Part III: Analysis and Implementation (C)

How does a church body determine their support?  We have discussed the “who” or “what” to support, but there needs to be a discussion on how much.

Mission Budget for Local Church - Determine how much your church is engaged in giving to foreign missions.  Most of the studies have concluded that most churches in America give less than 5% of all income to mission causes and less that 2% is dedicated to the unreached/unevangelized people of the world.  The first task of the missions team is to determine how much your local body gives to foreign missions.

Most churches believe that 10% of a Christian’s income, the tithe, is a good standard for faithful giving.  Though the average throughout the Western church giving to missions is a nickel out of every dollar, I would suggest that the missions team move the local church to give a tithe, a dime, to the Great Commission cause.  (My apologies for my bias, but a part of that 10 cents should not include home missions or local evangelistic outreach, but money actually going outside the continental U.S.  If the church desires to support AWANA or a homeless shelter, which they should, then it should be separate from the 10% dedicated to missions). 

Some churches, though admittedly few, take 10% out of every Sunday’s contributions and place that into the mission fund.  That is probably the best way to do it, reminding the congregation every Sunday morning that their contributions truly are used to take the Gospel around town and around the world.  I have one donor church that gives 15% of their monthly income and if the offerings are up, so is my support, and visa-versa.

 Another approach is for the church to have an annual missions budget.  If a church’s annual income is $100,000, between the missions committee (team) and elders a decision is made each year how much will go to missions.  Hopefully, it’s a least $10,000. 

Some churches have what is called Faith Promise for supporting their missionary program.  Each year these churches have a mission conference and at the end of the conference the congregation gives a faith promise pledge (by faith, as the Lord provides, above their tithe and offerings, they will give a certain amount of money to missions.)  In the past it was a very effective way to energize the congregation for the Great Commission.  In today’s world, people often don’t attend mission conferences so this approach is waning.

No matter what method you use in analyzing the missions budget, it is critical for the church to know its global outreach budget.  We believe this is key to business, home and even government finance, to have a budget and work within that budget and I believe it should be true with the church as well.