater faith builder –me going to the field on my own power and abilities or me having to rely upon the provision and faith in an Almighty God to supply all I need?
• Is God enough for me?
• Do I trust God with my finances or is this an area I struggle to hand over to Him?
• Am I willing to humble myself before the LORD or is there some aspect of pride God wants to weed out of me before He sends me to the mission field?