Mission Support

Elsewhere, I am in a discussion about mission support:

Here are a couple of posts:

1) "Maybe I'm misinterpreting the context, but that makes it sound like there's an underlying assumption that missionaries *should*, necessarily, have a "personal responsibility [to] rais[e] support." I don't think that's a biblical notion.
Paul said that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. While it's certainly not *unfitting* for them to raise funds, I don't believe it's inherently *required* of them to raise funds. The work they do is the preaching of the Word. Other members of the Body may be better suited to fundraising, and able to keep the missionaries free to focus on what God has called *them* to do, without distraction."

2) "just had some imb missionaries in our church a few weeks ago. They called over 100 churches looking for opportunities to share what God was doing. Only about 30% returned their phone call. Less than half of that found time for them to come and share."

3) "As a missionary who has spent years on both sides, maybe I can help with this. We were independent in Honduras for 11 years. We never raised the support we needed and were thinking of returning to the US. As God challenged me with our call to missions, and SBC missionaries encouraged me to apply to the board, I did that, and we’ve been IMB since 1998. We have stronger connections with Stateside churches than ever, our prayer support is greater, people we’ve never met regularly pray for us, we no longer visit churches hoping they will support us, and we are genuinely thankful for the thousands of SBC churches that support our ministry through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. We have never been delayed in getting back to the field. Our needs are met. We are truly blessed.
We’ve seen missionaries who are great missionaries who constantly struggle with finances because they aren’t good fundraisers. We’ve seen others who don’t seem to be very good at being missionaries who are highly supported. The IMB takes out that inequality. Did I say thank you to all of your churches who support us? THANK YOU! And Merry Christmas!

Now before you IFB'ers jump all over me - our SBC church does support the CP, and in addition we support a IFB missionary under BMM - as well as a local Christian ministry.

All I'm suggesting is that we look at both sides of the issue.

 

When I was in Germany -I was the NEO NCO -(Non-combatant Evacuation Office) It would have been my job to assist civilians to get to safety in case of any adverse situation. Of course, our main purpose was to assist the dependents of military personel as well as DAC's. However any American, regardless of military status or lack thereof- would be eligible for evacuation.
I had informed the pastor of our local Baptist church, and informed him of that option. He told me that no matter what - he would stay. I told him that it wasnt just in case of an attack by the Russians - but even for natural distaster - ie - floods, fire, ect. He said NOPE! Well, if he wanted to stay fine - but he should have signed up his family members.

BTW - Wildflecken was only about 10 miles from East Germany!

On other thing - I dont believe this missionary was under a mission board - just his stateside local church.

And now back to our discussion of mission boards.