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In an article titled "Stop Sending Money!" in the March 1, 1999, issue of Christianity Today, Robertson McQuilkin presented the problems that often follow when pastors and churches in poorer countries are financially supported by foreign organizations. He noted that jealousies arise, divisions occur, workers become materialistic, recipients are ungrateful, and church members tend to be irresponsible. His solution was simple: send no money.

Most mission specialists, myself included, agree that churches, by their very nature, should be self-supporting. Many would also agree in principle that the most effective indigenous missions organizations are those independent of foreign control and not affiliated with foreign denominations or mission organizations. But that is where the agreement seems to end.

Instead of helping these independent and indigenous mission organizations carry out their God-given ministries, many evangelical mission leaders in America have disparaged or discredited them. Like McQuilkin, they are especially adamant about not sending financial support of any kind to them.

The reasoning is simple—but perhaps too simple. In my experience at the head of an organization that sends missions money abroad I have found that providing financial support to indigenous ministries is effective if a clear distinction is made between directly supporting individual workers, on the one hand, and, on the other, supporting such workers indirectly through indigenous mission boards that give oversight to the handling of funds.

In the New Testament, we see evidence of funds being distributed in various circumstances. In the Jerusalem church, for example, the entire congregation pooled its resources to provide for the whole church, including the more than 3,000 who were visiting pilgrims. A year later, after the pilgrims had left and a famine hit Judea, the believers in Antioch sent relief, some of which most certainly was used for the support of the apostles (Acts 11:29). Still later, when believers in Jerusalem were devastated by persecution, Paul instructed the churches of Macedonia and Achaia to collect funds for their fellow believers. The other mention of finances concerned offerings that were sent to Paul for his personal support as well as for those on his team.

Whatever direct examples we may have or not have of the New Testament church helping others with financial gifts, the fact is that the huge fundraising operations of present-day mission organizations have no biblical precedent. So decisions regarding such finances need to be made on the basis of wisdom and common sense rather than divine revelation.

As a result, I believe that a blanket rule against sending money to foreign ministries is untenable—and even self-serving—for two reasons. First, historically and currently, many U.S. mission boards have themselves collected funds outside our borders. Hudson Taylor started the China Inland Mission in England but soon received support from the Continent. His 1888 U.S. trip, with backing from D. L. Moody, produced $500,000 for CIM work and workers (about $10 million in today's dollars). The Scandinavian Alliance Mission began by raising support around the Baltic Sea, but found green pastures in America also. Its mission headquarters were eventually moved to Wheaton, Illinois, and the name changed to TEAM. More currently, World Vision raises millions of dollars in other countries.

In effect, the current reigning missions orthodoxy says that it is fine for European and American missions to raise funds internationally, but if Indian or African missions do so, they are in danger of dependency.

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October 4 1999, Vol. 43, No. 11