I’m rethinking a lot about missions these days while back in the States. Much, much more to come, but a friend recently sent us this:
“Girls Night Out – Bunko With a Mission”! Mark your calendars for Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at [church]. Prizes and raffling off gift baskets from [Local Restaurant], Starbucks, Lacome, Mary Kay, [Tutoring], Bath & Body, [Football Team tickets] and much more. Suggested donation $10. Feel free to invite a friend…Please R.S.V.P.
There are so many ways to fundraise, I know. But in the case of missions, what are we conveying to people? This isn’t very important to you, so I’ll have to bait you with prizes and useful, fun items you receive in return. We’re so desperate, we’ll try anything.
If they’re playing a game that had been originally used for gambling (I’ve never played it, so I’m not familiar with the method), isn’t this akin to having a “Casino Night for Missions”? I’m not fearful of cards or dice when playing a board game with the family, but it just seems to me like an odd method to use for mission fundraising.
We had been taught, mostly by being the audience in a church, that the missionary is to convince you with facts, figures, and photos why their mission needs our financial support. You might speak to the missionary afterwards to get more information, and then decide to give an amount freely, not expecting something tangible in return. We encouraged people to pray about this and a specific monetary figure, and I hope they did. It appears to me to be a more intellectual pursuit.
Of course, I realise that we sold off all our possessions years ago to go to our mission field; however, it was not presented in the classifieds as a “Help Missions Yard Sale”. It was just a yard sale, and it did benefit missions. Yet that was not why people showed up and bought my toaster. It was a simple transaction.
The church doesn’t seem to use these methods for regular Sunday tithes. Oh, I know there’s the year-end appeal when the church is in the red, but I’ve never been part of a church that ran, say, a Harvest Festival to Pay the Electric Bill. Tithing and stewardship has been addressed in the Sunday message in a rather straightforward way in my experience. Why the need to get money for missions in this way?
So, am I just a fossil who’s been out of the States for too long and needs to “get with the times”, or does this strike you as the wrong message to send about how to support missions?
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It would be rather unfortunate if missions is such a low priority to people that churches feel like they must come up with gimmicks to get people to give to missions. I too, prefer churches to raise money for mission the old fashioned way. And also that churches would devote more of the tithes coming in on a regular basis for missions. I recently went to a small PCA church that gives at least 25% of its tithes to missions, that’s a lot more than any church I used to go to.
@Committed Christian: I don’t know the specifics of this church, where their missions spending is or if they use other methods as well to encourage giving. But I agree with you, it seems gimmicky.
I agree this seems like a gimmick to me as well. What strikes me as sad about this is that in this example foreign ministry is seen to be peripheral to the core work of the congregation. In other words, the bunko night to raise money for ministry is needed perhaps because ministry giving is not a part of the regular giving and so bunko night supplements it? Once ministry giving has moved from the core, it’s only a matter of time before it disappears completely. C: Do you have any insight into whether this church gives from the core also?
Maybe rates of giving just aren’t that great and people try the same fund raising methods that they might use to support their school soccer team (or short term mission trip…..).
BTW, I don’t want to rub salt into reasonably fresh wounds, but did you ever do a post setting out what you think made your previous country a difficult mission field and have your more recent bad experiences changed or confirmed your views on this?
@Kevin: I received the invite secondhand, so I’m unaware of the church’s giving to missions.
@David: No plans to write about that at this time.
Aren’t we supposed to trust God with our needs and finances?
Seems kinda scary but when I talk to other Christians about my financial need (due to those fears) the only real response I get from them is “Get a dead end job”, “Do a yard sale”, etc. as though I had to somehow convince people that whatever I am hoping to do is important so I gotta be so desperate that I would prostitute myself to menial labor that pays very little (about 3 dollars an hour, and after bills and social contribution I still run short) and very long hours (more than 10 hrs a day) and very unethical employers.
Churches seems to be much better in this regard when it comes to asking for finances. The main pastor (who does most of the work) doesn’t have a second job to support his church, I mean he’s not legally allowed to anyways. The church lately doesn’t seem to have enough to pay its full time staff but they manage to get by… I’ve never seen him take up menial labor just to pay his bill either.
From what I can see, those who calls themselves Christian are actually Atheist at heart. It seems those who calls themselves Atheist or Agnostic lives by faith far more than “Christians”. I wonder why?
@Tai Fu: I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding today about mission methodology, which would include financial issues. While I wouldn’t say every Christian is actually an Atheist, in my experience some non-Christians have understood walking in faith better than those who identify as Christian.
To be completely honest and just as a random person reading this, you came across looking like a stick in the mud.
I mean it is a gigantic assumption that the ‘Ladies Night Out’ is the only money from this church that goes to missions. A lot of churches have get togethers like these, a lot of them are used to just invite neighbors and friends to, as a first step. So when someone that doesn’t know Christ comes to play Bunko, but then asks questions about missions it opens conversations about Christ.
I would suggest maybe not narrowing down your view so harshly, just because it’s a game night with ‘prizes’ doesn’t make this not a missions opportunity.
I would venture the guess that while planning out this event they didn’t start with ‘how can we raise money for missions?’ they started with a ladies night out planning time and then also wanted it to be purposful.
It’s always beneficial to just assume the best about our Christian brothers and sisters, but it’s a lot easier to assume the worst right off the bat, especially if it makes a good blog entry.
This was very enlightening to read and I can see opinions from differing angles. I too like to take the approach that we need to get all the details as things are not always as they seem. I have never played the game and probably never will, but I must say that I was delighted to hear that the gifts were used for the Church. Most of the ladies that I know who play, just do it for stress relief and they keep the gifts, not that there is anything wrong with that either, but I think it is admiral that these ladies are passing along the spoils to the field, so to speak. Maybe they are looking for inventive ways to raise money due to the lack of donations for the Church the old-fashioned way? Anyway, great discussion to make us all think and share opinions. Thanks!
@Davenport & Annette: Thanks for your opposing views. I’m just curious where the line is in all this and am more concerned that these events indicate that people are not willing to donate to missions without getting an item/prize in return.