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How many Baptist missionaries do your church personally supports


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I believe that all biblical Bible preaching churches should support personally at least one or more missionaries. Not sending love offerings to some cloud in the air somewhere, where others make decisions on what to do with those funds. I know independent Baptist churches do support personally missionaries and they come to visit the church, with their reports and fundraising. Other churches like the Southern Baptist church receive funds from many small churches to support missionaries, it sounds good but if you never really know the results of your love offerings, it’s not the same thing.

what do you think?

Bugs Bunny Money GIF by Looney Tunes

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Since we just started missions not too long ago, we currently support 3. and we're adding a 4th and 5th soon.

Each church has it's own philosophy, ours it to support less with more money, then support more with little money. 

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5 minutes ago, E Morales said:

I believe that all biblical Bible preaching churches should support personally at least one or more missionaries. Not sending love offerings to some cloud in the air somewhere, where others make decisions on what to do with those funds. I know independent Baptist churches do support personally missionaries and they come to visit the church, with their reports and fundraising. Other churches like the Southern Baptist church receive funds from many small churches to support missionaries, it sounds good but if you never really know the results of your love offerings, it’s not the same thing.

what do you think?

Bugs Bunny Money GIF by Looney Tunes

I'm in a SBC church now, and we give to the cooperative. We don't choose our missionaries individually, but give the money through the cooperative to send MORE missionaries to the field quicker so that they don't have to spend years gaining support through individual churches. It's sometimes a good thing, and there are many good missionaries that have been sent, but there are some who shouldn't have been sent as well. That being said, I've seen good and bad missionaries sent through IFB churches as well, though the people trying to get to the missionfield have to go to each individual church to raise support. Some of these people wishing to be missionaries are deceptive, sad to say...though most are sincere and want to spread the gospel. I believe the premise of your question is wrong. I'm personally not a fan of the cooperative, but we DO get reports on  how the missionaries the cooperative supports are doing, and what is being preached. 

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3 minutes ago, BrotherTony said:

I'm in a SBC church now, and we give to the cooperative. We don't choose our missionaries individually, but give the money through the cooperative to send MORE missionaries to the field quicker so that they don't have to spend years gaining support through individual churches. It's sometimes a good thing, and there are many good missionaries that have been sent, but there are some who shouldn't have been sent as well. That being said, I've seen good and bad missionaries sent through IFB churches as well, though the people trying to get to the missionfield have to go to each individual church to raise support. Some of these people wishing to be missionaries are deceptive, sad to say...though most are sincere and want to spread the gospel. I believe the premise of your question is wrong. I'm personally not a fan of the cooperative, but we DO get reports on  how the missionaries the cooperative supports are doing, and what is being preached. 

Are these missionary reports shared with the members of the church also? Because  I’ve been in southern Baptist churches where I never hear the results for missionaries support. Just a general report that says your offering is going to a good cause. This is not enough in my opinion.

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11 minutes ago, E Morales said:

Are these missionary reports shared with the members of the church also? Because  I’ve been in southern Baptist churches where I never hear the results for missionaries support. Just a general report that says your offering is going to a good cause. This is not enough in my opinion.

Uh, ya! They have to be...Some people just don't seem to know how the SBC operates...the SBC churches are all INDEPENDENT (autuonomous) churches. They cooperate in missions only, and that through volluntary participation in the cooperation of missions. Each church reports to their members what the missionaries are doing, what they are preaching, and the churches can direct their monies sent to certain missionaries if they desire. Maybe you should study the SBC a bit more before you start casting dispearsions on it. That's one thing that yanks my crank about certain sects of Baptists...they try to make the SBC churches seem like they're joined together at the hip like a denomination...and that is clearly not the case! 

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Yes, we have a batch. 


I agree with BroMatt… less is more. I’ve seen churches in the states that gave $25/month - or even $10/month!! Maybe in 1969 that was worth something, but what a waste of time and resources for missionaries to have to raise support in such miserly increments. 
 

One thing I can’t figure out is why our churches haven’t moved more toward electronic transfers for missions support. We had a couple local missionaries that our church served as the distributor for. Supporters would send Cheques to our church, which had to be mailed, deposited, recut, and mailed again. Electronic would be soooo much quicker for getting funds to missionaries in the field. 

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36 minutes ago, Salyan said:

One thing I can’t figure out is why our churches haven’t moved more toward electronic transfers for missions support. We had a couple local missionaries that our church served as the distributor for. Supporters would send Cheques to our church, which had to be mailed, deposited, recut, and mailed again. Electronic would be soooo much quicker for getting funds to missionaries in the field. 

None of our missionaries yet has asked for electronic transfer, but we do have it set up with our bank to automatically mail the checkouts out every week. Most banks (at least here) do this free of charge.

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There are places in the world where missionaries cannot get or cash checks and there is no such thing as electronic transfers. Far East Russia is such a place. We had two missionary families that went out together. We were their "sending church". The only way to support them was cash. This could prove difficult to impossible. But we were fortunate in that, we had a commercial airline pilot offer to hand deliver our support, whether it be cash or other needful thigs that could not be purchased there.

The Lord opened the door for us and he offered to take the support on a regular basis, since his work put him in Magadan on a rigid schedule. Our missionaries operated that way for five years and established two Independent Baptist Churches. This was only one of the miracles that God performed in support of His work in Far East Russia.

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5 hours ago, BrotherTony said:

Uh, ya! They have to be...Some people just don't seem to know how the SBC operates...the SBC churches are all INDEPENDENT (autuonomous) churches. They cooperate in missions only, and that through volluntary participation in the cooperation of missions. Each church reports to their members what the missionaries are doing, what they are preaching, and the churches can direct their monies sent to certain missionaries if they desire. Maybe you should study the SBC a bit more before you start casting dispearsions on it. That's one thing that yanks my crank about certain sects of Baptists...they try to make the SBC churches seem like they're joined together at the hip like a denomination...and that is clearly not the case! 

I guess we can do a poll asking do your church delivers missionary reports to its members. I’m not talking about financial reports. I’m just talking about knowing who you’re supporting what they’re doing how many people have been led to Christ, and things like that. It’s just very encouraging and even making a person wanna do more when you’re a part of it. I don’t want to hear that the budget this year is $150 million, this does not make cents. I know I spelled  sense wrong. I’d rather hear the $200 I sent help a missionary repair the roof, or the restrooms buy Bibles, or microphones, speakers anything to help.

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41 minutes ago, E Morales said:

I guess we can do a poll asking do your church delivers missionary reports to its members. I’m not talking about financial reports. I’m just talking about knowing who you’re supporting what they’re doing how many people have been led to Christ, and things like that. It’s just very encouraging and even making a person wanna do more when you’re a part of it. I don’t want to hear that the budget this year is $150 million, this does not make cents. I know I spelled  sense wrong. I’d rather hear the $200 I sent help a missionary repair the roof, or the restrooms buy Bibles, or microphones, speakers anything to help.

Ours aren't financial reports. They are reports on converts, activities, etc. Don't know where you got the idea that they''re just financial reports, but, if that's what you believe, you're incorrect.

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7 hours ago, BrotherTony said:

Uh, ya! They have to be...Some people just don't seem to know how the SBC operates...the SBC churches are all INDEPENDENT (autuonomous) churches. They cooperate in missions only, and that through volluntary participation in the cooperation of missions. Each church reports to their members what the missionaries are doing, what they are preaching, and the churches can direct their monies sent to certain missionaries if they desire. Maybe you should study the SBC a bit more before you start casting dispearsions on it. That's one thing that yanks my crank about certain sects of Baptists...they try to make the SBC churches seem like they're joined together at the hip like a denomination...and that is clearly not the case! 

I don't know everything there is to know regarding SBC churches Bro. Tony. But in the matter of missionary support I know that unlike Independent Baptist churches I have been a member of; the SBC, through the IMB, siphon off some of the missionary support for administrative expense, as well as salary for employees and infrastructure, such as, building and office space purchase or rent.

My experience in the churches I have been a member of is that we send our support to the sending church, which in turn sends the whole directly to the missionary. I personally believe that conventions and mission boards are unscriptural.

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4 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

I don't know everything there is to know regarding SBC churches Bro. Tony. But in the matter of missionary support I know that unlike Independent Baptist churches I have been a member of; the SBC, through the IMB, siphon off some of the missionary support for administrative expense, as well as salary for employees and infrastructure, such as, building and office space purchase or rent.

My experience in the churches I have been a member of is that we send our support to the sending church, which in turn sends the whole directly to the missionary. I personally believe that conventions and mission boards are unscriptural.

Are they? I don't find anywhere in Scripture where these expenses cannot be used in that fashion. Those who go out under the SBC banner know about these expenses and agree to them. So, that would be between them, the IMB/NAMB and  God. The churches have agreed to these expenses by sending the monies tot these entities to direct the giving to the missionaries. They shouldn't have to do this work for free.  Granted, I don't like the idea of costs being deducted from the monies sent, but there is a price to pay for them. I personally don't like the percentage that goes to them, especially since it's increased over the 21 years since we've been in SBC churches. I've made a point of making this known in the churches we've been in since we joined. Some churches have taken it to heart and sent the monies directly to the missionary instead of to the IMB or the NAMB. 

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22 hours ago, PastorMatt said:

Since we just started missions not too long ago, we currently support 3. and we're adding a 4th and 5th soon.

Each church has it's own philosophy, ours it to support less with more money, then support more with little money. 

Totally agree with your philosophy. It certainly would cost both local churches and missionaries less money in the long run, and also would make furloughs easier. Also makes it easier for your church to actually mentally keep up with your supported missionaries. a lot easier to keep up with 5 missionaries at say 300 a month than 20 missionaries at 75 a month. 

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