It's my responsibility to support missions . . .

Questions and answers as we enter into our summer months of fundraising for our ministry: Q: Should missionaries be supported “full-time” or have a secular job? A: Both ways are biblical, but it would seem to be preferable to have full support, unless the mission itself is part-time. Jesus, it seems, was no longer a carpenter after His full-time ministry began, and Paul abandoned tent making when he received enough gift(s) to live on. Q: Should missionaries be supported by individuals or churches? A: In the New Testament, churches were simply groups of individuals. The idea of being supported by an institution instead of by people who personally know the missionary is foreign to the New Testament.

This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?(1 Corinthians 9:3-12)

Comments: Missionaries should be supported by sources other than just those they minister to (Acts 18:3, 5). (See also 1 Thessalonians 2:9 and Philippians 4:16.) Missionaries should not be a financial burden to those they disciple. If they depend on the people they minister to for support, they will likely be, or be seen as, a burden. Hence many missionaries are continually at odds with their local boards or committees over fund raising. Additional funding might come from a job or other supporters. Paul utilized both, although Jesus does not seem to have had a secular job after His ministry began. In any case, the missionaries were not dependent on the support of their disciples. Missionaries should remind people to support missionaries (1 Corinthians 9:11-14). Paul reminded the Corinthians, If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you? (1 Corinthians 9:11). This is not to say the missionaries should demand support or somehow pressure people to give to them (v. 12). On the contrary, the missionary should go without the support of anyone who doesn’t desire to give to his ministry. Reminding people of the ministry of giving is part of the missionaries’ job of discipleship. (5) Missionaries should be supported by people wishing to participate in their ministry (Philippians 1:5, 7; 4:15-18; 3 John 7-8). In Philippians Paul thanked them for their abundant gifts which they sent him more than once, while he was in Thessalonica (the town he went to after Philippi--Philippians 4:16). But they also sent him a gift while he was in Corinth, which he says fully supplied my need (2 Corinthians 11:9). Paul had some substantial contributors in Macedonia, especially in Philippi, whose gifts allowed him to be able to stop making tents and begin devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 18:3-5). We might guess Lydia was a large contributor, since she appears to be wealthy and the church met in her home (Acts 16:13-15, 40). But whoever was involved, their motive was to participate in Paul’s ministry--which Paul said he desired because of the profit which increases for your account (Philippians 4:17). So giving has a profit motive--heavenly profit for earthly financial participation in the Gospel (Matthew 6:19). (6) Missionaries should besupported