By JR Horn, Church Coach
You probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that my 3-year old is always asking questions. Many of them are easy to answer, “What color is that car?” Red. “Are we there yet?” No. Questions are kinda their thing and when you’re a parent you get used to answering them (All. The. Time.). But there is one question in our universe that can stop a grown man in his tracks. This question has the power to reduce a conversation to crickets. And from a 3-year old, it comes relentlessly. “Why?” That one word can lead us into deep philosophical debates. Our kids can pelt us with it relentlessly. Maybe that’s why we sometimes forget to ask it at the times it matters the most.
When is the last time you took an honest look at some of your policies and asked yourself, “Why?” Let’s dive into just a couple of the most common spaces that I’ve found many churches have a hard time answering that question.
Why Do You Support That Missionary?
Have you considered why you support the missionaries that you currently support? When I interact with Missions Ministers, I often ask them this question. Their answer will tell me if I am working with a church that has a firm foundation for mission work. If you don’t have a good answer, you’re not alone. I’ve found most don’t. Most commonly, the answer is, “We have always supported them.”
As someone who makes a living by raising support in order to coach churches, I’m thankful for churches that continue to support their missionaries for decades on end. But we still need to answer the question of why. If we don’t, we reduce our missions teams to checkbook ministries. The missions team without a why meets once or twice a year to ensure each of the missionaries are being paid and that’s it. There is so much more potential for greater missions collaboration than that.
Why Is That the Amount You Give?
I remember leading a Missions Team meeting where one of our new team members piped up and asked, “Why do we give so much more money to this missionary than the others?” This is a great question, one that has most likely come up in your missions teams. The answer was born out of the previous paragraph. We had taken the time to ask ourselves why we supported these specific missionaries. That foundation allowed us to be prepared to answer this new “Why” question. The answer was that this particular missionary specifically aligned with what God had called our church to do locally and globally and that they were working with unreached people groups. Since we were equipped with that knowledge, we didn’t have a problem answering that why question.
When you have been in church world long enough, especially missions ministry, you’ll notice that most churches level the playing field and support their missionaries at the same level. Not the same level year to year, I mean the same support number across the board. When I ask churches why all of the support levels are the same, the answer is usually, “We wanted to be fair to everyone.” While that is noble, I believe that we need to be better stewards with the money that the church allows us to use as a missions team. Can you create a checklist that will help you examine each missionary that comes in for new support? Can that checklist help you determine if they will be a good candidate for you to support (and for how much)?
Start with Why
Why, continues to be one of the most difficult questions to answer in all of life, not just the church world. Simon Sinek in his book, Start with Why, is quoted saying, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” The same is so true for the church. Ministers, Missions Team Leaders take some time this week and look over your ministry. Ask yourself the hardest question you can and then take the next steps to answer it. Let’s take time to ensure that our missions ministries are doing great work around the world advancing the Gospel. Let’s make sure our Children’s Ministries and Youth Ministries fully understand why we teach children about Jesus.
Maybe you are reading this while struggling with ministry and Covid-19 distancing. I would encourage you to remember why God called you into ministry. Use that memory to stay strong and maintain the stamina to continue during this time! Keep it up, you are doing a great job!
I’d love to connect with you more. To learn more about Church Coaching, head over to www.teamexpansion.org/church-coaching.
ABOUT JR HORN
JR served in pastoral ministry for 15+ years in Kentucky and Wisconsin, but his desire to see churches become active participants in fulfilling the Great Commission led him into full-time service with Team Expansion. Today, JR helps churches become strategic and intentional with local and global missions. JR and his wife, Heather, are active foster and adoptive parents and have three kids. In their free time, you’ll find them riding their motorcycles together any chance they can get.
