MissionFundraising.com/JimWaltersOnline.com

“Instead of helping poor people with charity that will eventually run out, it is more effective to lift people out of poverty through microfinance, says a Christian poverty expert.”

Most of us already realize the truth in the adage, “Teach a person to fish and you feed him/her for a lifetime.”  The first sentence of this post is quoted from Christianity Today, in an article entitled, “Poverty expert: Give the poor a hand up, not hand out“.

It goes on to say, “The most compassionate way of helping someone isn’t to give them a handout long-term,” Greer contended. “The most compassionate thing you can do is to help them use their God-given abilities to work and to take care of their own needs.”

We always need balance in our mission work and giving. We want to help spiritually, and physically; yet, we do not want to “cripple” anybody. When possible, teaching people to use their skills responsibly can be much more effective than giving them a meal. Again, we need balance.

This may look like providing training AND feeding for a short time; then, tapering off the “feeding” and helping a person apply the training for growing their own crop, or earning their own income.

Don’t always think “overseas”, either. This concept can definitely be applied in your own western culture.

Give what is “needed”, only while it is needed.

-Gary Skrobot

Missionaries now have another method beside “going to the people” because the “people” are coming to the missionaries via web surfing.

http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9944&Itemid=53

Posted via email from missionfundraising’s posterous

Business-minded people working as “support missionaries” play a vital role. You can too!

http://churchleadergazette.com/clg/2009/08/six-ways-to-get-involved-in-th.html

Posted via email from missionfundraising’s posterous

Technorati Tags: 501(c)3 ministry, mission fundraising, missionary fundraising, missionary support, missions support, nonprofit ministry, short term missions, support fundraising

Part One

As a missionary you need the local church pastor’s support, in order to get church budget support. Here are three big pitfalls to avoid, if you want his heart inclined toward your need. Do NOT do these:

#1 Attend a service without advising him, then grab him at the end while he’s trying to field people coming to the altar for more heartfelt reasons. The moments just before and after the end of a church service are sacred to the pastor; trying to grab his attention for your agenda is a sure turn-off.

#2 Call the pastor and say, “Hey, we’ll be in town Sunday, can we share at your church?” Do what? You’ve had those airline tickets for months, yet you wait to the last minute to notify me? Maybe out in the mission field you plan things on short notice, but back home we’re planning services three to six weeks out minimum. To hit me up at the last minutes, makes me feel disrespected and misunderstood — you are showing that you are not aware about how things are at home.

#3 Just drop by the office and ask if the pastor has a few minutes. This assumes two things: (a) the pastor is in, like he’s going to be in the office and available anytime Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm, and (b) the pastor has nothing to do right now and can gladly give you an hour. Again, it’s disrespectful and just not smart — you wouldn’t do that to your dentist, your hair stylist, or your accountant — why do it to a pastor you’ve never met?

Do I sound like Mr Gripey and Whiny Pastor? If so, it’s only because all three of these thing have happened to me in the last month. I really do love all missionaries, if I had access to money I would increase all their support, but honestly, sometimes I think a lot of their financial problem is that they work like uninformed neophytes when it comes to building relationships and raising support.

You can find helpful tips on raising short term mission trip, or church planting support, on this website. Just go to our product page.

Jim Walters
Jim@JimWaltersOnline.com

Technorati Tags: church fundraising, missionary, missionary furlough, missions, short term mission

My family and I used to work with Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT) in Papua New Guinea (PNG, just north of Australia). We lived in-country for a total of six years. My role was as a missionary pilot. The role of WBT is to translate the New Testament (or more, if able) into the viable languages that have no written scriptures in their own langauge.

Whenever a Bible Translation Project reaches its “completion”, there is a large celebration by the people-group receiving the published scriptures. One item that many people in “sending nations” find peculiar is that the receiving people are asked to buy the scriptures that have just been translated into their language. “We’re talking about the scriptures here, and salvation…and, you’re a ‘missionary’. Why are you charging for the work of the ministry?”

Meanwhile, there is an interesting website called “Business as Mission Network“, and it promotes exactly what its title implies, “Using businesses as an opportunity for spreading the Gospel.” Some of their tenets are:

• Committed to The Local Church: The business supports partnership with the indigenous church in the community.
• Glorifying to God: The name of God is the ultimate object of praise, not the name of the business.

One of these opportunities is providing business loans to people in developing countries. To the chagrin of some, the lenders charge interest for their loans. But, there is an interesting dynamic when it comes to money and certain types of product, including “christian product”. This same dynamic also appears in PNG regarding translated New Testaments: “If it’s free, it must not have much value. It isn’t worth much, otherwise you wouldn’t be “giving” it to me.”

Hope International is a non-profit Christian-based organization which has the goal of alleviating poverty via holistic means, including providing the business loans mentioned above…and again, they charge interest. But listen to a question they sometimes receive: “Why do you charge interest to the poor? Why not just offer interest-free loans or grants?” In reply, a woman who has her own counseling business directed at the poor stated:

• “It actually makes a lot of sense why they charge interest.” She shared that when her practice first opened, decades ago, she provided free counsel to underprivileged women—single mothers, former inmates, etc. “They rarely showed up for our scheduled sessions. If they did show up, they kind of blew it off.” She went on to discuss why she now charges these at-risk clients. While she discounts her service significantly, she still charges a fee. The change, as she described it, has been remarkable. “Now these women value my services. They come on time, they are invested, and they soak up every minute of their sessions. It’s been a dramatic shift since I’ve started charging a fee.”

Just as “freedom isn’t ‘cheap’ just because it’s ‘free”, neither is the gospel, nor any other commodity of value. Providing “free” money is counter-intuitive; providing free Bibles sometimes “devalues” God’s message; providing free counseling requires no commitment to change…thus, we charge a fee!

Somebody once “tweeted” in Twitter and asked why this website, MissionFundraising.com, charges $12.77 for its eBooks that supposedly help missionaries and church planters spread the Word. The author of these books, Jim Walters, replies:

Technorati Tags: Business As Mission Network, church planting, gospel, Hope International, papua new guinea, wycliffe bible translators

Take a look at this short, 3-minute video. In the beginning you will see an airstrip, and an airplane landing on the airstrip. This is taken in Papua New Guinea, where I used to be a missionary pilot with Wycliffe Bible Translators. While this video may not necessarily be of me, I have literally and personally flown the plane shown, landed on the airstrip shown, and flown this gentleman and his family in and out of the village shown.

Bible Translation is a lengthy and very worth-while task. Many translators work on a language project for 15-20 years, just to provide the New Testament to a people group, so that they could read with their own eyes, and understand with their own heart, what God has to say to them.

Whatever your role in missions, whether evangelism, church planting, technical support, accounting, carpentry or plumbing, furthering the Gospel is the greatest and most significant task you could undertake here on earth.

There are many roles you could play in your short term mission trip, not all of which are directly linked to “sharing the message.” My family served in a support role for over 7 years while we worked in Haiti and Papua New Guinea. We supported and assisted those who were more directly involved in Bible Translation.

Take whatever skill you have, and use it. You can either directly or indirectly impact the Work. God “needs” and uses both.

Gary Skrobot

Technorati Tags: bible translation, jaars, maf, mission aviation, wycliffe bible translators

This is a reprint from CalebResources.org and MissionCatalyst, which can be found here.

MissionFundraising.com is dedicated to providing resources for short-term mission support, church planting support, and other nonprofit ministries. We hope you find this article useful.

Sorting It Out: Simple Questions for Debriefing Short-termers

Source: Marti Smith, Caleb Resources

As a mission mobilizer I’m both pleased and a bit worried at what Steve Moore calls “the punkification of missions.” You know: here’s a chord, here’s another chord, now form a band! Or here’s an idea, here’s an opportunity, form your own mission.

The more I think about it, it the more I see the value of keeping things simple and easy to pass on to others. Maybe those who have been doing this sort of thing a little longer should just try to share the chords they’ve learned along the way.

When it comes to short-term mission trips, one essential chord is debriefing. The debriefing process is often skipped, slighted, or squeezed. Even teams that meet weekly for months before the trip may confine debriefing to a Saturday morning with donuts, but no follow-up or accountability. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Anyone who is willing to listen can help debrief a short-termer or short-term team.

Asking the Basic Questions

If you have just one debriefing session, try this. On paper or in person, in a big group or one on one, ask your short-termers 3-6 basic questions:

- How was your trip?
- What was the best thing about it?
- What was the hardest part for you?
- What did God teach you?
- What are you going to do about it, and when?
- Share an answered prayer.

Taking the time to think through these questions and topics will help short-termers process what happened. Plus, they will be better able to give a meaningful answer when others ask the same questions. It pays to be prepared. A good goal: be able to effectively describe the experience in a sentence or two.

Add a few more sessions to your debriefing plan if you can, especially if you’re debriefing a whole team.

Remembering What God Has Done

Have each team member spend 20 minutes journaling:

“What have you seen God do for you on this trip? Think about the miracles, answers to prayer, and the ways God worked above and beyond your expectations. Don’t forget how he got you here, prepared you, and brought in your support.”

Ask team members to share their answers with the group so everyone can thank and glorify God for what he has done.

Working through the Hard Stuff

Many troubling things can come to the surface on a short-term mission trip. Short-termers may come face to face with their own weaknesses and failures. They may feel disappointed or disillusioned about their team or their hosts.

Try to provide a safe environment to discuss things that were difficult, especially if these struggles reinforce lies they may believe about themselves, the world, God, or other people. One-on-one “debriefing interviews,” conducted by someone who was not part of the team, can also help identify conflicts and relationship problems that still need resolution.

Locking in the Lessons

Use this handy worksheet to help short-termers identify and “lock in” the lessons they are learning and prepare to share them with others. It’s a simple, step-by-step process that any of us might find helpful for making sense of a potentially overwhelming experience.

Staying Connected

Chances are good that the ministry your short-termers were involved in did not begin and end with them. So take a long-term view and ask: “What are the ongoing needs and opportunities? How can you, your family, or your church continue to contribute or stay connected with this ministry?” If you spend time talking about next steps, make sure to include an invitation to stay connected with the field.

Other debriefing sessions might focus on reentry and reverse culture stress, team affirmation and prayer, mobilizing others, preparing a presentation, evaluating the program, or having short-termers write themselves letters to be mailed in six months.

>> Shorttermmissions.com has several articles on debriefing, including Coming Home: Debriefing Exercises to Help You Process Re-entry Shock, by Lisa Espinelli Chinn.

>> The STEM International online store has a great collection of resources about every aspect of short-term missions, including training and debriefing materials.

NOTE: Thanks to Jen, Gretchen, David, Eric, and Mark for help with this article.

The term “Church Planting” is often used to describe the process of starting a brand new congregation in some local neighborhood. In reality, we can view “church planters” as domestic missionaries. Church Planters sense a call to build a local body of believers, often starting with a group of committed Christians who will attend and serve in the new congregation. Of course, the goal of evangelizing unbelievers is not forgotten, but in the beginning, it may not be in the forefront.

Church planting may be a greater challenge today than it was a decade or two ago. It may require a greater tenacity, greater finances, and greater amount of human resources. However, if God is calling you to this ministry, then none of the above “greaters” matter! It’s God’s work, not yours! You’re the tool in God’s Hand, and it’s a blessed position to be in.

If you are in the position of being called to start a new local congregation, then allow me to encourage you to seek out the resources that can help you. The better part of wisdom is to search out the counsel of those who have gone before you. One of those tools may be our eBook entitled: “Raising Support as a Church Planter.” This book has plenty of ideas and tools to help you do what you need to do.

We can help. Feel free to write us, pose questions, make comments.

Gary Skrobot
Info@MissionFundraising.com
Jim@JimWaltersOnline.com

Technorati Tags: church planting