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.

Refresh: Funding the Opposition

"Good news refreshes the bones." - Proverbs 15:30b

This is part of an ongoing series called "Refresh", named for the verse above. "Gospel" means "good news", and so it seems appropriate to highlight tales of God providing, especially in amazing, fun and unexpected ways. Names and other details are modified just enough so as not to incriminate the innocent... or guilty! May this tale help refresh your bones!

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The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will. (Proverbs 21:1 ESV)

Back when I was in college, I strongly disliked the boyfriend of one of my roommates. In fact, it would be fair to say that I hated him at first.

Despite that rocky beginning, we grew on each other and became good friends. He's involved in politics and runs several campaigns for people around the state. He spends a lot of time doing fundraising for large organizations and he's really good at it. The problem is that he's not a Christian and is quite outspoken about it.

Despite that, when he discovered that I was also doing fundraising he initiated us getting together for an appointment.

So we met one morning and had a good time catching up for a while. Eventually he got down to business and flat out asked me what my needs were. I responded by explaining that I wanted to share about what I'd be doing in my ministry and then we'd get to the money part.

He told me to save it - he didn't want to know about any ministry. He only wanted to give!

I replied that I generally ask for $100/month. Without blinking he said, "Okay. I'll write a yearly check."

I was amazed at the awesome way God provided support from that appointment, especially given our history and his anti-God mindset.  He even joked afterward that he'd be supporting me and I'd end up training people who would then work against him!

Years later, I still pray that God would use my donor's gifts, our relationship, our newsletters and whatever else He sees fit to bring my friend to Christ. Would you please pray with me?

Submitted by "Jackie"