Missions Textbook 36
Where do Missionaries
Get Their Money

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

All missionaries need money to live and carry out their ministry. There have been many misguided sermons on the missionary’s dependence on the Lord for the missionary’s needs. One such passage misinterpreted and therefore misapplied is Matt. 10:9-10: “Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.”

Without a proper interpretation, these two verses have been directly applied to present-day missionaries’ trust in God to take care of them on the mission field. The problem, of course, is that Jesus was not laying down a law that commands all missionaries to leave town penniless. He was sending out His newly chosen disciples to prepare the Jewish people for His immediate appearance. All one needs to do is read the entire context.

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town (Matt. 10:5-14).

It is obvious that Jesus did not mean for missionaries to avoid Gentiles and Samaritans (v5) throughout two thousand years of Church history. Nor does Jesus require that every missionary heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons. Jesus gave these twelve disciples the power to do these things for that specific missionary task just for the Jewish nation (v6). And Jesus did not mean that the missionaries should never receive money for their missionary work (v8-10). Imagine a missionary today who only took the clothes on his back to the mission field (v10)! And imagine a missionary requiring that the unsaved provide him with all his needs (v11). Is there no room for a missionary staying in a town or country for a long period of time without having experienced any spiritual results (v14)?

After Jesus’ resurrection, most missionary activity in the New Testament took place because believers were fleeing persecution, and they took their faith with them. In Acts 11:19-21 God used the persecution of the believers fleeing Stephen’s martyrdom to plant a church in Antioch. During Paul and Barnabas’ first missionary journey in Acts 13-14, there is no indication that the “sending” church in Antioch supported them financially before, during, or after their journey. In Acts 18, Paul and Aquila and Priscilla made tents to support themselves and their evangelist outreach in Corinth. We do know that the Philippian church sent Paul and his co-workers several gifts (Philippians 4:15-16).

The missionary has a number of options for funding his ministry. Mission boards have been in existence for barely three hundred years. If you decide to use the services of a mission agency, you need to learn how they expect you to support yourself and your ministry.

Although it is unusual, it is possible that an agency might pay you a salary. This is more likely to happen if you are providing a service to the host country in which the nationals are paying for the service. English-teaching comes to mind as one of the possibilities for this type of support.

Similar to this would be for the missionary to form a team – perhaps under the supervision of a mission agency – to start a business in the new culture. As mentioned earlier on the article about Business as Mission (BAM), Paul made tents (Acts 18:1-3). This requires a diverse team with a commitment to work together to support the ministry and to do the ministry.

Most missionaries go to the field with an agency that expects them to help in the money-raising endeavor. This involves making lists of potential supporters and asking those people to commit to send you money every month. It may also require you to visit a list of churches and to give short talks about the mission field in hope of sparking interest in your ministry. Success in this area can often depend on the speaking skills and personality of the missionary.

There are a few organizations that require missionaries to raise their own support, but the agency pools the money from all the missionaries on a specific field, giving each missionary what they need for the month. Some missionaries can raise more support than others, but all agree to divide the total income equally. Other agencies require missionaries to raise their own support, but they do not share the income with other missionaries. Almost all agencies have a minimum they require the missionary to raise before allowing them to go the field. If the support slips below that minimum, then the missionary may need to return to the homeland to raise more support.

Asking people for financial support can be difficult. It can take years before the missionary raises enough to be fully supported on the field. This usually includes visiting dozens of churches and asking lots and lots of people you don’t know for financial support. An advantage is that once a supporter has been found, the mission agency does all the communication with that person, encouraging them to continue giving.

Many mission agencies will take a small percentage of the raised support for their own salaries and office expenses. If you choose a mission agency, you need to ask how much of your support the agency will keep to pay for their services. The cost of living also varies from country to country. In a poor country a missionary family may be able to live more inexpensively than in his home country. In a more affluent country, it might cost more.

It is also possible for missionaries to be sent out and mostly supported by their local church in their home country. This is not as rare as it seems, but it requires a unique commitment of the prospective missionary to that local church. The people in your local church know you well, and if you have been heavily involved in ministries, they probably love you and will follow your future mission work with interest and prayer. Too often the missionary is too impatient to put in the time and effort necessary to become an integral part of the local church family. The responsibility for keeping supporters informed and interested in the ministry falls to the individual missionary.

This method also requires a commitment of the leaders and members of the church to always remember that that missionary on the field is a part of their body. They need to learn, right along with the missionary, all the things that will be involved in sending out and supporting a missionary. They also need to teach the congregation to communicate with their missionary. The leaders should keep the need for support always in front of the members, making that work in a foreign country an extension of their own church family. They are also responsible to make sure that sin or heresy doesn’t creep into the missionary’s life – and to do something about it, if it does.  Regular visits to the mission field will help them to continue to care for the spiritual wellbeing of this member of their church. Probably the most important thing the church body will do is to pray regularly, knowledgeably, and fervently for their missionary. This information continues in an upcoming article.

Finally, some missionaries choose to go the field without the use of an agency, but they have to determine how they are going to survive financially without the services provided by an agency. To do this, they might work for several years to save up enough money to survive until a church is planted, at which time they would leave. They might try to find a job in the country, but that job will greatly inhibit the amount of time they put into the ministry. It is almost always difficult to get a job in a foreign country, since the jobless rate is high everywhere, and countries want to provide jobs for their own citizens. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions. A missionary usually has to be very fluent in the language upon entering the country to snag such a job. An obvious advantage is that the nationals will understand why the foreigner (Christian) is in his or her country. It will be more difficult to find prayer partners because people won’t see this ministry as “real mission work.”

Most missionaries go to the mission field, sent by an agency that expects them to raise their own support. Before deciding on a mission agency, do your homework. Here are some questions you need to answer before you can choose how you want to support yourself, your family, and the ministry.

  • How will you feel comfortable raising the necessary funds?
  • Will you send out a prayer letter asking for financial support?
  • Will you ask to speak in different churches where you don’t know anybody?
  • To whom will you send your letters? Family? Friends? Neighbors? Strangers?
  • Luke 10:7 states that the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do you view your support as wages from those supporting you? Do you feel comfortable asking people who do not know you to pay your wages?
  • How will you approach your saved relatives about supporting you?
  • How will you approach your unsaved relatives about supporting you?
  • How much debt should a missionary have in his home country, but still leave to serve as a missionary in another country?
  • How much should his donors give to support such debt?
  • Should a missionary with twelve children ask his supporting churches to support such a large family on the mission field?

Eventually you will need to set up a budget. How much money you need will depend on the standard of living in the chosen country, requirements of your mission agency, your chosen missionary lifestyle, and how comfortably you choose to live on the field.

Finally, always remember that people are sending you their hard-earned money so that you can pour your life into evangelizing people who have not heard the Gospel. This is your passion, but their passion is to be included in your passion. Always be thankful and respectful of their gifts. Express that thanks regularly by  keeping them updated on how your ministry is going. They are interested, or they would not be sending you money.

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

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