Meghan and I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend with the rest of our team going to Rome here in Kansas City. It was a “semi-retreat” for the team, as we had all not been together in almost a year now. It was a great time to catch up with everyone, enjoy a Royals game (even if it was a losing effort), and discuss Rome and ministry.
One of the big topics of discussion of the weekend was support. As a missionary in deputation this topic is not new or unfamiliar as it is something we address in our everyday lives. This post is just a fraction of the progressive conversation we had about this topic this past weekend, but it is one of the most crucial aspects of support raising, at least in my opinion.
70%, 85%, 100%...how acceptable these percentages are depends heavily on context. I don't think anyone would mind buying something at 70% off and I know that if it were me I'd take an 85% on school work any day of the week! Looking through the glasses of a missionary raising support these numbers carry much more weight than a good sale or passing grade. I think if you were to ask any missionary on the field or preparing for the field, their goal for support is 100%, so then why is it that 100% has become the exception rather than the rule?
Before I go much farther I do want to preface all of the following with this: sitting at our one-year-until-deployment mark this past weekend I was truly convicted about how much I have been trusting God and relying on Him throughout our deputation. I can make excuse after excuse, but in the end it comes down to trusting in me and my own power instead of God’s power. Isaiah 26:4 says, "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock." How often we forget that He is there and wants to be in control of all situations. Make no mistake, both Meghan and I believe with all our hearts that through trusting in God's provision our needs will be provided for and we will reach 100% of the support we need to get to Rome, but the only way that is possible is holding on to that trust all the way until the end. Now that the disclaimers have been stated; enjoy!
Working in the home office at Avant Meghan and I are exposed to much more of what goes on “behind the scenes” at a mission agency. To many missionaries and supporters the agency with whom they are affiliated with or to whom they give support is nothing more than a clearinghouse for checks and a free bed to sleep in on furlough. Sometimes that is the harsh reality, but I feel that more often than not the agency (or church) that a missionary is being sent by should be viewed as the authority on those subjects that pertain to mission. How on earth could I, a 25 year-old Bible college grad who hasn't taken a math class, of any kind, since dropping college algebra 6 years ago, know more about finances than the 30-year missionary veteran? It's foolish to think that I could tell them anything about this stuff, right?
I digress a little, but seriously, why is it that we have shifted from going to the field with 100%, or more, of our support raised to only going with just enough to get us by? Nowhere else would this make any sense, right!? Would you leave for work knowing you only had 85% of the gas you need to get to work and pray that somewhere along the way God's going to provide the last 15% of gas? No, you wouldn't...not even those of you who are trying to justify it just to be cynical. We all know that your car would eventually creep to a stop and you'd have to beg for change at the Quiktrip and eventually come to the conclusion that you're not going to work that day because, let’s face it, no one believes someone begging for money at a gas station is actually going to buy gas with it. A better solution to this scenario would be to take a little extra time, put some more gas in your car, hopefully more than you need just to get to work, and avoid the headache altogether. Yes, God can do, and does, amazing things, but He also asks us, over and over, to wait for HIS perfect timing, not ours. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
I know my analogy and banter is making light of this issue, but in the end I want you to take what I'm saying seriously. More than likely, the end result of leaving the States with less than 100% of the support needed will result in a missionary having to eventually leave the field to try and raise enough support to stay above water. Instead of taking a few extra months to raise that few hundred-dollars a month more, you come home and never end up going back.
As I am transitioning into raising support for Italy full-time I have started reading a book called View Points by Steve Shadrach (expert on this kind of stuff) and he says that "if you're looking for short-term, marginally effective people who feel emotionally and spiritually drained, then turn a blind eye to this critical issue." Dude doesn't mess around, right? Let me just tell you that this is not the popular stance to take on the subject, in fact some might say that requiring someone to have 100% of their support committed is counter mission. By putting this requirement on appointees you hinder lots of perfectly good missionaries from getting to the field because of a few hundred dollars.
Seems pretty minor I guess, but let me put it in perspective; a few months ago Jack Elwood, Avant's President and CEO, said that if every missionary on staff were to raise 100% of the required amount of support for the field they were assigned Avant would have a $3,000,000 surplus. That's $3,000,000 that Avant would get to invest back into their most important asset: their missionaries.
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