In a previous thread regarding transparency in providing church info on pastors salary. To prevent hijacking the thread I started a new thread. I would be very interested in your response and opinion, especially from the pastors who post on this siteOne of the posters listed the Church Expense sheet presented to the congregation minus the amount of the pastor’s salary. In reading the expense and income I saw no mention of Missions Income or Expense for supporting missions or mission projects??Is this common for a church this size? I am not sure if the church was COG or AOG?Questions for discussion and to help me better understand what I must do to better communicate opportunities for mission giving to our congregations.1. Does your church have a missions budget?2. How does your church raise that missions budget?3. For COG congregations, since the TOT cut, does the congregation still give to missions and support missionaries?4. As a career missionary I depend on God to supply resources through our congregations on a monthly basis. I am not a one year project but a cross cultural minister that has committed my life and my family’s life to ministering outside the USA in another cultural. Why do so many congregations and pastors only think of missions support as a ONE YEAR commitment? Often a missionary raises the needed support only to arrive on the field of his calling to find some many COG congregations have stopped supporting him after one year!Thank you for participating in this conversation.Denni________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
Our congregation has 4 or 5 set aside offering days throughout the year in order to raise money for missions.The problem I began having is that so many missionaries and other projects are asking for support that it eventually wears out a congregation and they stop giving.Because of that, we focus on supporting one missionary each year (the same each year) and leave some room for a couple of projects as they come up throughout the year (i.e. flooded churches in Louisiana).Instead of inviting other preachers/singers to come and speak or sing at the church, I leave those dates open for church planters or missionaries to come and speak so that we can give them an offering when they come________________[Jesus] will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. – Nicene Creed
Thank you, Pastor Wright. Appreciate the response and God bless you for supporting missions________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
I imagine there are more churches more ‘mission minded’ than others. I was raised in a parsonage where Dad was the pastor, and my mother’s passion was missions. We visit many churches and some we attend it is easy to see an emphasis on missions. It was my mother’s belief that church growth stateside is tied to it’s love for missions.A church will be mission minded usually if the pastor is, that is for sure.One of the first names I learned in regards to missions was Brother Hermann Lauster. I do not know how it was done, but the Lausters received food and gifts from our church while he was in prison. Mother treasured those letters.May God richly bless your work for the Lord. ________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
Thank you, Cojak. Appreciate the responses. As a career missionary in the Church of God I have always struggled with the concept of only supporting a missionary for one year. Somehow we have allowed our churches and pastors to believe that career cross cultural ministers who are assigned overseas only need our support or commitment for one year!?? Also, it is difficult to understand how any congregation or pastor can expect to be effective by not being involved in supporting missions and missionaries. Denni________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
Missions Giving
Hey Thanks, Pastor Wyatt for your mission vision and effort to keep missions before the congregation. The key to guaranteeing funds come in to support missionaries and mission projects is to have a special mission Sunday each month. It also helps to include excerpts from missionary newsletters in the church bulletin, on the weekly prayer list, and on church websites. Often churches will have a mission secretary or local mission rep read a excerpt from a missionary letter before receiving the missions offering. These methods or practices will assure that the mission giving or offering will not take away from the tithes or other church budget needs. Would be interested in how other Pastors do the mission offering and how I as a career missionary can help the pastor or local mission rep keep the mission funds coming into the church. Denni________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
I like this idea. What would, in your opinion, be good monthly support from a smaller Church of God congregation________________[Jesus] will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. – Nicene Creed
Pastor Wright. I am a strong proponent of the small church mission conference! It has proven to be not only effective in raising mission monies but raises excitement within the congregations, has often resulted in increased giving in other areas and in some churches has resulted in an increased attendance. Through the small church conference you allow the congregation to decide by faith how much they will give to missions The pastor, mission secretary or mission committee would decide on a date and speaker for the conference. The conference would begin with a Sunday morning where the pastor would cast his vision and biblical support for evangelism, outreach and mission ministry around the world. The following Saturday evening the church could host an all nations meal and introduce the missionary or guest speaker who would explain that on Sunday Faith Promises (important to note these are not PLEDGES!!) would be received that will determine the next years mission giving. Often the State Missions Director , Regional Missions rep or another local missionary -home or foreign- would be invited to the all nations meal. The host church could make arrangements for them to speak at another location on Sunday morning. The host church might consider providing one nights lodging to help with the travel if coming a long distance On Sunday morning the guest speaker work share and minister an inspirational and challenging message about missions. He would also emphasize the Faith Promise method of giving (not PLEDGES). It is best to use wisdom here and not bring in a ‘high profile speaker’ who is going to focus on the emotional and urgent need of their own ministry. The guest speaker is there to help the church raise a mission budget not there to raise his own funds or special project. He is there for the pastor and congregation. After a month or so, and after evaluating the response of the congregation and the amount of money that came in from the first mission offering, the pastor or mission committee could then make a decision on the amount of support and the number of missionaries or mission projects they want to be involved in. If only 1200$ for the year had been promised. And in the first offering over 150$ came in for missions then the pastor or mission committee could make a decision to support 2-3missionaries and/or a project for $15-25 a month each. Or one missionary at $75 a month. After 6 months another evaluation could be made. But in the end and in answer to your question, it would be the congregation who decides how much to give and the pastor or mission committee decide on distribution of funds________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
Re: If you were referring to my list
Thank you Brother James. I agree missions is across the street and around the world. We can’t focus on the world and ignore our community. You have presented a very healthy and generous missions ministry and Visio at your local church. So many congregations have no concept of local or foreign mission responsibility. Up until a few years ago, so many pastors and congregations in the Church of God were content to give only a portion of the TOT to missions and provided no other funding. One mission rep reported that about 50% of our churches never gave more than a portion of the TOT to missions either home or foreign. The past administration and the current COGWM administration have done much to re-educate our pastors and congregations on the vital importance of giving regularly and faithfully to missions________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
[quote=brotherjames]Of income and expenses, I said it only included on what I posted, general operations expenses and income. I believe those that live on the tithe and churches that receive tithes should at the very least, tithe to missions an amount that equals at least 10 percent of the general operation income. The kicker is what is missions? Missions in my mind includes not only foreign missions but home missions, local evangelism and benevolence (like food pantries etc) .we gave over 18 percent last year in total missions giving about 77000.[/quote]Thanks brotherjames for a thought provoking message and faithful leadership in missions support. I have a question for you and others. God led us to revive a city church (just about the whole congregation had personal financial challenges) that was left with no money and in dire need of major repairs. We give over 10% to missions when when in reality many ministries in better situations receive support. We do include home missions such as Teen Challenge, the local city mission etc. as part of out missions budget.When one considers local evangelism as part of missions would that include the honorarium or love offering for an evangelist? How about the hotel, food, traveling expenses etc? We don’t feel led to use many evangelists and normally use local people that I know and trust. However, we know a husband/wife team that are retired pastors who really know the real move of the Holy Spirit and feel a connection with them. Our desire is to have them in at least twice a year and perhaps more often. We do fundraisers to help our missions budget budget because most of our church are hard working blue collar people on combined incomes of $60,000 or less and widows on social security.
Evangelistic outreach to the community, I would include all the expenses of the outreach including honorariums, housing, travel etc. Along with any fees, rental costs as part of missions expenses. We do 2 major outreaches every year (at Halloween and Easter) and we include those costs in our missions expenses. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth is our mandate. Across the street and across the world. It’s all missions. I preach crusade every year in various countries. The funds we raise and spend for those are also included. I however receive income from outside sources and thee monies and expenses are detailed in different reports. But it’s all missions.
Excellent Brother James! I agree.I hope this conversation continues and expands. it would be great to hear how other Pastors and congregations do missions. I believe our sharing and testimonies of mission ministry will encourage and strengthen other churches to be more involved. If the Church is to grow then the Church must reach out and go!Denni________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
I have been involved in Cross Cultural Ministry outside the USA since 1984, over 33 years. I have been appointed as a full time career missionary with the Church of God World Missions since 2002, 15 years. Would any of the pastors or COGWM donors like to comment on the COGWM tradition or practice of only committing to support a mission project or career missionary for one year?I feel that many pastors and churches have missed an opportunity to have long term relationship and involvement with church planting, ministerial training, discipleship, and reaching the unreached through men and women who have committed their lives to living outside the USA and preach the Gospel. I also have a concern, that I have expressed to our leaders and others, that we do not have many COG young people responding to the Call of God for cross cultural ministry. Many of our COG congregations do not provide opportunities or encourage our young people to be involved in long term missions or to consider a life time career as a cross cultural minister living outside the USA________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
[quote=Dentanner][quote=brotherjames]Evangelistic outreach to the community, I would include all the expenses of the outreach including honorariums, housing, travel etc. Along with any fees, rental costs as part of missions expenses. We do 2 major outreaches every year (at Halloween and Easter) and we include those costs in our missions expenses. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth is our mandate. Across the street and across the world. It’s all missions. I preach crusade every year in various countries. The funds we raise and spend for those are also included. I however receive income from outside sources and thee monies and expenses are detailed in different reports. But it’s all missions.But some evangelists are really just revivalists. We have good meetings, some.might even get saved but that’s not really missions. I don’t include guest speakers even though the meetings are open to the public.[/quote]Excellent Brother James! I agree.I hope this conversation continues and expands. it would be great to hear how other Pastors and congregations do missions. I believe our sharing and testimonies of mission ministry will encourage and strengthen other churches to be more involved. If the Church is to grow then the Church must reach out and go!Dennis[/quote]
Preacher777, I think any effort that involves going out and preaching the gospel to people on the streets, the inner city, or establishing places of refuge can be listed as Mission ministry. I would qualify Missions as home missions and foreign missions. On the previous thought about revivalist, if we are bringing in someone to revive the congregation, a teaching ministry or any ministry directed toward Believers, then I think it could be stretching the idea of missions… There are many unreached people in our USA inner cities. The more refugees who arrive in our large cities present even greater opportunities to reach unreached people! As a pastor in Downriver Detroit almost 40 years ago I had a young adult couple come in to one of our service. They lived on the streets and confessed to having no knowledge of Jesus Christ, Salvation or hope of a future….. I classify any effort to reach them as part of missions!I commend you for your missions giving. !0 to 13% giving to missions, above the TOT (Church of God) is reasonable and in many churches very generous! Thank You!!! Denni________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
I’m very thankful for this thread and the openness with which you have discussed with the board, Bro. Tanner. I hope that this discussion on missions will continue with more getting involved________________[Jesus] will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. – Nicene Creed
Support of Missionaries and cross cultural ministries must be an intentional-planned and with a purpose-ministry of the Church! The Great Commission is God’s mandate for the church. If we ignore it and get lost on inward focusing ministries we lose—cease to grow–and eventually end up with a small group only concerned with the building and personal needs________________Dennis TannerAdministrative Bishop Scotland
We do a monthly missions offering and at that time share testimonies from some of the missionaries we support. Some people don’t have fiances but do have time so we do varied fundraisers for missions.