Supporting Ministry

On another occasion, I found myself as an employee of a non-profit para-church organization. Only here, I had to raise my own support, which I was willing to do. So, I asked the administration to share with me their years of experience and wisdom for best doing that. They kindly complied by offering a one-night class on the topic at which it became painfully clear that the principles being offered were conventional theory pulled from a hand-full of fund-raising books, very few of which principles were actually being followed by anyone in the organization, including the presenter of the class.

I then discovered the dirty little secret that more than a few of the employees of this ministry were making well below their target incomes, several in the poverty-level range.

* One very talented and giving gal was actually homeless and was sleeping temporarily in the back room, having left a job in another state to come to this ministry, and was now feeling somewhat duped (or at least not fully apprised) before coming.

* One very accomplished man had quit a 6-figure a year job to join this ministry, only to find himself dumped out and "on his own" when raising support was not quite as simple as he was led and allowed to believe.

Later I learned that this ministry shared the fate of a lot of others, limping along month to month, often late with its monthly obligations, and was often in arrears. When I approached the president of the ministry with concerns about all of these matters, he offered me these words as consolation: "It is common for non-profits to struggle like this. It is part of serving God with a glad heart, despite hardship on our part. But God always brings us through. It is about faith and sacrifice."

I was not comfortable with this answer. So I quietly backed away. Though I greatly respected many things about this ministry, and certainly most of the people who were there, I have great trouble accepting that God calls us to be irresponsible with our debts as a way of operation or toward those with whom we partner in our ministry.

Now, of course, there are many fine churches, non-profits, colleges and so on. I am not here to trash the sincere and hard-fought efforts of countless people. If you are engaged in "professional ministry" on any level, and you are happy about it, then may you be blessed!

However, most of the people I have known over the years who have been engaged in professional ministry of one kind or another are, after a while, weather-worn, if not weather-torn. They love the notion of serving God. But there are other realities of such "professions" that may not actually be part of the package God called them to.

The search for authentic ministry is not a vain one by any stretch. The systems which exist now to support real ministry are often inadequate and poorly based.