Should We Support Home Missions?

I've worked as a church planting missionary all over the USA, helping start churches or helping young churches grow.

I always worked a secular job to support myself.

I've noticed that many folks these days want to be missionaries inside the United States - to the Jews, to the Mormons, to street people, to drug addicts, etc. BUT they apparently prefer not to work to support themselves.

Instead, they want to be "missionaries" who are supported by other folks.

I am not inclined to support home missionaries in the above context, since they are perfectly capable of working to support themselves while they minister.

Working to support yourself seems like a good way to convince the lost of the sincerity of your calling. And if the lost you are trying to reach think you are not sincere, they won't listen.

I've known many men of God who went to a city where they felt God had called them, got a job and worked to support their family, while they started a church.

They began to "live of the gospel" (I Cor 9:14) when the church they started had grown enough to support them.

I can understand supporting missionaries abroad, where frequently, it is not possible for the missionary to work to support himself and his family, while they minister.

But to pay someone to be a missionary to the Jews in New York or Detroit or to be a missionary to the Mormons in Salt Lake City, seems kind of like supporting a moochinary instead of a missionary.

If the Lord called me specifically to minister to, say, the Jews in Philadelphia or Miami or where ever, I would go there, prayerfully seek the Bible Believing Baptist Church the Lord led me to and work through that church, while working a secular job to support my ministry.

It seems like home missions ministry should be conducted through the local church instead of through a parachurch organization.

I did self-supported home missions for years around the country and always have wondered why others are not willing to do that after experiencing what they describe as "God's call to be a missionary."

So here's the Question:

Why do you expect others to work to support you as a "missionary" here at home?

Is God's missionary call on your life genuine enough that you will do what He has called you to do in Home Missions even if we do not support you financially?

 

Pastor Larry-

Yes, we do support our pastor with a fulltime salary, a car, expenses, etc. (although he has also spent the past 30 years working as a fulltime Instructor at a Bible Institute, teaching Greek, Hebrew, Exposition and other courses). At age 82, he still pastors fulltime, still teaches a full course load at the Bible Institute, still writes several books a year and still holds evangelistic meetings once a month around the U.S. His willingness to work (and my willingness to work to support myself in the ministries the Lord has called me to) prompted my questions about the “unwillingness to work” of some “home missionaries”.

I tried to make it clear in my post that I was drawing a distinction between home missions such as “missionaries inside the United States - to the Jews, to the Mormons, to street people, to drug addicts, etc.”

and a man pastoring a church “I've known many men of God who went to a city where they felt God had called them, got a job and worked to support their family, while they started a church.

They began to "live of the gospel" (I Cor 9:14) when the church they started had grown enough to support them.”

The difference I see is that the local church pastor “lives of the gospel” in the sense that the people to whom he directly ministers are supporting him financially.

On the other hand, the folks who want to be missionaries to:

the Jews

the Mormons

the street people

the drug addicts etc.

are not being financially supported by the people they’re ministering to and they’re not engaged in planting churches.

I’ve noticed a trend in “missions” - that young men graduate from Bible college or Seminary and feel called to be a “missionary” here at home.

They expect their “call” to be recognized and their “ministry” to be supported so that they can be fulltime “missionaries” here at home, right out of Bible school, often with no practical ministry experience other than preaching at a few nursing homes or filling a pulpit once a month.

I wonder at what point in time the call of God to do home missionary work began to mean that one no longer had to work to support oneself and family, even though the Apostle Paul (our example - I Cor 4:16 & 11:1), labored with his own hands (Ac 20:34, 35) to support himself and his fellow workers.

You ask “where the NT draw a distinction between home missions and foreign missions? What difference does geography make in the spread of the gospel?”

I think that is a common sense distinction.

A “home missionary’ is in his own country, speaking his native language, living in a culture with which he is familiar.

A ‘foreign missionary” is not in his own country, is frequently required to learn a new language and is living in a culture which is alien to his upbringing.

A “home missionary” is legally allowed to work a job to support himself and his family.

A “foreign missionary” is frequently not legally allowed to work a job to support himself and his family.

Pastor Larry said: “If they are legitimate missionaries, spending their time in church planting, then they deserve support.”

My question was aimed at “missionaries” who are not spending their time in church planting but in ministries to ‘Jews, Mormons, street people, drug addicts, etc.”

I’m not questioning the legitimacy of those ministries - just whether folks who feel “entitled” to our support in their ministry here at home, have a legitimate right to expect “us” to support “them”?

If the Apostle Paul could work a secular job to support his own ministry, and many Godly pastors worked a secular job while starting their church, until the church was able to support them financially, I wonder why guys fresh out of Bible school have the idea the rest of us should support them financially when they are NOT engaged in starting churches but are in an auxillary minstry?

 

Thank you Pastor Larry.

I guess I was taking the long way around the barn but you reduced the issue to its basic proposition.

So many "ministry efforts" these days are taking place outside of and apart from the local church so there is no spiritual accountability and almost no financial accountability.

Seems like any legitimate "ministry" can be conducted through the local church where there are praying, loving, supportive fellow believers to uphold it in prayer and provide guidance and accountability and wisdom as needed.
And if a fellow is conducting a ministry through his local church, its a lot harder to skam and flim flam year after year because people know you and see you every week.

After 45 years as a Christian, I've seen all kinds of fundamental, evangelical, conservative Baptist skams where believers gifted with an appearance of sincerity, make a good living in some kind of "ministry" that really isn't a ministry at all.