Do the Word

China Inland Mission founder Hudson Taylor famously said, “God’s work, done God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.”

This is one of the most commonly cited quotes among Christian organizations when it comes to their fundraising, and it is one of my favorite quotes as well…though for a different reason.

Taylor’s quote is typically understood to mean, “If we just stay faithful to doing the ministry God has given us, we’ll have enough money to pay the bills.”

But notice that’s not quite what Taylor said.

It’s the final phrase that’s the kicker:

God’s supply.

Whoever said that God supplies in clean, crisp, unmarked hundred dollar bills?

A quick check of the Old and the New Testaments reveals surprisingly few occasions where God, like a gracious grandparent commemorating a birthday, sends cash.

One could certainly protest that this is because in Bible times cash was a rarity. But really now…

There’s a common thread that runs through all God’s giving, namely:

When God gives a gift, the recipient must be transformed in order to be able to receive it.

In fact, you’d almost think that what God was seeking to accomplish through His giving was not only provision but transformation…

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Mt 7:9-11)

I suspect one of the grave ways we impoverish ourselves as missionaries and nonprofit ministry organizations is that our engines run only on cash; every other kind of gift (and here I’m not talking only about gifts-in-kind but people, especially the various and sundry kind, offering themselves as if they were treasure–the audacity!) just seems to choke the motor.

Taylor’s promise was not that God’s work, done God’s way, will never lack for our supply. Rather, his contention was that God would supply as a good Father giving good gifts to His children. Kids always want cash, but sometimes parents know that other gifts are far more needed by their children.

Think through the scriptures at the gifts God gave, and how each one required an “engine conversion” for the recipient to be able to run on it.

Think through the gifts God has given your ministry–and is continuing to give your ministry–and ask yourself, “What kind of ‘engine conversion'”–i.e., personal and corporate transformation–“is God calling me/us to in order to be able to ‘run’ on this…without growing weary?”

That kind of approach might lead us to suspect that in the midst of recession there’s really no downturn in giving at all…

I resonate with most everything that Katya Andresen writes, including her recent trend alert post, Impact is the new black.

Says Andresen:

For a select group of funders and major donors – and perhaps mainstream givers, someday – you must show real, measurable impact in a way that enables you to be judged on a social ROI or compared to other causes in effectiveness.

And further:

All funders want reporting. Some foundations and major donors want data on nonprofit impact organized in a way that allows them to compare and contrast charities – or to choose high performing nonprofits.  They are interested in social ROI.  But this is a small demand relative to overall giving.  Most individuals are far too lazy and rushed to want that degree of information.  The vast majority of people give because they care (it’s emotional) and only need basic confirmation that their money will make a difference.  They aren’t going to spend a lot of time analyzing their charity’s performance – heck, they may not even do that with their 401k.  The desire for data on impact or ratings will only gain traction on a grand scale if the insights on performance are reduced to a simple star system or Consumer Report-style bubbles.

My reply:

Necessary…and yet not sufficient.

• Habitat for Humanity continues to grow not only because of impressive social ROI but because they stick a hammer in your chest and tell you it’s your responsibility to build a home for those in your community who don’t have one…and they can show you how to do just that.
• Kiva.org continues to grow not only because of low overhead and high impact but because they create a platform where you can be an international lender…something you can’t be anywhere else.
• Even in child sponsorship for organizations like World Vision and Compassion International, sponsors are clearly making a choice for a kind of impact that can’t be fully quantified through social ROI…but that extends into personal ROI as well.

Impact, in other words, must be measured on two axes. One is social. The other is personal. A nonprofit can attend to first supremely well, providing reports that prove that it is at the head of its class in social impact…and still go out of business. Happens every month, especially in this recession. No one has yet postulated that impact and funding are directly correlated, despite how much our common sense might like to believe they are.

After all, plenty of inefficient (and sometimes even dishonest!) nonprofits are still doing quite well these days, thank you very much. We could chalk this up to slick advertising and the gullibility of some donors in the general public. But far more likely is the possibility that there are a group of nonprofits that fare poorly on the social ROI axis but quite well on the personal impact axis. Such charities can–and should–be exposed, and usually are.

But while we should condemn such charities, we should not praise ones with high social ROI but negligible personal impact. Donors don’t. The law of the donor jungle says that over time, such charities will fall by the wayside as well.

What’s necessary and sufficient for future nonprofit success?

High social ROI plus high personal ROI. Two forms of impact, not just one–that’s the new black.

Our brothers and sisters over at Christian Leadership Alliance are taking a bit of a different approach to Planned Giving than we talked about in our post yesterday. They’re offering a free webinar on Planned Giving for “busy Christian professionals like you”.

Here’s the description:

Did you know that 11,000 family-owned businesses will be sold in the next 7 years valued at over $4.6 trillion? That 91% of America’s wealth is in the “big jar” called Assets (only 9% of America’s wealth is in the “small jar” called Cash? And that most ministries spend most (or all) of their time pursuing gifts in the small jar?

I couldn’t recall the “big jar” of Assets and the “small jar” of cash being described in the Bible, so I did a quick concordance search on those terms and unfortunately came up empty. Perhaps I am using a different translation.

In any case, while I was searching, I did discover a references to jars in the Bible, 1 Kings 17:

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe [a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”

5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

The Widow at Zarephath

7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

12 “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’ “

15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe [a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”

5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”

10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

12 “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’ ”

15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.

Funny and certainly impractical that Elijah’s ministry was sustained by a widow’s jar of flour. If Assets compose 91% of wealth and Cash composes 9% of wealth, I imagine that widow’s flour jars must be pretty statistically insignificant. I sure hope Elijah is able to tune in for the CLA “big jar” webinar.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.