Thoughts on Support Raising (at the request of my sending church, Port City Community Church)
Please allow me to preface this by
saying that I am in no way qualified to be an authority on support raising. I
am simply one individual who has had a few different experiences. I have been
on four mission trips, ranging from ten days to nine months. I raised support
for all but one of these trips (the ten day trip to Kenya). So take the words
that follow for what they are: the musings of a 25 year old would-be
missionary.
I would also like to begin this
essay by saying that I have not always loved the idea of support raising. Let’s
be honest: I don’t like asking people for money. It feels awkward. Not only
that, I come from a family and a profession where I could easily pay for the
trips myself, either through cash on hand or through loans. Why burden others?
God has already provided, I tell myself. In the end, if I can be honest, my
real reason for trying to avoid support raising is pride. I don’t want to have
to admit I needed anything. I don’t want to feel responsible to anyone. I don’t
want to have to put myself at the mercy of others. I want to be my own master.
This is the very heart of pride. The sooner you and I can put this sin to
death, the better off we will be.
So, with that said, why raise support?
1.
Prayer
The first reason for support
raising is to gain a prayer base. I assume you are reading this because you are
going on a Christian mission trip. If that is true, then you are going to do
the Lord’s work. As such, you are going to do a work that, ironically, you are
unable to do. That’s because it isn’t your work. It is the Lord’s. You are
simply following His calling to join Him in it. In the end, the success or
failure of the work rests not in your hands, but in His. You cannot save anyone.
Not only that, but there is an Opposition who would prefer that your trip, and
the Lord’s work, fail miserably. And this Opposition is not a theoretical idea,
but rather a powerful force that has already led a rebellion on a celestial
scale. He is not greater than, or even equal to, Christ, but he has power
none-the-less. Thus, you need all the help you can get. This is where prayer
comes in. I am not in any sense of the word a theologian, nor do I understand
how exactly it is that prayer works, only that it does. Throughout the Old and
New Testament, you can see countless examples of the power and value of prayer.
Talking with many missionaries has only reinforced this fact. I would venture
so far as to say that the building of your prayer base is the single most
important factor, outside of your own relationship and obedience to Christ, in
determining the success of your trip. I don’t have any scripture to back this
claim, so please take it with a grain of salt.
Just know that many missionaries would support it.
2.
Partnership
It’s not just about you. Hard
words to hear, but they’re true. The trip the Lord has called you to take is
first about His glory, and secondly, about the people He is calling you to
serve. It is easy to think that this only includes the people at your
destination. It doesn’t. There are people you are already in contact with that
the Lord is calling you to serve. How? I’m glad you asked. There are countless
Believers you already know who love Jesus and want to see His Kingdom furthered
across the globe. They see the same hurt, pain, disease, and brokenness that
you see. Only they, for reasons over which God alone is sovereign, cannot go.
That is where you come in. You are going to address the needs that they see.
You are going to the places that their hearts hurt for. They know and trust
you. Invite them to partner with you. Take them with you through prayer
letters, blogs, and email updates. Show them the needs that their prayer and
their resources can help address. You have no idea how badly people who have
been changed by Jesus want to partner with you. They are just waiting for you
to ask. Don’t rob them of the blessing of doing the Lord’s work by letting your
pride keep you from asking them to join your team.
3.
Community
I love people. I love meeting new
people, and I love catching up with old friends. I recognize that not everyone
is built the way I am, but everyone has relationships. Support raising is an
excellent opportunity to form new partnerships, strengthen existing relationships,
and revive old friendships that have grown cold from distance and time. I
cannot tell you how many amazing conversations I had with people who had either
been mere acquaintances or with whom I had grown apart, as a result of the
support raising process. It gave me an excuse to invite them to dinner, take
them out for coffee, shoot them a facebook message, or give them a call. It
allowed me to hear about their dreams, their lives, and how the Lord had been
at work since I had seen them last. Caveat here: if you are only looking to
these people for their money, forget everything I have just said. Support
raising will be a miserable experience for you. If, however, you are looking to
form a team of co-laboring friends who will partner with you in your work, then
I can assure you that the Lord is faithful. He will provide. And you will be
blown away as you watch people step up in big ways that you could have never
anticipated. And, as a bonus, you will likely walk away from the whole
experience with deeper, richer friendships then you had when you began.
4.
Calling
This one is probably the scariest
of them all. It is the real reason why I was so afraid to raise support in the
beginning. You see, raising support puts the trip firmly into God’s hands to
give the final ok. If the funds come in, you can be more confident that the
trip really is part of the Lord’s plan for your life. On the other hand, if the
funds don’t come in, it requires you to take a long hard look at whether the
trip was the Lord’s idea or yours. I, for one, don’t like giving up that
control. But, if you can overcome the hurdles of pride and fear, the end result
is quite wonderful. The confidence that the Lord raised funds you could have
never raised gives a sense of peace that is priceless when things get tough on
the field and you start doubting whether you should be there at all. Not only
that, but you have a collection of people who have affirmed your call (and
continue to do so) by giving of their own resources. These people often provide
the reaffirmation of that call through email and phone conversations at times
when it is most desperately needed. This support alone is worth all the
awkwardness and inconvenience that support raising can bring.
To conclude, raise support. Just
do it. Stop making excuses. Don’t give in to the faux-noble temptation to “not
burden others.” You are going to the front lines of a war for the eternal
destiny of souls. You need cover. You need support. You need a team around you
when things get tough (and by the way, they will get tough). You need
encouragers to remind you why you volunteered for this in the first place. You
want those people to be invested. Christ made it clear, “where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also.” And you want people’s hearts with you,
because where their hearts are, their prayers will be also. Those prayers are
invaluable. You are doing what you as an individual, and we as the Church, have
been created to do. Go do it, but don’t forget to take others along with you.
Remember that it is the Lord who goes before you. Godspeed.
