Guidelines for supporting missionaries

Well, Phil, since no pastors have taken a shot at this, I'll try it on, though I am a missionary/pastor myself. We do support two missionaries (Japanese to Brazil and Ukraine) in our church, so I think I qualify.

(1) Prayer about the Lord's will is vital. Take on no missionaries about who you do not have peace that their support is God's will.

(2) Make sure they are from a reputable board, or if they are out of a local church, you know the church and the standards by which they were appointed. Failing this, a questionnaire can help you.

(3) Determine what their current support level is and how much they need. Believe it or not, I once told a church I had enough support and didn't need theirs! (I repented later )

(4) Make sure they have been used in the Lord's work in the homeland. If they have not been winning souls in the States, crossing the ocean will not get them started.

Hope this helps.

 

Certainly, the first place to begin is supporting missionaries that are in your church.

There are numerous organizations that support missionary work that are not necessarily misison boards. For example, Food for the Hungry and Samaritan's Purse.

Check out the recognized mission boards as John has suggested. There are missionaries that are indepentdant and are not affiliated with a missionary board of any kind. I think that's probably the exception, but there are some.

Of course, seek the Lord's guidance.

 

As a missionary myself I believe that churches should determine their phiosophy of missions ahead of time, ie., do we want to support many projects for little or few for more. Do we want to support only foreign missions or a mixture of foreign and local. Do we want to support boards themselves and their directors or only missionaries not in administration.

I think too many churches do not have a set philosophy on these questions and they end up not really effectively using their finances.

 

That's a good point Mike.

For example, a church can support one missionary totally or ten missionaries with 10% each. The church needs to set goals or guidelines on how to support missions.