Clearing The Stewardship Smokescreen

This short term mission trip costs about $18,000 for the team.  Is it worth it?  That compassion project will easily run $50,000.  Is it worth it?  Supporting the long term missionary family costs about $120,000 a year.  Is it worth it?  I believe it is usually safest to say that it is worth it--and more than worth it--most of the time.

Don’t Measure the Mission by the Money 

How do we measure worth?  It depends on what work is being accomplished, perhaps uniquely by this team, that project or the missionary family.  It depends on the vision, values and commitments of the congregations involved.  To be honest, it is difficult to assess upfront all that God will cause to fall out in His gracious plans for everyone involved. 

When the question, “Is it worth it?” is brought up, usually that is not the main concern.  It is simply the money, and not the mission.  We devote way more energy to the money matters than the actual mission matters when it comes to doing mission through the local church.  

Some say the money could be better spent supporting long term missionaries, short term teams, national Christians, relief efforts or whatever, and usually the whatever is closely related to the particular mission with which the one complaining is involved.  

Arguments are made about how money could be spent more effectively, strategically, or wisely.  But, we don’t know as much about these things as we think we do, so we don’t need to spend such an inordinate amount of time on them.  

Besides, this assumes that there is a limit to the funds, which there is not.  It also assumes that the goal is more monetary than it really is.  We are to be good stewards of entrusted resources surely; but we are not the stewards of great importance we often claim.

Love the Mission More than the Money

Everyone knows that Americans love their money.  In addition, American Christians also love one another’s money, being ever so eager to advise on the best use of it for God’s work in mission.  In our churches, money discussions can make it look like we are very concerned about the mission, but often it is simply about being involved with the decisions surrounding the use of the money.  

It seems like everyone has a better way to spend the money.  But, money just isn’t that important.  God already owns it all and can move it however and whenever He so desires.  He can work without it and with it . . . and He does!

We are a successful people who also love the Mission of God.  But, we err when we seek to measure spiritual results in human terms and with worldly reasoning on effectiveness, especially cost-effectiveness.  We need to love the mission itself more than the money involved in the mission.

Give More and More and Spend More and More for the Mission

It is more of a privilege to have money and to spend it than we have yet realized.  There is great encouragement all throughout 2 Corinthians 8-9; for example, 

“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. . . . And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. . . . He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”

Who are we doing this for?  Not ourselves, but for the mission goal, for God and His glory.  God gives us money to spend it, not to save it, or pretend that we are so wise in moving His plans forward with our skill at success in this world applied to His mission.  

What if we just spent our money in God’s mission without over-thinking it?  What if we just decided to do mission and spend the money, whatever it costs to get it done?