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Questions about deputation


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7 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

HC, am am a bit puzzled where you said;  "Not every church can handle something like that". For a sending  church to collect offerings and disperse them to a missionary is not a hardship, it is no different than paying bills like electric and heat. If a church has a treasurer it would be a small thing for them to cut a check for their missionary each month, just like they would do for any missionary they support.

Granted, missionary support should be held in a separate account so there is no co-mingling of monies, but it isn't hard to do. There may even be cases where churches send directly to the missionary, but my experience has been where mission support is sent to the sending church and they disperse it.

Of course I may be misunderstanding what, or why you said that. It's 2:30 am here and I'm probably not at my best.

Salyan pretty well summed it up. There is much more to it than simply collecting the offerings and dispersing them. The sending church that also takes care of the monies is not just a money conduit. 

The church we used to attend is quite a large church. The pastor and staff decided to handle things directly with several of their missionaries. They had a secretary who basically did nothing but the missions stuff. And it was a LOT of work. By the time we were looking at going to Ireland, the pastor had decided not to be the "clearinghouse" for any more missionaries - even though sent out of the church. That is why he only recommended FBWWM (he had quite a bit of experience with other boards...including one major one which, when he had to pull a missionary from the field due to some serious sin problems, that board ignored what he said and took the missionary on...FBWWM does not do that. They do what the pastor says.). I talked with the lady who had been doing the work...she explained to me just a little bit of what she had to do, and believe me it was more than just collecting and dispersing. It is in all actuality a lot different from paying bills. 

Our church is quite small, and so the pool of workers is not large. The 2 ladies who count the $ and do the reports are quite good at what they do. Both have in the past been involved in jobs where they were required to do the finances. One of those ladies is my mom. As I said, she is good. But she is also going to be 80 years old this spring, and there are issues just based on her age. And so, when it is time to do financial reports, a lot of my time is spent helping her. Do I mind that? Of course not. But it does cause issues when I am in the middle of schooling my niece or doing other needed church work and have to stop for an hour (or usually more - for several days) to help my mom. There is no way, no way, she could handle the work needed for us to be the complete package for a missionary. Neither could the other lady, who is on her way to 70 years old and has a lot of health issues personally and with her family (her daughter is terminally ill and requires a lot of her attention).  I do not like messing with finances. I could do it if I had to, but I honestly do not want to because I don't like it  LOL (and I think it's better if the pastor's wife isn't the one doing the counting/depositing, etc.). And there is no way I want to get into having to be involved in the legal work required, the tax returns (because that is something the church we attended did and does do for the missionaries for whom they disperse monies), etc., etc. I am very busy with what I have to do and honestly cannot take on something like that. That might sound like a cop-out, but it isn't.  Now that my niece is gearing up to graduate, I will have "free time," but that is a vacuum that will be quickly filled with other responsibilities for church (already in the wings, waiting for me).

I give honor where it is due to those who answer the call to the foreign field. There are days when I wonder where life would be for us right now had we gone on to Ireland (we know now it wasn't God's will, but our experience sure has given us some understanding of what missionaries go through as they gear up for deputation). I don't regret not going, for sure (well, I would LOVE to visit Ireland...maybe one day =D ). Whether a missionary goes through a board or their church sends them completely, or they go through a clearinghouse, I'm glad they're on the field. 

(BTW - I just wanted to say that we truly appreciated candidate school. They have veteran missionaries come in to teach the noobs about things that you and I just don't think about needing to learn or be aware of. It's actually a good resource.)

 

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57 minutes ago, Anthony John Thornton said:

Alberta, Canada? If so, I believe the Lord to be possibly calling me there. 

Yes! Really? That would be very cool. There's a lot of empty spaces between churches up here. Any particular area?

I don't know whether you have contacts up here already, but I can give you some contacts if you'd like, or steer you toward any western Canadian events that may be useful to attend (if you come for a survey trip). Our church has done some church planting - we've reproduced five Alberta churches over the past twenty years or so - and our pastor emeritus, Dave Harness, serves on the board of the Baptist Church Planting Ministry Canada. About ten years ago, we got to help a US missionary coming to Alberta by being their home base for a year while they got acclimatized to Alberta, and then helped with the new church plant. I still go visit them in Hinton any chance I get. 

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3 minutes ago, Salyan said:

Yes! Really? That would be very cool. There's a lot of empty spaces between churches up here. Any particular area?

I don't know whether you have contacts up here already, but I can give you some contacts if you'd like, or steer you toward any western Canadian events that may be useful to attend (if you come for a survey trip). Our church has done some church planting - we've reproduced five Alberta churches over the past twenty years or so - and our pastor emeritus, Dave Harness, serves on the board of the Baptist Church Planting Ministry Canada. About ten years ago, we got to help a US missionary coming to Alberta by being their home base for a year while they got acclimatized to Alberta, and then helped with the new church plant. I still go visit them in Hinton any chance I get. 

What an incredible blessing on all fronts! Any information would be invaluable! I have no contacts but some I will be contacting soon. I have had, on my mind, Calgary. The Drop-In Rehab Centre (Center lol) is located in Calgary, and I believe that to be an incredible segue into giving the Gospel AND being a servant. Old Paths Baptist Church is a church I plan to contact soon. I'd go on deputation, link up with a church in the area, work with them, and perhaps begin a church plant in due time. The other thing that I believe the Lord is leading me towards is teaching, in a literal sense. It could very well end up as both. The Lord's will be done! 

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Salyan and HC. Thanks for your detailed explanation. My experience in this area has been very limited, mainly to the church I was a member of in Alaska. In that instance many of the things you outlined were taken care of exclusively by the missionary. If our missionaries wanted or needed things such as health insurance or retirement they provided for those things themselves. It was the same with any taxes.

I do agree that outside of the U.S. in a foreign country it could get complicated, but I have no idea about that simply because each country may be unique in that respect.

Thanks again for your explanation, I learned something.

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I'm a missionary sent out of my local church.  My home church receives and handles all my support and transfer funds to me as needed (bi-monthly set amount or as I request additional funds). My church set up a bank account with my name on it, but the finance team has access to it so they can transfer the funds as needed. Other than that they don't touch the money in that account.  The church handles my income tax forms and helped with the legal paperwork that I needed to get my missionary visa, and as it was a learning experience for both the church and myself, there were some hiccups along the way as we learned what each of our legal responsibilities were. 

Whether a missionary chooses to go through a board, clearinghouse, or local church, they should put a lot of prayer into that decision and allow God to direct their steps.

 

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10 hours ago, Rebecca said:

I'm a missionary sent out of my local church.  My home church receives and handles all my support and transfer funds to me as needed (bi-monthly set amount or as I request additional funds). My church set up a bank account with my name on it, but the finance team has access to it so they can transfer the funds as needed. Other than that they don't touch the money in that account.  The church handles my income tax forms and helped with the legal paperwork that I needed to get my missionary visa, and as it was a learning experience for both the church and myself, there were some hiccups along the way as we learned what each of our legal responsibilities were. 

Whether a missionary chooses to go through a board, clearinghouse, or local church, they should put a lot of prayer into that decision and allow God to direct their steps.

 

Did you find receiving support difficult? 

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15 hours ago, Anthony John Thornton said:

Did you find receiving support difficult? 

Yes, but not in the area of being sent out of my local church. As I went out on deputation and later furlough, the vast majority of pastors I talked with were very pleased with my decision to go through my local church and not a board. I primarily visited churches located in the midwest and Michigan, so I'm not sure what pastors elsewhere in the country would say about it. As far as my church being able to send me finances as we have it set up, it has not been an issue once we figured out how to transfer the funds. 

Although I don't know the legal differences -if any- between Alberta and Ontario concerning missionary visas, I know a missionary family in Toronto, Canada you might want to get in touch with, they may be able to speak to you about how to come to Canada as a missionary or any other questions you may have concerning boards (I believe they went out of BIMI). I hope it helps.

Cory and April McTague email: (messaged)

Edited by Salyan
edited to hide email address from bots
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