How does a church body determine their support? We have discussed the “who” or “what”
to support, but there needs to be a discussion on how much.
Mission Budget for Local Church - Determine how much your
church is engaged in giving to foreign missions. Most of the studies have concluded that most churches in
America give less than 5% of all income to mission causes and less that 2% is
dedicated to the unreached/unevangelized people of the world. The first task of the missions team is
to determine how much your local body gives to foreign missions.
Most churches believe that 10% of a Christian’s income, the
tithe, is a good standard for faithful giving. Though the average throughout the Western church giving to
missions is a nickel out of every dollar, I would suggest that the missions
team move the local church to give a tithe, a dime, to the Great Commission
cause. (My apologies for my bias,
but a part of that 10 cents should not include home missions or local
evangelistic outreach, but money actually going outside the continental
U.S. If the church desires to
support AWANA or a homeless shelter, which they should, then it should be
separate from the 10% dedicated to missions).
Some churches, though admittedly few, take 10% out of every
Sunday’s contributions and place that into the mission fund. That is probably the best way to do it,
reminding the congregation every Sunday morning that their contributions truly
are used to take the Gospel around town and around the world. I have one donor church that gives 15%
of their monthly income and if the offerings are up, so is my support, and
visa-versa.
Another
approach is for the church to have an annual missions budget. If a church’s annual income is $100,000,
between the missions committee (team) and elders a decision is made each year
how much will go to missions.
Hopefully, it’s a least $10,000.
Some churches have what is called Faith Promise for supporting their missionary program. Each year these churches have a mission
conference and at the end of the conference the congregation gives a faith
promise pledge (by faith, as the Lord provides, above their tithe and offerings,
they will give a certain amount of money to missions.) In the past it was a very effective way
to energize the congregation for the Great Commission. In today’s world, people often don’t
attend mission conferences so this approach is waning.
No matter what method you use in analyzing the missions
budget, it is critical for the church to know its global outreach budget. We believe this is key to business,
home and even government finance, to have a budget and work within that budget
and I believe it should be true with the church as well.
