Ambassadors, not kings

My initial fundraising went poorly.  Perhaps the biggest reason is that I tried to win donors with my personality and my presentation skills - both of which were substantially limited - so that they would join my support team and help me with my ministry.  In other words, I forgot who I was.  I was acting as the king and not as the King's ambassador.

Here's how Paul describes our ambassadorial position:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV, emphasis mine)

This passage is speaking of us being ambassadors for Christ in regard to reconciliation (salvation).  However, what ambassador is sent without adequate supplies for his task?  Surely a king would want his ambassador to be fully equipped for whatever mission he is called to fulfill!  Indeed, He who sends you on your soul-winning quest has also provided each dollar you need in your preparatory fundraising quest.

It's easy to forget that, isn't it?  We tend to believe that we're on our own to raise funds.  We're consider ourselves individual kings and queens of our little fundraising kingdoms.  By our own power and cunning we conquer donors and secure dollars.  "Is my fundraising doing better than yours?  It must be because I am inherently more spiritual or winsome or persistent than you!"  The opposite also rings true: "Fundraising is going slowly.  I'm not as worthy or capable as the next guy... I'll probably never finish..."

Tragically, we can carry this same mindset into our ministry post-fundraising as well.  The results are always the same: as we preach this treasonous message to ourselves, we become prideful, defensive and resistant to feedback from both man and God.  After all, we're KINGS.  We don't answer to anyone!

Furthermore, our message will not be - and can not be - one of weak and broken sinners saved by grace.  Subtly or not-so-subtly we will preach a message of strength and self-sufficiency.  Yes, I will claim submission to the King of Kings, but in my heart of hearts I'll believe that I myself am He.  And if I fail to repent and acknowledge Him as King, He will execute judgment by handing me my own little throne to sit on so that I might experience the ever-increasing wreckage of a godless life (see Romans 1.)

Yikes.

Instead, let's consider what position we really have.  In humility, let's recognize our true appointed position: we are ambassadors, not kings!  What authority do we have that has not been given?  Why should one of God's people entrust their resources to us?  They shouldn't!  But they do well - and do so joyfully - to entrust their resources to Christ.  We are the recipients only because of our association with Him.  The King has called us.  He's already provided with absolute authority.  Our role is to procure that provision - and we do so as ambassadors, not kings.

What does this mean practically?

It means that your donors are not there for you.  They're there for the King's purposes.  You are simply the King's ambassador - one who is sent by the King to deliver others' gifts (which He Himself has provided) to the King.  He just so happens to give you a degree of stewardship over them as well.  But you are an ambassador - not the King.

It means that when someone declines giving to your ministry, the King did not waste your time.  He has called you to deliver a message to them.  It is up to them to respond accordingly.  You did not fail.  Their "rejection" does not meant that you spoke to the wrong person.  It may be that your message is meant to lead them to give to the King's purposes elsewhere, or to re-examine their budget in light of the King's assigned priorities, or to communicate further with the King via prayer, or for many other purposes known only to the King and not to you.  Because you are an ambassador - not the King.

It means that fundraising is not primarily about you getting what you want.  It is about you serving as the King's ambassador until He assigns you another message in another context.  At no point will you cease to be an ambassador and begin being the King.  Those who say otherwise are liars.  So flee treasonous thoughts.  Put away fantasies about being in control.  Resist the lies of the King's enemies.  He will deal with them severely in His time.  As for you, fulfill your mission.  Raise your funds.  Do it faithfully.  Because you are an ambassador - not the King.

The generous fundraiser

As a fundraiser, your regular hope and prayer is that your contacts will become donors who give generously.  You're constantly looking for people who see the blessing of generous giving and understand the Biblical encouragement to give generously for the sake of the Kingdom.

But have you considered that the first place you should look to find such generosity is your own budget?

"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you." -Jesus, Luke 6:38, ESV

Jesus's words here are plain: there is a direct correlation between your giving and God's giving.

What is the prerequisite for God's giving?
It's your giving!  "Give, and it will be given to you."

In what proportion will God give?
We're not given a specific ratio, but it is truly packed in there!  "Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap."  In other words, God fills up his giving to your capacity, finds a way to give still more, finds yet another way to give still more, and then when you really can't take any more, He just keeps on giving!

How will God measure how much is appropriate?
God starts His calculations by examining yours.  "For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you."

Are you giving generously?
Those who raise financial support are not any less blessed by giving generously or any less encouraged to give generously than any other Christians.  In fact, fundraisers should be models of generous giving since we ourselves have been given so much - and continue to be given much month after month after month!

Paul wrote of the Macedonian church, "For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord . . . and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us." (2 Cor 8:3,5)  You, fundraising missionary, have already given yourself to the Lord.  Let your generosity not end there.  Let's be the most generous givers on our support teams!

Fundraiser: Friend of the church

This is a guest post by fellow fundraiser Dan "Dan Miller" Miller. Interested in writing a guest post? Write to gospel.fundraiser@gmail.com.

Credit: flickr user "lovstromp"
Creative Commons License

I'll never forget the first time I concluded that support raising was an impossible mountain to climb. It was the day before I actually started making calls.

I was sitting in my home church on Sunday morning, having recently moved back to my hometown to raise funds for full-time ministry. I had been going there almost all my life, but that Sunday morning felt different. Same music. Same smiling faces. Same row of seats that my parents practically owned. I was torn between listening to the sermon and devising who I was going to tackle afterwards and make a sales pitch to. I was tense.

Then the pastor finished with this uplifting exhortation: "And that's why, starting tomorrow, we'll be starting a massive phone campaign to raise funds for our new church building."

Roll credits. My sad biography was over. I considered stopping at Taco Bell afterwards to ask for my old job back.

I was in such a haze that I didn't end up talking to anyone afterwards. I somehow ended up at home, staring at my list of prospective supporters, mentally drawing a big red line through everyone who I saw that morning.

I mean, how do you compete with a church?

As I learned over the next 18 months, it's easy: you don't.

A few thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul thankfully wrote this:

"We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord..."  (2 Corinthians 8:1-3 ESV)

Okay, what do we see?

• People give because of God's grace in their lives.
• Giving is related to joy.
• Poor people can be joyful too. 
• People give according to their means... and beyond their means.

Which means this: That Sunday morning, my contact list should not have shrunk.

It should have gotten bigger.

As the years have passed and I have seen God remove more and more scales from my eyes, I have seen my home church and other churches in the area explode with people who were happy to give to God's work through their church and through my ministry calling. I get to help them expand their joy not just to the walls of their church and the ends of their cities. I get to help their joy spread to the ends of the earth!

So I'm a friend of the church. And I'm still meeting new friends whenever I visit home.

Is fundraising the same as begging?

When I suggest that someone join a mission that requires fundraising, a common response is, "Oh, I couldn't never beg people for money!"

Is fundraising the same as begging?

Well, there is certainly overlap between the two! In both cases...

• they happen because a person needs what they are unable to provide for themselves, especially money. 
• the receiver is grateful to the giver regardless of the amount of the gift. 
• one-time gifts are great, but regular gifts are even better!
• those who do so can easily feel incompetent and alone, especially over time.

However, the Bible never refer to fundraising as begging. Rather, the Scriptures turn that whole idea on its head:

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints - and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5 ESV, emphasis mine)

Did you see that? Here the begging takes place on the part of the giver, not the ones needing "relief"! The Macedonians have given even out of their "extreme poverty" because "the grace of God has been given among the churches."

Note also that Paul says that the Macedonians gave themselves "first to the Lord and then . . . to us." What does that mean? Likely this was a recommitment of their lives to Jesus, which then turned into an outpouring of faith-inspired generosity. My guess is that they began meditating on their own state as spiritual beggars - needy, helpless, alone. They remembered that it was into their broken, hopeless state that Jesus Christ came. He was the Way, the Life and the Truth that they had dreamed of all their lives. Because of His death and resurrection, they would have immeasurably more than all they could ask or imagine. What, then, is wealth in this age? At that point they emptied their pockets, knowing that God would provide just what they needed when they needed it. He already had.

Learn therefore from the Macedonians how you ought to think about fundraising: rather than fearing that you might be seen as a beggar, recognize the truth that you already are. Moreover, your need was infinitely greater than any number of appointments, phone calls or Facebook messages could ever provide. No amount of time in fundraising could pay your debt. No gift was large enough - except for the gift of the Giver Himself. Only when you accept this are you free to give yourself.

Is fundraising the same as begging? No. But that doesn't mean you aren't a beggar. The more you embrace that, the more you'll be able to give yourself first to the Lord and then, by the will of God, to your fundraising.

And to whatever else He calls you to.