Is this typical for todays missionaries?

[messagetotheplain]

First I must say you can't judge numbers(church planted) and income support. I work with a mission organization founded by one man supported by I guess well over 200 churches and indivduals. They do have a 12 person board with several pastors and other godly Christians. They have planted only one church in 8 years. However they send out over 2000+ bible lesson a month to Amish people who are forbid from bible study and also beleiving in salvation in Jesus because to claim so would be prideful.

Just in 2007 they spend $39,511 for postage, the lessons, and prizes. That is $40K right there not to mention another newspaper-witnessing tool going by monthly costing a least another $40K. They have 149 testimony letters this year from people who accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior from the studies. That is less about $265 per person average to have one person saved. Great but the question would be would it be worth $40 to have one saved? YES I hope you feel this way!

Also in terms of land, and planes. I don't know this man to know if he is wasting money or not but you must find out how he got those things and the farm. I live in Kentucky but grew up in Toronto, Canada and for you to buy a box and the land on the box it would cost half a million dollars. Do I have a problem with Pastors, or Missionaries, or Church planter owning million dollar homes there? No because that what it cost for a home.

I would say go and talk to him and tell him what you feel and see if he will tell you the truth. I would not have a problem answering the question if I had 3 planes on why I have them. The founder/ missionary lives in a gourgous large home on 3 acres and I that the same thing orignally as you did. I asked him how much did this house cost. He told me and explained it was cheaper for him to build the brand new how then buy an older one half as nice. Him and His brother who is in construction build the whole house. People donated the skills or thing to provide this house for his family.

My Dad went to bible college with Benny Hinn and my uncle in laws family adopted him as a boy. Do they think he is going over board? Yes but my Dad always says.. One day he will have to give an account to the Lord.

In closing I would be more worried about how much time he spents working then the number of churches. The mission organization I am looking to work for the missionaries work close to 60+ hours a week. The effort is what counts and the result are God's.

I hope this is not taken the wrong way as I don't want to offend only offer my opinion. Thanks for reading

 

[annsni]

Messagetotheplain - I agree with a lot of what you say. I think the most important thing is for a missionary to have an accountability with a board or church. Just like our own church has an auditor come and audit our books every year to be sure we're on the up and up, I think a missionary should have someone make sure they're doing OK financially. If they're self-supporting, then that is one thing but for churches to just blindly give away money, I think there's an issue with that. Not that there needs to be strings attached but we should atleast feel that our money is being used wisely.

My husband is a pastor and I'm sure there are some that might question our belongings a bit. We live in a house that is worth just under a million dollars - but it is paid off thanks to our in-laws and my husband selling a business. We also have a 42 foot sailboat and belong to a yacht club - but again, the boat is paid off in full and my ILs pay for us to stay in the yacht club (we had been planning to drop out and sell the boat when DH became a pastor but they said they knew how much we enjoyed it and it's our vacations, so they wanted to make sure we could keep it. They give us the dues as a Christmas gift each year.) In reality, if anyone saw our finances, we're tight due to living where we are (Long Island) and having 4 children and a hubby in the ministry. We earn 1/2 of the average income for this area but with being careful, we're making it OK. Again, thank goodness our house is paid off because otherwise we'd have to move and we're ready to if need be.

Our senior pastor drives in 2 classic Mercedes Benz. They're in pristine condition and I was taken a-back when I first saw him driving this gorgeous like-new Mercedes when we first joined the church. However, since then, I've learned that he bought that car as just shy of a scrap car - and he restored it fully himself. That's his hobby and joy. I later helped him buy a GORGEOUS Mercedes off of E-bay and saw he paid just $8,000 for it. Not bad for a car that even still SMELLED new even though it was a '79!

Not everything that we see is what it is but an accounting of what we have should be done for integrity's sake. But we don't need to account to anyone who asks - but those churches involved should certainly be able to check up and see how their money is being spent. It's just being prudent.

 

[John of Japan]

Folks, just a slight correction here to a couple of comments that have been made. All IFB missionaries have a sending agency--that is, an organization or entity that takes legal responsibility for the missionary. Usually it is a mission board, but often it is the missionary's home church. We missionaries who are under a board still have a "sending church," but that church essentially has hired a mission board to represent them legally and handle the missionary's funds.

In any case, among us IFBs it is the job of the sending agency to moniter the missionary's funds and spending--but not their private property and usually not their ministry as long as it is in line with the principles and policies of the board. (Boards with field councils, such as ABWE and BMM, sometimes do interfere with the ministry also.)

In cases when the local church is the sending agency, often the church does not take full responsibility for monitoring the finanances of the missionary. That may be happening in this case, in which case the sending agency--his home church--has fallen down on the job.

 

[SaggyWoman]

Due to the nature of the OP of this thread, this thread will be closed.

We as Christians have a biblical mandate to go to our offending brothers to resolve our issues. Until that happens, there is no point of this thread.