Missionary Support Fundraising: A Transformational Giving Testimony

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Pastor Foley

It’s been a while since we posted a testimony regarding how Transformational Giving (TG) is changing the way missionaries and church interact with regard to the mission task. Check out this update from Carrie and Joe Schmit of World Gospel Mission on how TG transformed the way they raised support to serve in Honduras:

After we read the book Coach Your Champions by Eric Foley and had our first CMS [Champion Migration Strategy] training I was a bit unsure how all of this “champion migration” stuff would work for us and the team we had yet to build.  It all sounded good in theory but sometimes my mind tries too hard to put a formula to things and I didn’t see how Joe and I could put this formula into action.

After CMS training we came home and tried to utilize our “white board” as Eric did.  We mapped out what we thought would be our plan for migrating champions.  We had our web of contacts, participants, those engaged and potential owners.  It wasn’t much but it was a start.

The Lord was working His plan right before our eyes and we didn’t even see it.   We hit what we thought was a very unproductive slow time of HMA [Home Missionary Assignment].  We were very discouraged, feeling as though we hit a brick wall.  During this slow time the Lord reconnected me with a high school friend.  While we were pulling our hair out trying to find places to go so that we could share our calling and raise support the Lord was bringing them to us…it just wasn’t what we thought it would look like.  We were excited for this connection that was made but we didn’t want to focus on “one at a time”.  We wanted churches…the bigger the better!

Instead He brought me Emily.

Emily and I quickly reconnected and Joe and her husband John became friends as well.  John and Emily have a heart for missions and have adopted their son from Guatemala.   Our common interest in reaching the children in need was no coincidence and as we spent more time together Emily told me that she had been planning to have an orphan walk/run to help spread awareness and motivate people to take time to really look to God for what their part might be.  Her passion is with orphans yet she made it very clear that the need for building God’s kingdom goes beyond the walls of an orphanage or the child without a home.  She is a Champion.  And with her came more champions!

She came to me one day to tell me that she felt as if the Lord was wanting her to use this orphan walk to not only raise awareness for the orphan but also to raise awareness of the mission involvement that is taking place already right here in our community.   And she added, “this includes your family and your plans to serve the Lord in Honduras.”

She spoke about this walk with pretty much anyone who’d listen and before long she had a steering committee to help her with the plans.  Six different churches in our community ended up being represented with the steering committee alone!  They also decided that 100% of the proceeds would go to our ministry account.

As they began having planning meetings and started the work that was needed to pull this off we felt like we needed to be involved too.  In those two months God ended up developing some mighty champions for us from this steering committee and some lifelong friendships.  Their excitement spread into their churches, into business’s and even into the schools!

It ended up being a silent 2 mile barefoot walk because the logo was “Walk A Mile In My Shoes, Walk a Mile For Jesus,” and the shoes of an orphan are typically “no shoes.”  There was a flip flop sprint relay race and a kids fun run.  There was even entertainment with the Two Eight Band!  Everything that was needed for the event was donated, the water, the shirts, the printing materials and the local radio station donated air time for interviews about the event the whole week prior.

The newspaper wrote two front page articles (with the journalist having to stand firm for what she knew God wanted said and she refused to back down and allow the editing process to remove God’s name and His glory!)  The band that performed donated their performance and sold all of their worship cd’s and gave all of the money to our account.  The Junior Highschool donated tents and tarps because of the storm that was in the forecast (which by the way parted for Indiana and came back together after it passed Indiana and we had beautiful weather!)  The children from the Christian Academy and homeschool  group made signs with statistics on orphans and poverty weaved with signs of scriptures with hope to line the path.  A slew of Cookies were made and donated by many grandmas from the churches and I love to tell how God used all the extra cookies for a special treat for those living in the local homeless shelter.  Approximately 250 people (counting children) came and they raised approximately $6500+ for our ministry account!  I put the plus sign on there because the ripples of this event are still affecting our ministry account.   Our PEO list has grown dramatically and we’ve had churches and individuals calling us to come and share with them, asking us how they can do their part and help get us to Honduras!

This steering committee for the walk has turned into some definite Champions for this ministry and they are saying that they are not done yet! What we have learned from this is that with God the possibilities are endless!

Not only are the possibilities endless, but Christians in six more churches are actively participating in and owning the Schmits’ ministry in Honduras rather than just funding it.

Now that’s transformational!

Great job, Carrie and Joe. I’m honored to hear that the Coach Your Champions book could be of assistance. Keep in touch as you and your champions write the sequel to the book in your own ongoing ministry!

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When It Comes to the Foundation of your Fundraising Program, Rely Completely on the Generosity of the Poor.

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Pastor Foley

Great email this week from Judi Nation at Tulsa’s Destiny Center. She wrote:

Hi Pastor Foley,

My name is Judi Nation in Tulsa, OK, and I am on the staff of a church that is just over one year old–Destiny Center.  After seeing your website a few moments ago, I certainly plan to get your book, Whole Life Offering.  I do agree with your view on Christianity as philanthropy, and can’t wait to read it.  I also noticed that you have helped many churches to build giving programs.  I must say that I am new to fundraising as it relates to supporting our outreach programs and international missions and I am looking for any possible advice to starting an effective giving program for our church.  Many of the families that we serve that are becoming members of our church are currently of very low income and we are feel called to this population.  We’re excited about what God can do and for the vision that He’s given our staff and leadership.

Where would you suggest that I start with gathering support to serve this community and our church as we move forward?  How can I coach our other leaders to do this as well?  I’m certainly going to be following your articles online, but do you know of any other resource that would be helpful?

Thanks so much and please keep doing what you do–we certainly need this teaching.

Good to hear from you, Judi—and good to hear about the heart and vision of the Destiny Center.

Let me share some fundraising advice with you that will infuriate professional fundraisers, who will quickly dismiss it with eye roll,  dramatic sigh, and vigorous head shake:

When it comes to the foundation of your fundraising program, rely completely on the generosity of the poor.

A cardinal fundraising truth that churches and Christian nonprofits often miss: Excusing the poor from giving is profoundly insulting to both the Lord and the poor.

A second cardinal fundraising truth that is like unto the first: Receiving token gifts from the poor but counting on the rich to bail us out is even more profoundly insulting to the Lord and the poor.

Scripturally, from one end of the Bible to the other, God’s best work is built on the generosity of the poor. Whether Elijah and the widow, the widow and her mite, or the boy and his modest quantity of loaves and fishes, God always views the poor as subjects and co-partners of his work, never objects of his pity nor recipients of the largesse of the upper crust.

The church or nonprofit that devotes its best fundraising resources and time and energy and attention to the poorest potential givers—treating them as philanthropists and not charity cases—will always thrive in ways that cannot be attributed to technique and can only be attributed to God.

This is no mere theological platitude but one of my core convictions after more than twenty years of fundraising. Further, as we’ve noted in previous blog posts, the phenomenon is borne out statistically: (1) Generosity and income level are inversely proportional in the U.S., and (2) Financially, you’re better off equipping a poor but enthusiastic champion to spread your cause in their sphere of influence than you are prospecting for a rich person to write you a single check.

But there’s a deeper appeal we can make here than to statistics. We can appeal to God’s consistent character. When we treat as major those whom the Lord treats as major, and when we treat as subjects those the Lord treats as subjects, the Lord sees…and responds. And his response can never be reduced to some kind of formula, like, “Judi, if you focus on the poor, God will send you rich people.” Sometimes he will, sometimes he won’t. But he’ll always provide. And he’ll do so in ways that are ultimately more reliable than any tool, technique, or strategy.

That’s the message of both my books, Coach Your Champions (which is the one oriented toward nonprofit fundraising) and The Whole Life Offering (which is oriented toward individual givers): Put your faith and trust in God. Learn his ways, not the fundraising strategies of any purported master. Not only will your organization accomplish the purpose for which he called it (his promise, not mine), but you yourself will enjoy fundraising more, since it will be the way that you and everyone with whom you spend time grows to greater fullness in Christ.

Regard the poor as your major donors, basing your giving program around them, and God will regard yours as a major ministry and base his giving program around you.

Warmly in Christ,
Pastor Foley

P.S. I’m teaching a two day workshop for the Memphis Leadership Foundation on 8/4-5 on the Whole Life Offering/Transformational Giving principles. MLF focuses on urban ministries, so it could be a good fit for you. If you’re interested in coming, you can email Larry Lloyd at [email protected], and he can share more details with you. In the meantime, please give my best to the brothers and sisters at the Destiny Center.

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Why Every Christian Should Memorize the Nicene Creed

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Pastor Foley

On the nonprofit side of the house–our Seoul USA ministry to North Korea–we receive frequent requests for our statement of faith from individuals interested in contributing financially.

I consider this A Good Thing, and, in fact, since Seoul USA is a member of the International Christian Organization along with all the other Voice of the Martyrs chapters (one of our Seoul USA divisions is VOM/Korea), we actually have a shared statement of faith.

But as true as that statement of faith is about us, I’ve never liked it nearly as much as I do the Nicene Creed.

I think it’s hard for Christians today to grasp just how central–and universal–the Nicene Creed has been to believers across the broadest expanse of time and geography and denomination and language.

I’m presently reading through the magnificent Ancient Christian Doctrine series on the Nicene Creed, and I want to commend the series to every Christian teacher…and the memorization of the Creed to every Christian.

Memorizing the Nicene Creed is what Christians did for centuries in preparation for their baptism. Notes Thomas Oden in the series introduction:

During times of persecution the baptismal confession typically was memorized, not only because it was unsafe to write it down, but also because written texts made other innocent people more susceptible to charges under civil authorities. More reliable was the quiet tradition faithfully passed on verbally through the episkopoi from the apostles. The bishops’ primary task was to maintain accurate apostolic teaching without addition or subtraction.

In other words, it’s not only Christian nonprofit organizations that ought to have a statement of faith. Every individual believer should as well–and that statement of faith should be the Creed that defines the length and breadth of the teaching of the apostles, without addition or subtraction. Continues Oden:

The first article of the Nicene Creed presupposes that there is an objective body of teaching that Christians are expected to confess as their faith. This idea seems normal and natural to us, but it was a novelty in the ancient world. Neither Judaism nor any pagan religion or philosophy could claim to have a closely defined set of beliefs that everyone adhering to it was expected to publicly profess and defend against all comers.

That’s an amazing point worth much reflection. For me it conjures up no small amount of sadness since my experience has been that the idea of a defined set of beliefs that every Christian has memorized and can publicly profess and defend is a novelty in contemporary Christianity.

Fred Sanders makes this point exceptionally well in his book, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything:

People who grew up under the influence of reductionist evangelicalism suffer, understandably, from some pretty perplexing disorientation. They are raised on “Bible, cross, conversion, and heaven” as the whole Christian message, and they sense that there must be more than that… Inside of reductionist evangelicalism, everything you hear is right, but somehow it comes out all wrong.

That is because when emphatic evangelicalism degenerates into reductionist evangelicalism, it still has the emphasis right but has been reduced to nothing but emphasis. When a message is all emphasis, everything is equally important and you are always shouting… The other problem is that a gospel reduced to four points ceases to make sense unless its broader context can be intuited. “The Bible says Jesus died so you can get saved and go to heaven” is a good start, the right emphasis, and a recognizable statement of the gospel–provided that it is securely lodged in the host of other truths that support and explain it.

That host of other truths? It’s the Nicene Creed. And if we’re going to be people of robust and transformational faith who value, preserve, embody, and impart the fullness of what we received in our baptism, we’d better be able to recite it–and not just some proprietary statement of faith–from memory, in the marketplace as well as in the marketing materials of our ministries:

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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