Transitioning From Fundraising to Tentmaking
Posted by C. Holland on Apr 19, 2010We’re finally at the fork in the road that we’d always suspected was ahead. After several years in the mission field, the fundraised portion of our finances are starting to dry up. It would be easy to blame it on the economy, and for a few supporters I believe it is the case. However, despite our best efforts to communicate, I’m afraid we’re becoming uninteresting. Most all of our possible support contacts have been tapped at several points throughout our time here, just a few remain that have not been contacted and we haven’t made any new contacts in the States since we’ve been in the field the entire time.
We were well-prepared for this reality by several former missionaries, so it’s no surprise. Though we’re not sent from a mission board, a lot of our Christian friends expect us to return around now to begin a year-long fundraising tour. But, like most aspects of ministry, we’re rethinking traditional wisdom on how to proceed.
Considering all that would go into a long trip back, the financial cost would be difficult, especially to maintain our home here. We’d have to generate funds just to travel back to the States…so we could generate funds to return here. Meanwhile, we’ve heard firsthand from quite a few missionaries that the economy is making churches understandably hesitant to commit to new missionary support. Several have told us that their mission agencies have instructed those in early fundraising stages to stand down for at least a year or more; other agencies that fully fund their missionaries have had to request some to return due to lack of funds. I fear that an intended short return would end up in a long cycle of trying to generate enough to get back here, and it would end up that we couldn’t return at all.
Secondly, our ministry here is at a tender stage. In no way am I trying to say that we’re so special or indispensable, but our extended (and possibly open-ended) absence would mean that there’s no one available to handle even pulpit supply more than once a month. The Christians here, already few and far between in this country, are still at the “milk” stage and cannot yet understand Christian service or ministry participation. While it is our goal to encourage as many nationals as possible to take over increasing ministry responsibility, this is a very slow and long-term process.
Add to all of that our field’s deep skepticism about missionary commitment (due to unfortunate history), some American churches’ focus turning solely to short-term missions, some Christian attitudes that we’ve “done enough” in the foreign field, and the popularity of the 10/40 window, fundraising successfully doesn’t look good. Initially I feared that I was compiling all of this to justify that I don’t enjoy fundraising (I’ve met few who do), but after much prayer and consideration I’m confident that this isn’t just an excuse.
After much prayer and consideration, to remain in the field uninterrupted it is clear that the tentmaking must increase as our support declines. We are very, very blessed to already own a low-maintenance business in the States. Because our part of Western Europe is so very expensive (and that Euro exchange rate doesn’t help), this business has supported up to half of our financial needs over our entire time here. We had suspected that over time the business would pick up where the support left off, and this appears to be the case. I have to admit that I’m encouraged about eventually stepping off of fundraised support completely.
I think we’ve given traditional fundraising a very thorough effort over the years, especially in the “maintaining communication” arena. But it’s become increasingly clear that supporter expectation of both lifestyle and results within an assumed timeline is disappointingly unrealistic in Western Europe. Our field requires a long-term approach with the realisation that paid church staff is a strange concept to the small congregations of Western Europe. When some of our stateside supporting churches tell us they expect our church here to pay full time in a few years, these Americans are coming from churches that can afford to pay at minimum a secretary, janitor, and worship/youth pastor in addition to the main pastor. The reality here is that the pastor does everything, and he usually isn’t paid much; he must tentmake to fill in the difference. This mindset can be redirected, but this culture is slow in adopting change. Putting an arbitrary two- or three-year expectation on these Christians will inevitably fail.
If we’re eventually supported by our business and Christians here, it means we don’t have to work so hard to maintain contact or be in a constant state of explaining ourselves to supporters who are 5,000 miles away. Please know that I wholeheartedly welcome accountability to supporters. I would one-hundred-percent welcome any supporter to review my finances, spending habits, and even walk an entire week with us through each and every one of our commitments. But that’s the problem; if you’re not here you can’t fully understand how ministry works in this culture and why using the American-style of ministry expectations won’t get you big or amazing results.
So for the moment we’re still supported by both fundraising and tentmaking. We find that God has granted us a specialised business to develop on the tentmaking side, and I am encouraged to see it through. This may not be the way God chooses to provide for other missionaries in other situations, but I am thankful for this opportunity to continue on in our field.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!Related posts:
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I jest. Good one!
April 19th, 2010 at 11:41 am
I’m frustrated for you but also confident that because you are seeking God in this issue, He will bless your ministry and continue to provide for your needs.
I am grateful for the methods of our agency; it “supports churches in sending their missionaries” rather than acting as a sending agency. As a result, support does not drop off as regularly as churches intend to invest in the missionary as long as the missionary intends to invest in the field.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:49 am
i’m praying for you guys as you transition more fully into tentmaking as your primary means of being on the field. and i envy you in many ways… blessings.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
I tried support raising, and to be honest with you, I live in a country that have a minority Christian population to begin with, and those who are Christians are more interested in climbing the corporate ladder, and churches generally don’t want to talk about missions. So the sad reality is that I will be working 10+ years just to get a tiny amount of support, and during all that time trying I was working at a supermarket making barely enough to get by living a frugal lifestyle, then saving money for missions. With inflation and all those financial waves I might as well work for the rest of my life just to do missions for 2 years. Good thing God has given the opportunity for me to do some translation, and since these work are done online, I can be anywhere with internet access and still have better income. Heck, even if the income is only as much as working at the supermarket, I have more time and the important thing is, I am not bound to any particular country or location. So I may become one of the few tent making YWAM staff around.
tai fu´s last blog ..New host
April 19th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
@Rose: I wish our supporters viewed this as a long-term thing, but the majority hold a short-term mentality despite our wish to stay. God had given us a peace about the change.
@James: Thanks for the prayers.
@Tai Fu: I really believe God provides for different missionaries in different places using different methods.
April 20th, 2010 at 4:26 am
The apostle Paul and the moravians are great examples of why tent making works. Ministry here in Western Europe needs to be sustainable…something that the way we do church and missions in general in the US doesn’t work here. The Mormoms are also a great example of a church (though totally wrong in their doctrines) seems to be right on in their methods. Not one single person in their movement gets a salary or pay check and yet have been growing at 40% a decade for a long time now. Your blog as well as many others should continue to challenge us to rethink how we do missions and church in order to be sustainable and effective. Blessings, 2 u
April 20th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I would love to know what type of tent-making you are involved in. Facing a similar situation….
April 20th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
@Matt: Thanks for the encouragement. BTW, when we were first investigating ways to be sent to our mission field, the only groups sending to our particular country were the Mormons. It’s the only reason we’re sent by our home church and not by a mission agency.
@Kyle: The Other Half and I are both computer programmers for the last 15 years, so we already had the training and contacts established years before missions was even in our minds. It’s hyper-specialised but means we don’t have to maintain a “bricks-and-mortar” situation with employees, just need access to broadband.
April 21st, 2010 at 9:47 am
The only problem for me is I only started out with this translating and proofreading/copyediting thing, and I haven’t really have much contacts at all, so I am really praying that things will come my way that will help me do tent making wherever I am at. I hear there are demands for those work but I don’t really see much and most websites that specializes in translation doesn’t have much jobs other than last minute rush jobs (which I won’t do).
tai fu´s last blog ..New host
April 21st, 2010 at 3:14 pm
@Tai Fu: God will make a way. Praying His will in this for you.
April 26th, 2010 at 11:47 am
I admire your faith that it is still God’s will for you to be there even when your fellow Christians are not coming up with the money! That must be hard. Hope those who DO support your work (albeit not monetarily) will keep praying for you and you’ll keep sending prayer fodder to them. To me, this is the real guts of “support” because your own strength, hard work, intelligence, cultural insight etc is not enough, as I’m sure you know! Unless God’s doing something and you’re closely following him, it’s all a waste of time, right? I’m not saying you’re guilty of any of this (on the contrary, you DO seem to be closely following him), just cautioning you not to throw the baby out with the…
. But trips to the city are great!
May God keep you strong for him and get the Body filling in whatever parts it is supposed to in your case…and keep appreciating them, too.
I used to think I’d be a tent-maker (I was an ESL teacher in my former life!!) and hated the idea of begging people for what seemed like lots of money, but where we are I realised there’s NO WAY I could earn money there (we’re in a remote, farming community: the only “paid” people are two government teachers and they don’t even get paid half the time). Plus, it never actually has seemed like begging – the funds have rolled in…but we’ve only been in the field for five years and have very low expenses: all extremely different circumstances to you. And no broadband, not even network
Thanks for sharing, it’s great to envisage your experience.
April 26th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
@Kathy: It’s all been about faith and God clearly doing something from Day 1; we wouldn’t have even started this process if it weren’t. We can see it, a handful of others see it, the rest of our “fellow Christians” have a veil over their eyes and refuse to see that missions can also be outside the 10/40 window. Due to this unfortunate attitude, we always knew this would be a struggle over the long term.
And because of our fears of throwing that “baby” out with the bathwater, it’s why we’ve spent extra time calling on God and examining our hearts to make sure we weren’t trying to avoid traditional fundraising. I’m glad others are still blessed and supported in this way; it’s just a different path for us, now.
April 30th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
C,
Great to hear your thoughts on this subject. We’re winding down our last few weeks of details before arriving back in Europe. 3/4 of our support is coming from my computer work with a company that is taking a chance of having me work remotely. The other 1/4 is from individuals and sending churches. After our initial work in Ireland on 100% support I can fully attest to the strain of what you were describing. Leaving on extended furloughs for visits/support raising is not fun. In fact it’s not time off at all, its work. My prayer now is that we can fully invest in the work without the weight of support worries around our neck, plus visits with friends and family can be enjoyable again.
I would temper my comments with this however: No matter what we do we must also continue to minister to people in the U.S. through our service. Your blog and communications is a good example of this. Keep it up.
Once things settle down a bit I’ll be back in the blogging saddle.
Kevin´s last blog ..FSJ on the iPad: Sad but true…
May 4th, 2010 at 6:51 am
@Kevin: Our situation is so similar. When we left the States a few years back, we too had to convince an American client about us working remotely with them. It’s turned out really well, and they no longer seem uncomfortable with us being so far away and on a different time zone. And yes, we’ll still continue communication to people in the US about what we do in ministry. It’d be nice to hear from them, too, but that’s a different subject.
Glad to hear you’ll be blogging again. I’d wondered where you went!