Ask a Missionary - Catch The Fire

served as a minister within this denomination and had attended
one of its seminaries. God led us to a nondenominational mission
agency. We had to raise support, which by God’s grace we did. Most
of our support came from churches within our denomination. Our
experience has been a happy one, but so was that of my parents,
who served within the denomination.
Answer from Jack Voelkel.
A:
Don’t let fear of raising support make your
decision for you.
The easy answer is to go for a salary with your denominational
agency so you “don’t have to beg for money.” But that is a wrong
reason. Raising support is hard, no doubt. But raising your own support
has some real advantages that you may not have if your funding
comes automatically from a denomination:
• You learn to share your vision in a way that is compelling
and inviting to others. It’s important to do this, since there
will come many times in your missionary service when
you wonder why you’re there. Being firm in your vision is
important.
• You realize in a tangible way that you cannot do this
on your own. You see how God provides, which is an
important lesson to learn and to live once on the field.
• Many missionaries on denominational salary do not make
the effort to build a solid prayer-support team. We were
so thankful for the hundreds of people we had praying for
us—people we probably never would have met if not for
our support-raising efforts.
Effective denominational agencies connect individual missionaries
to individual local churches for partnership and prayer
support.
Answer from Jim, who has served with The Mission Society for ten years in
Kazakhstan.
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