The Short on Support

I know I have never met many of you, but I’ll bet we have several things in common.  As a parent of a Goer, you probably have mixed emotions about your son or daughter moving far away.  Maybe you are concerned for their safety or about the cultural attitude towards Christianity in their chosen locale.  Or you wonder how the move will change your relationship with your now-adult child.  Perhaps, like me, you are confused and somewhat embarrassed by their need to raise support. 

Can We Talk?

Am I the only one who feels sheepish about this part of my child’s job? When my son asks my friends and family members for money, it makes me uncomfortable. How should I think about this very necessary task? What do those possible donors think of me when my child asks for their money?  What do they think of my child?

Just Ask Mike

I don’t have the answers to all these questions, but I know someone who does!

Mike is my co-collaborator on the Parents of Goers Blog and director of Salt Network Global.  He has all the answers! Not only does Mike coordinate details to make out kids comfortable and successful overseas, but he was also once a Goer himself. During a recent interview, I told Mike of my unease and peppered him with questions.  Here are his gracious responses:

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“Why does my child have to raise support?  Why don’t they get a salary like a normal employee of the church?”

The main reason for not getting a salary is that they are not employed by a church. American pastors and church staff are a part of a cultural context in which there are enough Christians existing to form churches and to support the local staff church staff team. As missionaries step into new cultures they are in a non-Christian cultural context where there are not Christians and non-Christians rarely give to the work of missions. Therefore in order for them to minister to the culture they are going to, they need to be supported by the Christians in the culture they come from.

As a church we support our Sent-Ones at about ⅕ of their budget. We are a collegiate church and so we send out an abnormal amount of people from our church. I would love it if our church could support our people 100%, but this is not realistic and would severely limit the number of people that we could send. This is where the body of Christ of individuals and churches partnering with us to send that person overseas is vital and necessary to the Gospel going where it’s not known.

“What happens if my daughter doesn’t get to 100% of her goal?  Can she continue to serve?

We ask everyone who goes overseas to raise 100% of their support and to not go overseas until they have this committed. This can seem harsh at first, but we are thinking about the long-term for each of our Sent-Ones. The salary and benefits that we set for our Sent-Ones are meant to help them live comfortably in their culture and allow them to do a reasonable amount of saving for the future. We do not believe that choosing to be a missionary means that you have to eat ramen, defer student loans indefinitely, and lack the funding to get back and forth between America and Asia. We want our Sent-Ones to be taken care of. They have crossed the ocean, cultural, and language barriers to share the Gospel. They do not need the added burden of being financially unstable.

The best time and place to raise support is in America prior to going overseas. When they get overseas, their attention needs to be on the work of ministry and keeping in touch with existing donors, not raising new support. Therefore we ask our Sent-Ones to raise 100% of their support prior to going.

For those on the field who go below 100%, when the opportunity arises, we will ask them to head home for a season to raise more support.

“How is my son’s financial support allocated?”

 The financial support is allocated in four basic areas:

1. Salary

2. Benefits

3. Reimbursable Ministry Expenses

4. Administrative Expenses with Sending Organization

Depending on the location, length of service, age, marital/family status, and job level of the individual going overseas, these different areas break down differently. In general it usually breaks down in the following ways:

1. Salary – 50% of budget

2. Benefits – 20% of budget

3. Reimbursables – 20% of budget

4. Admin – 10% of budget

“Sometimes I’m embarrassed by my kids’ support raising task.  How should I think about this?”

One of the things that we train our Sent-Ones to do is to go into every support raising meeting thinking about it as an opportunity to mobilize people to God’s heart for the nations. This includes helping people consider how they can be involved by: going, praying, caring for Sent-Ones, and giving. Giving is not the only way to be involved in missions and we want our Sent-Ones to preach this as they meet with people.

Secondly, we need to remember that all the money that we have is God’s money anyway. He generously gives it to us for us to steward. So when your kids ask for support, they are inviting people to take a moment to remember this reality. They are inviting people to recognize the stewardship they have and make a choice with what to do with those funds. I’ve heard countless stories of families who have learned to live without something in their life for the sake of giving to global missions and the value it has brought to their family. I’ve also heard countless stories of families who have said no to support raising, but have gotten highly involved in care and in praying. That’s such a win for the Kingdom of God!

If you feel embarrassed by your child raising support, I’d ask you to look into your heart and see why that is. It’s not unreasonable to have a few people on a list that you’d ask your kids not to contact. But if you feel embarrassed by your child support raising, it would be healthy for you spiritually to look into your heart and ask why this is. I believe God might reveal something hard, but profoundly helpful, to you.

“Should I feel obligated to support my child?  Their team members?”

The goal of Christian giving to not give out of obligation, but out of a sincere heart (2 Cor. 9:6-7). So my first encouragement would be to ask the Lord what he desires for you to do with the finances he has entrusted to you. As you gain clarity from this conversation with the Lord, I hope your heart will be moved towards joy in giving. Giving out of obligation can be good for a temporary discipline, but should not be the main driver behind giving on a regular basis.

Practically with your son or daughter and even their team members, I’d encourage you NOT  to give to them initially for a couple of reasons:

1. To see what the Lord provides.

2. Give them special gifts instead. Random influxes of spending money is great for kids to get from their parents whether they are  missionaries or teachers in North Dakota! Missions orgs take 10% of all the money that comes in, which means if you give your kid $100 to their organization, only $90 will get into their overall account. And probably only $45 of that will get to their salary. So as a parent, I would recommend hanging tight to see how their support raising goes and look to give that money in some special way instead.

“Will living on other people’s support make our kids feel entitled?”

I actually think it does the opposite. I personally served overseas with a fully-funded missions organization for 2 years. I found that missionaries with that organization were much more entitled because they were funded by a big, multi-million dollar missions organization and never had to ask for funding. Instead, when you have to ask individuals for support, you regularly evaluate if the way you are spending your money is wise and Kingdom-worthy. This has been great accountability to our people. They feel the burden to do work that is worthy of the sacrifices people and churches are making on their behalf.

We also require regular donor care rhythms that include updates, personal notes, and gifts. This helps fight the sense of entitlement that can happen. The character trait of gratefulness is one we look for and try to foster in our people.

“How does support raising promote the overall mission of God?”

Support raising promotes the vision of the mission of God in a few ways. It begins by getting the message of God’s heart for the nations out to people. It secondly allows for God’s people to re-evaluate their stewardship of God’s resources. Thirdly, it allows Christians to be places where there are no Christians. Without the universal church supporting missionaries, the Gospel will not go to places where it is unknown. Financial support allows people to cross into these cultural contexts where the Gospel has not taken root.

 “I’ve heard the phrase “Investing in the Kingdom”.  Is that what I am doing when I financially support our Goers?” 

Hopefully Christians are considering, in every purchase, whether what they do is supporting the Kingdom of God. I know I more often than not make purchases that satisfy my needs rather than thinking about the stewardship of the funds God has entrusted to me. I often wonder what it could look like if every financial decision I made, I asked whether it was best for the Kingdom of God.

This isn’t pushing an aesthetic lifestyle of giving every possession away, living every moment “trusting” God for your next meal. Some of my money needs to go to basic needs of clothing, shelter, transportation, and education. Some of my money needs to be spent on enjoying the creation God has made by eating out every so often, vacationing in some beautiful place, having a hobby, and enjoying life with my family. Spending money on things that bring real rest and joy. But so much of what I spend is about bringing myself comfort, escaping my problems, and momentary joy. And I know that nearly EVERY Christian in America is dealing with this, or should be dealing with this tension in our hearts as members of the most endowed culture in all of human history.

So I think investing in the Kingdom of God can come through many purchases in life, as long as our decisions are motivated by it. Personally, giving towards the church gives me the opportunity to steward those resources for something that directly affects the Gospel going from those who know it to those who do not. And for that reason I love the opportunity to give towards the church and to missionaries. When I have to replace my garbage disposal, that’s important, but it certainly doesn’t feel the same as giving towards those taking the Gospel to the nations.

All that being said, as a sending church we recognize that what our people live on is the support of believers. We do not abuse this by letting anyone who can raise support go overseas. We have a lengthy process for deciding who should go overseas to make sure that they are worthy of the wages they will be earning overseas. We say no to many who seek to go overseas, but are unqualified. Even though we don’t know personally from whom they might request support, we know that they would be asking God’s people to give. We want to be good stewards of all of God’s resources by only saying yes to people who we believe are a good investment.

Why can’t they just get a job overseas and support themselves?  

This is an important consideration for cross-cultural missionaries. There are situations where this is actually more helpful for their ministry in their culture and sometimes necessary for a visa. So, missions organizations are continually looking for more viable pathways for missionaries to earn money in country.

There are a few challenges to getting a job in another country, which is why this route isn’t often utilized.

1. To begin with, Americans are more expensive employees than local nationals. So local companies are less likely to hire Americans.

2. Some are able to work for a multinational company overseas. The challenge here is that since the company is paying for you and your family to live overseas, they will regularly asking 60+ hours a week of work in order for you to be there. This leaves very little time for ministry.

3. We also desire for people to minister in the language of the people they are ministering to. Learning a language can be difficult to find the time with a job as well.

This, again, is an important way to see the Gospel go to the ends of the earth, so it needs to be more thoroughly explored. Currently, the missions world has struggled to crack the code to make this a common and viable pathway for Christians cross-culturally. We are praying that we will see this code broken in the coming years.

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A Round of Applause!

That was incredibly helpful and clarifying for me as I hope it was for you!  When we educate ourselves and learn to think correctly about support raising, much of the uncomfortable emotion is removed.

Now, with your newfound knowledge, have a conversation about support raising with your Goer.  Not only will it make you feel more “in the know,” it will show you care about the details of your child’s life.  And that is the best investment of all.