Why we don't ask (you) for money

I am currently part of a full-time pastoral residency at our local church. The aim (once I am done training) is to be sent out to plant a church. Financial sustenance for our family and seminary costs during this season come 100% through gifts and donations.

We have determined not to solicit anyone for these needed funds. Instead, we make our requests known to God in secret prayer and trust that He will move upon people's hearts and thereby supply our needs. We desire that this would testify that the Lord is alive, His promises are true and He delights when His children come to Him in simple faith.

Below is an explanation of why and how we desire to do this.

The promises of God are precious, very great and pertain to all matters of life and godliness (2 Peter 1:4). The trustworthiness of which we have come to know through our knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ who has called us to share in His own glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3). He has joined us to Himself by His incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death and triumphant resurrection. Being united to Him, then, His divine nature is imparted to us by the indwelling of the Spirit, and in Him all the promises of God find their 'yes' (2 Corinthians 1:20). 

🎶’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word🎶. As we consider the ministry God is calling us to, that old hymn rings sweetly in our hearts. He has shown us both in His word and by His providential dealings with us, that “whoever puts their trust in Him will not be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:6). We believe He is calling us to look directly to His hand in prayer for our daily bread and the supply of all our needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).

It is our ambition, therefore, to cast ourselves like the Psalmists headlong into the promises of God having no backup plan and aiming to have no doubleness of mind (James 1:6). He who spared not his own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how can He not be trusted to feed those who make it their food to do His will (Romans 8:32; John 4:34)?

It is of course true that the ordinary means of grace God uses to provide daily bread is through the free exchange of value for value- some chickens for a goat; five shekels of silver for a piece of gold; a plot of land for a year of labour; one hour for $25; one year for $64,000 and some health benefits.

This is good and no less a means by which the child of God can trust in his Father to provide. We ourselves have fully participated in this economy, and through it our good God has provided for the needs of our family and some beyond our family. But what ought the preacher to charge for His sermon? What ought the pastor to charge the sheep for his shepherding? His ministry of the word and life of intercession has value in this world doesn’t it? Surely. But who set’s the price? Should there be a cover charge to enter the assembly of God’s people, like there is in other venues where one speaks from a platform? Certainly not. So who set’s the price?  

A couple patterns in the Scriptures along with the God-exalting examples of some Christians outside the Bible give shape and words to the disposition of heart and the pattern of life we aim to embody. 

The Levites

First are the Levitical priests. Having oversight in the ministry of the temple was a high privilege. These brothers gave themselves day by day to the service of God and His people. They offered the sacrifices brought by the people, interceded on their behalf, declared the wondrous works of God and attended to God's very presence. How great a privilege to give ones life to this holy service. So great in fact, that God expressly excluded the priests from participating in the wider economy and the possibility of wealth building that such participation held out. Instead, they had far greater an inheritance- “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel” (Numbers 18:20).

None who have seen the glory of God with the eyes of faith or tasted the sweetness of His presence would dare charge Him with shortchanging the Levites. They had the greatest of all beings as their inheritance. The lines fell to them in pleasant places (Psalm 16:6). Not only this, but they had the opportunity to- by their very lives- be a parable of the trust in the LORD that they were calling for from the people they served. They subsisted on the freely given offerings of the people, and therefore trusted in the same Lord they proclaimed, to move upon the hearts of the people to give generously of their yield.

The Apostle Paul

This not only characterized the Levites, but the Apostle Paul too. The chief of sinners having been called out of darkness into the marvellous light of Christ, found his joy and his reward in living and speaking in such a way that the sufficient Saviour would be made manifest in him. “What then is my reward?” He asks. “That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge…” (1 Corinthians 9:18). Paul chose not to take a salary for the worthy work he was doing, though he had every right (1 Corinthians 9:12). The ox is not to be muzzled while it treads out the grain (1 Corinthians 9:9), yet Paul chose to put the muzzle on his own mouth. Maybe this was to illustrate the same truth His master said in John 4:32. From Paul's argument in this chapter, it seems some other Apostles and leaders in the church didn’t share his conviction on this matter. Fine and well. That is no affront to him, nor a rebuke to them. Each one stands and falls before his own master, and on matters of conscience must act in faith (Romans 14:23). 

The Local Church Pastor

But that was Paul, the Apostle. The transient, connected-to-many-churches, skilled-at-tent-making Paul. What about the pastor? The one in the 21st century where mortgages, property taxes, house league sports and grocery stores exist? The one who spends 40-60 hours a week in one building, serving one church?

That same Apostle is helpful on this question too. During his final visit to the church in Ephesus, he addresses the pastors of that local church with some sobering words- “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:33-35)

In the service of the church, the pastors work is limited- he is to give himself to the ministry of the word and prayer (Acts 6:4). But according to Paul’s example to the pastors in Ephesus, their work outside of the church may at times be broadened if needed. That may mean working a part-time job or running a business on the side to make ends meet. The picture he is clearly painting is one where a pastor labours for the glory of God and the building up of the church, and does other work as needed to provide for his family and give to the needy (1 Timothy 5:8; Galatians 2:10).

God's Gift, Mans Gift

This, however, shouldn’t overshadow God’s good design to bless and financially provide for his servants who labour in preaching and teaching. It was to this same Ephesian church that Paul wrote these words- “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The labourer deserves his wages.” (1 Timothy 5:17-18)

God intends that those who are blessed spiritually by the ministers' labour in the Word, share with him the material blessing that comes from their labour in the world (Galatians 6:6). It is a way to show honour and appreciation; it is a way to express tangibly what the heart ought to feel- that the word of God is more precious than money, and the ministry of God’s word is more needful than the extra things or the future savings that one may otherwise put their money toward (Psalm 119:72). 

Our Approach

This brief and general look at a couple examples from the Scriptures encourage our hearts to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” trusting that “all [our] needs will be added to [us]” (Matthew 6:33). We are being invited into the fraternity of minsters, and blessed with a double portion of God’s presence. We desire no other inheritance and long to live in a way that not only speaks of trusting in God for all things earthly and heavenly, but also aims to demonstrate such trust in this way. It is not the only way, and not even the best way for all. For us, however, we believe it to be a way that we are being called to magnify our Lord in this season.

We intend both now and in the future, to solicit no funds and take no salary. Instead we will extend our empty hands and unburden our needy hearts to the one who hears the cries of His people and delights to do them good with all His heart (Philippians 4:6; Psalm 116:1-2; Jeremiah 32:41). We intend to offer that which we have- both here on this site and in our ministry to our local church- as freely as we have received it (1 Corinthians 2:12; 4:7; Matthew 10:8). We will ask the Lord to continue providing all our needs as He has unfailingly done, and we will celebrate and testify of the living God who not only speaks to His sheep but also opens His ear when they speak back (Philippians 4:6,19; John 10).

Though it is our intention not to solicit any funds from anyone but God Himself, we also  acknowledge that God’s ordinary means of responding to such solicitation is through the freely given contributions of those burdened to sustain and promote gospel works. While we don't want to lay any unnecessary burden on anyone by soliciting gifts, we also don’t want to put any unnecessary obstacles in the way of those God has given a heart to contribute. The Israelites knew where the temple was, to which they brought their offerings. The churches knew how and where to send support to the Apostle Paul (Philippians 4:14-18). In this pattern, we have provided information and a means by which people can support us financially if the Lord so moves you.

Our church's elders have approved our financial budget as being sufficient to meet our needs, yet not so much as to tempt toward immoderate living. Any gifts received that go beyond our needs will be forwarded to other gospel ministry.

Our consciences informed by the word of God and prayer have led us to live this way, and we will continue to do so until the Lord persuades us otherwise. Time fails us to speak of the influence of passages such as Matthew 6:33, Psalm 84:11, Matthew 13:44, Hebrews 7:25, Philippians 4:6, Psalm 37:25, and many others. We also find great encouragement from the accounts of brothers like George Müller, Hudson Taylor, Leonard Ravenhill, Paul Washer, Jim Elliff and others. 

We believe that in every generation of the church, Satan schemes to undermine the trust that God’s people ought to place in Him. In our day, it seems like never before that the business world has seeped into the Church. So much reliance on marketing and strategies and fundraisers and think tanks and consultants. It is our aim to live in a way that testifies that prayer and obedience to the Word and Spirit’s leading are truly sufficient.

We make no false pretence of having great faith. We have but 2 small loaves and 5 fish when it comes to faith (Mark 6:41). But these we hold out to the Saviour and ask Him to do what only He can, that it might be seen in us that indeed a tiny mustard seed is enough (Matthew 17:20). We want to carry the torch of Christians who have come before us, like Hudson Taylor who said "God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s supply."

May the words of our mouths and the aroma of our lives be acceptable in your sight and edifying to your people, oh LORD, our rock and our redeemer.