Three Keys in Missions Giving

At a national conference, a pastor of a large and growing church asked a colleague for some counsel: “We are starting another building program, but we have many financial problems. We are constantly in debt and under pressure for more money. What is our problem?”

After asking a few probing questions, the colleague correctly diagnosed the twofold difficulty: First, the pastor was not teaching his people to tithe and give offerings and alms as directed in Scripture. Second, he did not regularly promote missions in his congregation with such things as missions conventions, faith promise giving, and adding new missionaries and projects to the church’s support list. In other words, the troubled pastor had overlooked three key principles related to missions giving:

1. Missions and world ministries outreach is not an optional program. Every local church, regardless of its size or income, is part of the active body of Christ and must share in the task of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19–20; Mark 16:15–18).
   
2. Part of a church’s spiritual program is to develop a missionary vision and program. A well-planned missions convention can become one of the spiritual highlights of the year.
   
3. When churches begin to give to missions or increase their missions giving, the general income of the church usually increases as well.

One particular congregation was giving only $255 annually to missions. Within six years, however, it had increased its annual missions giving to $43,000. At the same time, the annual amount the members gave for local operating expenses and ministries increased to $46,000. Moreover, this church had been burdened with a debt of more than $80,000. Yet during the time of missions growth, the church paid off its debt in full and purchased a parsonage for its pastor.

Kilpatrick, J. (2006). Church Administration, Finance, and Law (48–49). Springfield, MO: Global University.