Funding ideas

Tim Welch’s book, New Funding Models for Global Mission, Learning From the Majority World, shares creative ways to fund missions. We have curated a few to demonstrate how everyone can contribute meaningfully to the Great Commission irrespective of occupational or economic status.

• Missions Start-up Group (MSG): A small group of people who keep missions continually alive before the local church by sharing missions information, prayer requests, and advocating financial support for missionary candidates.

• Mission Designation: Church members designate a portion of what they have for missions, e.g. sales from eggs laid by a designated “missions hen,” milk from a designated “missions cow,” or profits from sales made on a designated “missions day of the week.” A church could also purchase a “missions taxi,” run a taxi business, and give the profits to missions.

• Twelve-Church Model: A local church partners with 11 other churches and each month, one church provides the monthly support needed by a missionary family.

• A Handful of Rice: Practiced for over 100 years in India, church women set aside a handful of rice at each meal to be sent to the church and eventually sold to support missions. Churches can adopt this for different items.

• Missions Pledge Campaigns: Church members or a family that wants to support missions ask God to help them know how much money to pledge. They may fill out a card indicating the pledge amount and make regular contributions until the full pledge is redeemed.

• Revolving Savings: Each week, an amount of money is taken out of the general offering and put into the missions “cash box.” At the end of the month, the total amount is given to missions.

• Activities and Events: Churches can organize activities such as plays, music concerts, missions quiz contests, cleaning services, etc. and donate the revenue to missions.