Funding ≠ approval

I'm all for large numbers of people attending Christian events.  I enjoy hearing stories about hundreds of people coming to Christ at revival meetings.  I'm especially excited when ministries get major donors and receive enormous special gifts that allow their ministries to thrive.

Yet if that's all I have to go on, I remain skeptical.  You can get huge numbers of people at events by offering free beer and pizza.  Jesus held revival meetings too, but everyone except His twelve eventually deserted.  And I've seen well-funded preachers utterly contradict God's Word.

Having lots of support come in doesn't mean you're pleasing God.  Having little support come in doesn't mean you're displeasing God.

That seems counterintuitive, doesn't it?  God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6), right?  Yes!  However, in His perfect wisdom, He also allows the proud to thrive and oppress others for a season.  Even Satan is permitted to have authority, with permission, in this present age.  Thus, results don't necessarily indicate God's approval.  They may!  But don't assume it.

Why should I fear in times of trouble,
  when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
those who trust in their wealth
  and boast of the abundance of their riches?
Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
  when the glory of his house increases.
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
  his glory will not go down after him.
For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
  —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
  who will never again see light.
Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish. (Ps 49:5-6,16-20)

This Psalm, along with many, many other passages, assume that the wicked have some degree of power, wealth or ability.  In this instance, wicked men are prospering.  They're cheating the psalmist and boasting in it.  Here the wealthy man's attitude is considered pompous and he is "without understanding"; his destiny is death with nothing to show for it.  He's no better than a beast that perishes.  He is not approved.

What does this mean for us, the fundraisers?

Don't compare yourself to other fundraisers

It won't do you any good.  God has a plan for them just as He does for you - but it's almost always a different plan.  Just because you have little and they have much doesn't mean God is more pleased with them.  To the watching world, Herod had far more wealth than Jesus did.  Yet he was eaten by worms - just like the beasts that perish (Acts 12:20-23).  He was not approved.

Pray for humility at least as much as you pray for support

Once you start assuming that you're humble and that God is pleased, you're well on your way to not being humble and not pleasing God.  In Psalm 49, God granted riches even to the proud.  Their end was not good.

I remember a time when I was struggling to raise a relatively small amount of support.  Despite my best efforts, I just couldn't get it in!  Or when I gained some amount, I'd lose about the same from another donor.  In those times I wanted compassion and understanding from others.  Yet not long thereafter I gained not only what I needed, but an excess!  I was horrified by my sin a few days later when I found myself saying of a struggling fundraiser, "He's obviously not trying very hard!"  Blech!!  I began praying for humility immediately and, unsurprisingly, soon lost some support.  I thanked God for that.  Sure beats dying like the beasts.

Ask trusted friends for their assessment

It's easy for us to be blind to our own motives, fears and sins.  Especially when we're doing especially well or especially poorly.  If the support is pouring in, that's a perfect time to ask others to hold you accountable to prideful boasting.  If the support is trickling in, that's a perfect time to ask others to hold you accountable to prideful complaining.  Wounds from a friend can be trusted (Pr 27:6).  If you don't have someone who will ask you hard questions and call you out on pride and other sins, make that your first order of business.  Don't be caught in your pomp without understanding.

Remember who's doing the work

If you keep in mind that every donor and every dollar comes in by sheer grace, you'll be on much firmer ground than if you assume that you're the one doing it. Yes, God uses you to accomplish His fundraising purposes.  This is to the glory of His name.  But if the glory of your house increases, you'll soon be no better than the beasts that perish - and God will not approve.

What icy roads teach us about fundraising

I commute by bicycle even during the winter months, and while I don't mind the cold, ice is another story.

This morning I was on my way to an early meeting downtown, and I was being especially cautious since the roads and bike paths were in bad shape after a recent ice storm.  I kept a close eye on the road in front of me and made slow, gentle turns.  I was doing great for 3/4 of the trip, but just when I was reaching the end of a semi-maintained bike path, I hit some black ice and went down.  Thankfully I wasn't significantly hurt, so I got up, walked the bike the rest of the path, and was fine for the rest of the ride.

After the meeting I bundled up and began heading back.  I remembered well where that patch of black ice was, so I carefully dismounted beforehand and decided to walk the bike until I was back on stable ground.

That's when I noticed something that astounded me.

As I walked the bike over that patch of black ice, I discovered that it wasn't a "patch" at all.  For probably about 50 yards, the bike path was nothing BUT black ice!  In fact, it was so slippery that I could barely walk the bike, let alone ride it!  Yet... somehow, just a little earlier, I had ridden for 49.5 of those 50 yards without slipping a bit!

I think our fundraising is like that.  Usually when things are going well, we attribute it to something we're doing.  It's our charisma!  Or our diligence!  It may be our zeal or speaking ability or incredibly well-thought-through presentation book!  The reason others have failed where we're succeeding is because they just haven't work as hard at these things as we have!  Self-high-five!

But then, inevitably, it stops working.  Our charisma fails to charm.  Our diligence is replaced by binging on Netflix.  Our zeal fades, our words come out wrong and our presentation book confuses people.  What then?  Do we give up?  Do we try harder?

David helps us in the opening lines of this song:

I waited patiently for the LORD;
    He inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
    and put their trust in the LORD.   (Psalm 40:1-3, ESV)

David was in "the pit of destruction" and his steps felt "insecure".  (Ever felt that way in fundraising?)  How did he respond?  Did he give up?  Did he try harder?  No.  What he chose to do was cry to the LORD and then "waited patiently" until God responded.  In response, God delivered him and made his steps secure.  Furthermore, He gave David a song by which to remember who helped him.  This song in turn causes others to follow David's example.  Others like you and me.

This is helpful in considering both fundraising and riding on black ice!  We're far from "stepping securely".  In fact, as I learned this morning, we may be in a much more precarious position than we even realize.  Our attitude, therefore, should be one of profound thankfulness to God.  Not only does He draw us out of pits when we cry out to Him, but He drew us out of the ultimate pit of hell when not one of us was crying to Him.  He sent Jesus Christ to come while we were yet sinners, He set our feet firmly upon the Rock, and He tells us to go make disciples of all nations that they might put their trust in Him.

When I fell on the last few feet of the path, it was easy to think that God was being cruel.  Rather, He was being exceedingly gracious for an exceedingly long period of time.  And when He did finally permit me to fall, it was not for my destruction but rather for my humility.  He lifted my eyes off of myself and my abilities and had me instead sing a song of His grace to others - so that you too might see, fear, and put your trust in the LORD.

As for me, I am poor and needy,
    but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
    do not delay, O my God!   (Psalm 40:17, ESV)

More than you can handle

Not too long ago I was sharing with a Christian friend about a fundraising-related struggle I was having. In an effort to encourage me, he shared, "Don't worry! God doesn't give you more than you can handle."

My friend was trying to be helpful, so I didn't say anything to that at the time. What I thought, however, was this:

Uh, yeah He does.

Like the mythical verse about "God helping those who help themselves", the whole "God doesn't give you more than you can handle" thing is completely made up. Moreover, both those statements are dangerous because the truth is the exact opposite!

God does give you more than you can handle. He does so so that we can look back on the situation and know with certainty that God was the One who did it - not ourselves. This is especially important in the realm of fundraising: if you enter into fundraising thinking you can handle it, you're going to either crash and burn quickly, or worse yet, have a ministry that looks stunningly similar to that of the Pharisees.

I just read the story of David and Goliath to my 3-year old a few nights ago. As he looked at the picture of the young shepherd standing over the body of the giant, he asked, "Daddy, how come that little rock knock down that biiiiig guy?" I was delighted - that's the exact question God intends us to ask! God had very clearly given David (and all Israel) more than he could handle. How could a few rocks take down an enormous, armor-plated warrior? The answer, of course, is that they couldn't. But God could. And He did.

Indeed, one of the greatest truths of the Bible is that God gives us more than we can handle. This causes us to remain humbly dependent on the One on whom we were meant to be humbly dependent. (A parallel truth is that God doesn't help those who help themselves... He helps those who can't help themselves!) The world calls this foolishness or even slavery. Christians know, however, that there is nothing wiser or more freeing than fulfilling our created purpose: to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

How NOT to be encouraged at a missions conference

Here are some sure-fire ways to NOT be encouraged at a missions conference:

1. Compare your materials, displays, website, family size, character or fundraising status with those of the other missionaries.
2. Wonder if there will be enough room for everyone to gather around your table at once.
3. Bring an extra ream of paper in case your newsletter sign-up lists get filled up.
4. Come ready to thank the pastor for his intimate knowledge of your kids names, hobbies and/or daily responsibilities.
5. Wait eagerly for people to dump money into your lap.
6. Live-tweet the event so your followers needn't be in suspense.
7. Spend the whole time behind a table rather than engaging people.
8. Expect to hear only fully contextualized and insightful Biblical encouragement as though they were spoken by Solomon himself.
9. Ask the missions chair whether you'll be the main speaker today or tomorrow.

Alternatively... here are a couple verses worth meditating on to help counter the list above:

Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips. (Proverbs 27:2)

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)

Watching the numbers

Most blogs, including this one, have a reporting feature that allows you to see how many people have viewed any particular post and when they did so. It can be a useful tool for determining which topics are resonating with your audience and which aren't.

These reports can tend to produce a rather euphoric condition when some posts get significantly more web traffic than average, but the opposite is also true: if there are less page views than normal, it can be a temptation to want to throw in the towel altogether.

Watching your ministry "fund balance" is similar. For many fundraisers, there is one or perhaps a few times each year when your fund balance begins to climb. (This is often around the end of the year, but it may also happen when annual donors send in gifts.) It seems like much of the year, however, the trend is generally downward.

This may be a sign that you need to raise additional support. It may mean that you have delinquent donors to follow up with. Or it may just be that most of your funding comes in spurts, so naturally the rest of the year tends to trend downward. (All three of those things are true of me right now!)

Rather than thinking rationally about those possibilities, however, I usually just react emotionally the moment I see the latest report. If my fund balance is heading upward at that moment, I'm tempted to put my feet up and stop fundraising altogether. "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry!" (Luke 12:19) If it's trending downward, however, I immediately assume that the world is ending. The trajectory will no doubt continue to plummet and I'll end up living in a cardboard box. I'll say to myself, "God has surely forsaken me! Woe, woe to me! I'm going to go from zero to box in 2.7 weeks! All is lost!"

But maybe you're holier than I am. If so, you can move on with your day now. If you ride the same emotional roller-coaster I do, however, let's look together at three Biblical truths that can help us:

You'll never have enough

Billionaire John D. Rockefeller was once asked, "How much money is enough?" He responded, "Just one dollar more." How true! How many page views would truly satisfy me? At what point would I know I had enough funding? Even if I had a truly viral post or received a $1M gift, I'd still keep looking to the next one because the results wouldn't last.

The truth is that deep within all of us is a God-given longing for something more. The question to ask ourselves is, what is that something? Unless your answer is "Jesus Christ", you'll always be left unsatisfied. You'll never have enough.

God loves the rebound

I don't claim to understand this completely, but God loves the rebound. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's turning an upward trend downward or turning a downward trend upward - the Bible is full of God doing both.

Perhaps it's because God is so opposed to the proud but so gracious to the humble (James 4:6) that He causes the strong to be brought low. Perhaps it's because He is glorified when weak men demonstrate His power (1 Cor 1:26-2:5). Perhaps it's because our favorite Bible stories are of the very low skyrocketing to fame, like the armor-less shepherd slaying the giant with a stone or of the unarmed slaves escaping countless Egyptian chariots through a wall of water. Whatever the reason, God loves turning things around. So it shouldn't surprise us when He rebounds our blogging influence or our financial security.

Your value is not in the numbers

"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32) Did you catch that? Jesus emphasizes that the flock was not large but the reward could not be greater. God does not give proportionally as we might expect. That's because our value is not in what we have or what we create or even how many of us there are. Our worth is in His sovereign choice to love us. He decided this before we had anything at all - yes, before we were even born.

The impact of this blog and the state of my fundraising is already known to the Lord and He will accomplish exactly what He wants in exactly the way He wants at exactly the time He wants.  My degree of euphoria or depression as a result of watching the numbers while this take place makes no difference whatsoever.


These are wonderful truths worth considering regularly. May we all have a response of faith to trust in Him next time we see our reports, regardless of which direction they're trending.

Unless this blog entry doesn't go viral. Then I'll throw in the towel ;)

I just want to quit

I've wanted to quit fundraising a bunch of times. Here's a story about the first time.

When I first started fundraising I somehow got the idea in my head that I'd do well at it. I enjoyed meeting new people. I could tell a good story. I rarely worried about money.

That attitude lasted about two months.

Seemingly without warning, I suddenly found myself against a wall. Despite lots of appointments and church speaking opportunities, the support barely came in. People just weren't giving and my list of new contacts shrank down to nearly no one.

So I tried re-reading How to Win Friends and Influence People. I tried contacting everyone I knew about potential referrals. I even tried improving my presentation book and printing it on nicer paper.

I tried just about everything I could think of so as to not need Jesus.

Finally, as I drove home after a particularly discouraging appointment one night, I called out to God in desperation. Through tears I told Him that I couldn't do it anymore. "I just want to quit," I whispered into the dark.

It was at that moment the Holy Spirit convicted me with this question: "Quit what, exactly?"

I thought the answer would be, "I want to quit fundraising!" Instead, I realized that the answer was really, "I want to quit trying to do this myself."

A wave of Scripture washed over me - and with it, a wave of peace. The verse that gave me the most clarity came from James:

"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6 ESV)

For months my pride resulted not only in forfeiture of God's rich, limitless grace but also in the sovereign God of the universe purposefully and personally opposing me. No wonder I wasn't making any headway!

To be clear, my fundraising didn't immediately turn around the next day - but my attitude did. And even more importantly, God's attitude toward me did. In His mercy and wisdom He had been withholding blessing, and then in His mercy and wisdom He gave it freely again.

Your story won't be the same as mine, but your Savior already is. So the next time you feel like quitting, turn to Him.

It may be you want to quit the wrong thing.

Why you're not done fundraising

God is sovereign over all things across all time and space. Nothing has happened or will ever happen without His express will. He actively maintains the movements of subatomic particles while purposing the decrees of kings. He submits to no one. He is never caught off guard. He never lacks anything.

Every beast of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
and all that moves in the field is mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and its fullness are mine.
(Psalm 50:10-12 ESV)

The God of whom this is all true has sent you on a mission - a mission that requires fundraising - and this God is also the one who raises the funds you need.

Because He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, He could finish your fundraising at any time.

So why hasn't He?

We can't give the specific answer to that, "for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?" (Romans 11:34 ESV) However, there are some things we can say with Biblical certainty:

It is NOT because...

• He is unable to do so (Psalm 50:10-12... and basically the whole Bible)
• He is not good (Psalm 16) 
• He is not for you (Romans 8)
• He is disappointed in you (Luke 15:11-24)
• He has abandoned you (Matthew 28:20)

But we can know that more than anything else, God desires that you know, love and become like Jesus. He will do whatever causes you to meet that end. Therefore, the fact that He is withholding some of your funding is because He is showing you Jesus in ways that you could not learn better any other way.

Yes, there will be many more opportunities to know Christ after your fundraising is "done". Yes, you will grow in your love of Christ every day for the rest of your life. Yes, by God's grace you are more like Christ today than you were a year ago. Yet in some special, custom-made-for-you way, God is using your fundraising to glorify Christ more than all those other ways could do. 

Therefore, in addition to frequently praying to God for the funds you need and asking a mentor/friend to give an honest assessment, humbly ask God to continue this good work in you. Pray that you see this time of fundraising as not just about money, but about becoming like Jesus.

Knowing your Savior more is of greater worth than all the cattle - or funding - on a thousand hills.

I can do better than this!

A few years ago while on a fundraising appointment, someone offered me a job.

While honored and somewhat surprised, I wasn't at all prepared for what they told me next: what I'd be paid if I accepted. It was a lot. Definitely more than I was making at the time (and still!)

While I did briefly consider it, I decided not to take the offer. (I was already assigned a mission and didn't think God was leading me elsewhere yet.) But the allure of the offer stuck with me for a while. After all, I could certainly use a bigger paycheck! I could save more, give more, help more and enjoy more! Plus, if I accepted, I'd have more free evenings and weekends rather than filling those times with fundraising... where I'm often rejected and ignored by those I'm trying to reach... and I'm only fundraising so that I can spend my future doing ministry... where I'll often be rejected and ignored by those I'm trying to reach...

"I can do better than this," I thought.

However, the truth is that there have been many, many people - far more skilled and vocationally valuable than me - who have turned down fantastic jobs and much higher paychecks in order to serve the Lord Jesus. And many of them did/do fundraising.

There are lawyers, doctors, CEOs, business consultants, real estate agents, software architects, professional speakers, college professors, air traffic controllers, nuclear engineers, physicists, home builders, politicians and countless others who have traded in their status and paychecks in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So why'd they do it? The Apostle Paul tells us:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)

Jesus deserved more recognition, more pay and more glory than the greatest of all professionals. Yet He emptied Himself. He humiliated Himself. He put on mortal flesh. Then He let us take that flesh from Him on a Roman cross.

So why'd He do it? Paul goes on:

Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:9-11 ESV)

Jesus didn't surrender all rights to glory; He delayed it for something better than this world had to offer.

Fundraiser, you are called to surrender much - just as your Savior did.

You are called to empty yourself so that others might have life in Christ - just as your Savior did.

And someday you will be called to reign in glory - just as your Savior did.

So the next time you find yourself yearning for a high-paying job that promises that you'll never have to empty yourself, remember what your Savior did. And also remember Romans 8:18: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." This world's sufferings are small. This world has nothing better to offer.

You can do better than this!