{"id":15,"date":"2002-07-05T18:32:45","date_gmt":"2002-07-06T02:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/archives\/2002\/07\/05\/the-biblical-model-for-funding-missionary-work\/"},"modified":"2012-09-11T12:00:27","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T20:00:27","slug":"the-biblical-model-for-funding-missionary-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2002\/07\/05\/the-biblical-model-for-funding-missionary-work","title":{"rendered":"The Biblical Model for Funding Missionary Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How should missionaries be paid? Biblically, there can be only one answer to this question. As Paul says, <i>the Lord has commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel<\/i> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=1+Cor+9:14\">1 Cor 9.14<\/a>). The teaching is very explicit. There are many examples of this principle being practiced in the Scriptures. Here are just a&nbsp;few:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First and most significantly, Jesus\u2019 ministry was funded by some of those who heard Him (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Luke8:1-3\">Luke 8.1\u20133<\/a>), and He taught the disciples to rely on others while ministering (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Matthew+10%3A5-15\">Matthew 10.5\u201315<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>Second, Paul requested that the Roman church financially support Phoebe, one of the ministers at Cenchrae. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Romans+16%3A1-2\">Romans 16.1\u20132<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Third, Paul himself received support and was grateful for the support he received: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Phil+10%3A10-20\">Philippians 4.10\u201320<\/a> <i>(people frequently assume that Paul always supported himself by making tents. Actually, that was the second-best option for him. See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Acts+18%3A1-5\">Acts 18.1\u20135<\/a>, where Paul began by making tents and quit as soon as it was financially feasible to do so. See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=1+Cor+9%3A1-18\">1 Corinthians 9.1\u201318<\/a>, where Paul\u2019s whole point is that the Corinthians owed him support: he concludes the letter by telling them that he hopes to stop by and that he hopes they will provide for him to finish his journey in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=1+Cor+16.5-6&amp;x=15&amp;y=8\">1 Cor 16.5\u20136<\/a>. Also see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Romans+15.20-24&amp;x=5&amp;y=10\">Romans 15.20\u201324<\/a>, where Paul asks a church he has never visited before to fund him on his journey to Spain.)<\/i> In addition, Paul explicitly teaches in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Galatians+6.6&amp;x=20&amp;y=5\">Galatians 6.6<\/a> that Christians are obligated to provide for the needs of ministers.<\/li>\n<li> Fourth, the apostle John encouraged his friend to support a band of missionaries in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=3+John+5-8&amp;x=10&amp;y=10\">3 John 5\u20138<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>Fifth, the whole Levitical system in the Old Testament (the Levites were ministers) is predicated on the financial support of ministers by the rest of God\u2019s people (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Numbers+18.21-24+&amp;x=2&amp;y=8\">Numbers 18.21\u201324<\/a> is a representative example). See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/cgi-bin\/bible?language=english&amp;version=NIV&amp;passage=Neh+13%3A4-11\">Nehemiah 13.4\u201311<\/a> for how outraged Nehemiah was that the Levites had to go earn wages in another fashion.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In summary, there is an extremely strong Biblical case for missionaries raising financial support from the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Which bring me to my point: we\u2019re missionaries and we need your partnership! If you\u2019d like to support our ministry financially, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/giving\">here\u2019s how<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><i>Incidentally, the word that we prefer to use when discussing financial supporters is <b>partner<\/b>. That word was chosen very carefully. If you\u2019re curious, read about how <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2002\/07\/05\/how-missions-is-a-partnership\">missions is really a partnership<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>If you still have unanswered questions about supporting missionaries, you might be interested in our <a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2002\/07\/05\/questions-about-support-raising\">answers to common questions about supporting missionaries<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A summary of the biblical precedents for missionaries soliciting funds so that they can devote themselves to full-time ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-investment-giving"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3482,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/3482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}