As the senior pastor of a large church, I read a lot of donation letters. Plus, I once served in full-time missions and raised mission support for several years. I did it all wrong, of course, and now looking back, from the perspective of one who reads twenty or thirty of these letters every month, I see that clearly now.
Too many fundraising letters look like “letters to Grandma” and highlight mostly what the family has been up to, how the kids are doing in school, and where recent travels have taken them. But the people who are supporting this mission aren’t especially concerned with family news — they want to know what God has been doing through this ministry! When committees at church meet to discuss church fundraising or to ponder missionary support issues, they are not concentrating on whose family is having the most fun out there, or whose kids are winning the most awards in schools or sports. The question they are asking is, “Where is God at work, and how can we support that?”
Jim Walters
Thanks,
I really appreciate your insight. This is all very new to me, but I have learned one thing. GOD is so much more in charge of things than my little mind can even comprehend, and I look forward to what He has next. I appreciate you sharing this information as we are fixing to send out our first newsletter, and begin talking in a few Churches.
God Bless, Josh Mink—-TN
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