What About Asking? Is asking for financial support biblical?
Does Scripture show us some models and examples on whether its OK to ask for financial support as a long-term missionary or short-term worker? Let’s once again look at some models and patterns from Scripture:
Old Testament Pattern
Joshua 21:1-3
Now the family heads of the Levites approached Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the other tribal families of Israel at Shiloh in Canaan and said to them, “The LORD commanded through Moses that you give us towns to live in, with pasturelands for our livestock.” So, as the LORD had commanded, the Israelites gave the Levites the following towns and pasturelands out of their own inheritance.”
Key Observations:
- Who approached whom to initiate the giving of the land to the Levites (v.1)? It was those charged with full-time ministry. The basis of their request is found in verse two, “The LORD commanded through Moses that you give us towns to live in, with pasturelands for our livestock.”
- Even though the Law had clearly spoken God’s will for the provision of the Levites, it did not happen automatically. Joshua’s leadership and the people’s Scriptural convictions should have driven the provision, but they didn’t. Instead, it was the Levites’ request, grounded in Scriptural teaching, that set everything in motion. As a result of being asked, the people gave and provided as God willed.
New Testament Pattern(s)
Matthew 10:11
Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave.
Key Observations:
- The Apostles were directed by God to inquire who in the city was worthy of God’s blessing
- They were to go to one of those families and request hospitability. This implies that God would bless the home that provided hospitality because of the disciple’s presence, but His disciples had to ask.
Romans 15:24
I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.
Key Observations:
- Paul makes it clear he expects fellow Believers to help him on his way to Spain to preach the Gospel. There was no hesitation in his words.
1 Corinthians 16:1-3
Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem.
Key Observations:
- Paul instructed them to give and how to do it. Paul was not hesitant about making an appeal.
See 2 Corinthians 8 & 9 for the fullest teaching on this subject.
The second conviction we must establish in our minds from the teaching of God’s Word is that it is right and appropriate to ask others to support us in the Lord’s work.
Whose Stuff is it Anyway?
1 Chronicles 29:10-14
David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, “Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head overall. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.
David states “Everything that is in the heavens and earth” belongs to God. He also states, “riches and honor come from Thee.” Everything that we have has come from God. Further, when we give to the Lord and His work, we are only giving what He has provided us to give.
Psalm 50:10-14
For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High.”
What is the application to support raising from Psalm 50:10-14?
Since, “the cattle on a thousand hills” belong to God, He has no shortage of provision. The earth is His, and all it contains. When approaching someone with the opportunity to give to the Lord’s work, we are not asking for something that belongs to them. We may be God’s agent to remind them of this fact. Verse 14 reminds us; we need to pay our vows to God. Verse 23 teaches us that our giving is a way we honor God and acknowledge His ownership.
Other References can be found in Deuteronomy 8:11-18.
The third conviction we must hold if we are to undertake support raising is that all possessions belong to the Lord.
Paradigm Shift
Acts 20:35
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Romans 10:13-15
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?
Is support discovery about seeing our need for finances met?
If so, why doesn’t God provide it supernaturally? Some wrongly believe that raising support is a spiritual form of begging. But this is not what God’s word teaches us. Every Christian is called to give to the Lord, and every Christian is called to be involved in taking the Gospel to the unbelieving world. When we ask God’s people to give to ministry (so long as ours is a legitimate called ministry), we are not begging. We are providing a practical opportunity for them to get involved in the work of God around the world.
Support Discovery vs. Support Raising
The statement, “people need to give more than we need to receive,” may at first sound like inaccurate hyperbole. Since ministry depends on their giving, aren’t we really the ones with the need? I would say emphatically, “No!” If in fact God has called us to serve Him in a particular ministry function, then we do not stand in a position of need. With God’s call there will always be His provision. If He has called, He will provide. A God-called missionary who embarks on what we call “support raising” really is involving himself in “support discovery.” He or she is merely trying to identify where God will choose to manifest His.
Support Team Development is not something we do to get to our place of ministry. It is part of the ministry to which God has called us, for if God has called us, then He has also called them. We are helping them discover and be obedient to His call.
Other References:
- 1 Corinthians 16:1-2
- Matthew 6:2-4, 19-24
- Malachi 3:8-10
- Titus 3:13-14
- Romans 15:25-27
A fourth conviction we should have from Scripture is that people need to give more than we need to receive.
Partners in Ministry
3 John 1:5-9
Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth. I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.
We see a powerful motivation for supporting the ministry of others. John tells us that when we do, we become “fellow workers with the truth.” We get to be partners in their ministry and thus will be partners in the reward. We also see here that the unbeliever and perhaps even the spiritual novice should not be expected to underwrite the ministry of those who bring them the gospel
Other References:
- Matthew 10:41
- 1 Samuel 30:21-25
- Mark 10:17-30
- 1 Timothy 6:17-19
- Luke 16:9
The fifth conviction we need to have from Scripture is that people who give to the Lord’s work will share in the eternal reward.
Information is taken from:
1. “Missions Support Development Manual” by Eddie Rasnake, Woodland Park Baptist Church, Chattanooga, TN
2. “Biblical Support Raising,” AMG International, Tennessee
3. “Support Raising Training,” Mission Service Corps.
4. “People Raising” by William P. Dillon, Inner City Impact
If you missed part one, you can read it here.