Confessions of a Support Raiser
If you have read anything I've written before I probably don't have to tell you that I prefer to be honest. Call it transparency, call it vulnerability, whatever, but as one who is in the ministry and one who has to raise 100% of his own support my life is an open book anyway. It's a pretty naked way to live but...I don't have anything to hide.
For the last 7 years of my life I have had to raise my own support - all of it. You can do the math; it's approaching half a million dollars (a sobering thought). For those of you who have never trodden this path I pray that you may be encouraged by this story of God's provision as you would from reading Elijah's story or Paul's. For those of you who can relate, or are possibly on the precipice of taking the leap into the faith-required plunge of support raising I hope you find strength for the journey.
These are the true confessions of a support raiser. The thoughts that follow are neither correct nor incorrect, they aren't orthodox and they aren't heretical, they are only true to my experiences, successes, shortcomings. I am not advocating for my approach or feelings, I am only saying that they are true to me. Some of them are confessions merely of honesty. Some of them are confessions of sin - that sin that I believe to be the root of all sin - a lack of faith. In China it is not culturally taboo to talk about money. It was not uncommon for a stranger on the bus, upon finding out we worked at an orphanage, to ask me how much money I made. We don't do that in America (I heard someone recently say we are afraid to talk about that which we idolize). However, I am going to talk about money, even specifics, because God has provided every penny and I want Him to receive every cent of the glory He deserves.
Confession #1 - I love support raising only when there is money in our account. When our account is empty I start looking online for jobs that have salaries.
I wish I didn’t have to do it. I am jealous of Southern Baptists with the International Missions Board who don’t have to raise support. I used to love raising support. Seeing support come in from, all told, over 100 families and 6 churches, is them telling us, “we love you, we believe in your ministry, we affirm that this is God’s call on your life.” That monthly army of non-verbal encouragers is indispensable when depression, frustration, questioning, and anger are all ganging up to fight against us.
There was a time in the early days when we had $20,000 in our account. We communicated the vision for our ministry in China and the Lord opened the floodgates. That sounds like a lot of money, except that plane tickets to come home on furlough were $6,000, and the reality of being on the other side of the world is that your support level usually only goes down (for the 4 years we were in China the only support we lost was from supporters who had passed away). We began raising support a year before we had to touch any of it, which made for a very comfortable cushion in our account. The Lord knew we needed the comfort at that time. To put support deficiencies on top of culture shock would have been a recipe for disaster. That was what then. Those days are long behind us...
Confession #2 - We haven’t been at 100% of our budget for over 5 years
The Lord in his grace has not kept us in the more-than-fully-funded position. The way missions organizations usually judge one’s status is by percentage of your established budget that is committed and coming in monthly. When we flew to China for the first time we were at 100%... and haven’t really been there since. That’s not to say we haven’t received 100% of our budget in 5 years - quite the contrary actually. Our current situation is that we have around 70% of our budget committed and coming in every month. The other 30%? I don’t know...it just comes in. Every month. In fact, we averaged 97% of our budget over the last 6 months. Some months we bring in 70% of what goes out. Other months it’s 110%. This is why we hate/love support raising. Those lean months have taken us pretty close to desperation. When the finance guy told me there was only $500 in our account I had to trust the Lord would provide extra that month or else we wouldn’t get a full paycheck. In the 150 or so paychecks we have received in the last 7 years there has only ever been 1 that has been less than our budgeted amount! Not everyone who raises support walks this tight wire but for some reason that is where the Lord has had us for quite a while now.
Confession #3 - Raising support necessarily increases one’s faith
It just does. It has to. It's why I love support raising. It’s also why I think the Southern Baptists are cheaters (insert smiley face emoji so that people know I don’t really think Southern Baptists are cheaters, I’m mostly joking).
Confession #4 - I don’t feel guilty about people giving me money
People aren’t giving their money to me, they’re giving it to the Lord. If you have been hesitant to do something because of a guilty feeling about asking other people for money then I would question how much you believe in your own ministry. If you aren’t sure enough of God’s calling on your life and the vision for that ministry to use the Lord’s money to do it then you need to be doing something else. To this point, I feel weird telling people “thank you” when they support us. Someone told me recently that if you read Paul’s letters he never thanks those who give to him - he thanks God for them, but doesn’t thank them.
Confession #5 - I have to fight against judging people
One of the first things I tell people who are beginning the support raising process is to not take anything personally. There are some people who you think should support you that don’t, and some people who will support you that you never would have guessed. First off, relationships can be destroyed if you take it personally. Second, don’t flatter yourself by thinking people are giving money to you - that’s the Lord’s money. Maybe your mom...you can have expectations for your mom…but everything else you receive is someone’s sacrificial giving to Jesus.
Confession #6 - I love raising support
I love serving Jesus as an occupation. I love being able to share with churches and families what He is doing around the world. I love seeing people get excited, real excited about God’s desire to make disciples of all nations - so excited that they give sacrificially and abundantly to that mission. I love it more when there is enough money in our account that I don’t have to worry. I love when the miraculous haul of fish is so big the nets tear; but in a crazy irrational sort of faith-building way I also love being fed by ravens.
For the last 7 years of my life I have had to raise my own support - all of it. You can do the math; it's approaching half a million dollars (a sobering thought). For those of you who have never trodden this path I pray that you may be encouraged by this story of God's provision as you would from reading Elijah's story or Paul's. For those of you who can relate, or are possibly on the precipice of taking the leap into the faith-required plunge of support raising I hope you find strength for the journey.
These are the true confessions of a support raiser. The thoughts that follow are neither correct nor incorrect, they aren't orthodox and they aren't heretical, they are only true to my experiences, successes, shortcomings. I am not advocating for my approach or feelings, I am only saying that they are true to me. Some of them are confessions merely of honesty. Some of them are confessions of sin - that sin that I believe to be the root of all sin - a lack of faith. In China it is not culturally taboo to talk about money. It was not uncommon for a stranger on the bus, upon finding out we worked at an orphanage, to ask me how much money I made. We don't do that in America (I heard someone recently say we are afraid to talk about that which we idolize). However, I am going to talk about money, even specifics, because God has provided every penny and I want Him to receive every cent of the glory He deserves.
Confession #1 - I love support raising only when there is money in our account. When our account is empty I start looking online for jobs that have salaries.
I wish I didn’t have to do it. I am jealous of Southern Baptists with the International Missions Board who don’t have to raise support. I used to love raising support. Seeing support come in from, all told, over 100 families and 6 churches, is them telling us, “we love you, we believe in your ministry, we affirm that this is God’s call on your life.” That monthly army of non-verbal encouragers is indispensable when depression, frustration, questioning, and anger are all ganging up to fight against us.
There was a time in the early days when we had $20,000 in our account. We communicated the vision for our ministry in China and the Lord opened the floodgates. That sounds like a lot of money, except that plane tickets to come home on furlough were $6,000, and the reality of being on the other side of the world is that your support level usually only goes down (for the 4 years we were in China the only support we lost was from supporters who had passed away). We began raising support a year before we had to touch any of it, which made for a very comfortable cushion in our account. The Lord knew we needed the comfort at that time. To put support deficiencies on top of culture shock would have been a recipe for disaster. That was what then. Those days are long behind us...
Confession #2 - We haven’t been at 100% of our budget for over 5 years
The Lord in his grace has not kept us in the more-than-fully-funded position. The way missions organizations usually judge one’s status is by percentage of your established budget that is committed and coming in monthly. When we flew to China for the first time we were at 100%... and haven’t really been there since. That’s not to say we haven’t received 100% of our budget in 5 years - quite the contrary actually. Our current situation is that we have around 70% of our budget committed and coming in every month. The other 30%? I don’t know...it just comes in. Every month. In fact, we averaged 97% of our budget over the last 6 months. Some months we bring in 70% of what goes out. Other months it’s 110%. This is why we hate/love support raising. Those lean months have taken us pretty close to desperation. When the finance guy told me there was only $500 in our account I had to trust the Lord would provide extra that month or else we wouldn’t get a full paycheck. In the 150 or so paychecks we have received in the last 7 years there has only ever been 1 that has been less than our budgeted amount! Not everyone who raises support walks this tight wire but for some reason that is where the Lord has had us for quite a while now.
Confession #3 - Raising support necessarily increases one’s faith
It just does. It has to. It's why I love support raising. It’s also why I think the Southern Baptists are cheaters (insert smiley face emoji so that people know I don’t really think Southern Baptists are cheaters, I’m mostly joking).
Confession #4 - I don’t feel guilty about people giving me money
People aren’t giving their money to me, they’re giving it to the Lord. If you have been hesitant to do something because of a guilty feeling about asking other people for money then I would question how much you believe in your own ministry. If you aren’t sure enough of God’s calling on your life and the vision for that ministry to use the Lord’s money to do it then you need to be doing something else. To this point, I feel weird telling people “thank you” when they support us. Someone told me recently that if you read Paul’s letters he never thanks those who give to him - he thanks God for them, but doesn’t thank them.
Confession #5 - I have to fight against judging people
One of the first things I tell people who are beginning the support raising process is to not take anything personally. There are some people who you think should support you that don’t, and some people who will support you that you never would have guessed. First off, relationships can be destroyed if you take it personally. Second, don’t flatter yourself by thinking people are giving money to you - that’s the Lord’s money. Maybe your mom...you can have expectations for your mom…but everything else you receive is someone’s sacrificial giving to Jesus.
Confession #6 - I love raising support
I love serving Jesus as an occupation. I love being able to share with churches and families what He is doing around the world. I love seeing people get excited, real excited about God’s desire to make disciples of all nations - so excited that they give sacrificially and abundantly to that mission. I love it more when there is enough money in our account that I don’t have to worry. I love when the miraculous haul of fish is so big the nets tear; but in a crazy irrational sort of faith-building way I also love being fed by ravens.
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