Window On The World
From Randal Dick, superintendent of missions

Response to
pastor’s question:
Congregations’ role
in mission

Below is a message from a U.S. WCG pastor who asks a fair and important question. I have received others too. This tells me that these issues are increasingly on people’s minds, so I decided to, with the pastor’s permission, print his letter and let all of you consider the issues.

Hi Randal:

I have a question on donating to missions. Soon U.S. congregations will be handling finances in their local church and giving a portion to the denomination. As I look at our monthly local church financial report, I see that there is a potential of the local church (after apportionment, pastor’s salary and expenses, hall rental and local assistance) having a surplus to play with in some months.

Part of that surplus, I feel, should go for mission work in our community and to mission work abroad. Through various contacts, I am getting mail from Indian and other Asian mission associations looking for funds.

Before I start interesting the congregation in donating to this or that mission association, I want to know what would be the appropriateness of doing this in the WCG. Should we be supporting the mission work of our denomination first?

I read in the February WN that we have four churches in India (yet the article had no solicitation for funds). Does that mean that the WCG churches in India do not need funds? Should I encourage the church to give to other individual and para-church missionary organizations?

From past experience I know that they would give our church monthly (or quarterly) updates on how our money is being used.

Just giving to the denomination’s mission fund would be far less personal. To inspire the church to greater giving, the congregation should get an occasional letter from the missionary or organization to tell us what has been done with the money our church has donated.

Your thoughts would be appreciated. I want to know how to answer these requests for funds.

Sincerely,
U.S. WCG Church Pastor

 Dear Pastor,

Thanks for writing. Allow me to elaborate on the high quality of the current WCG mission.

 Does the WCG have an effective denominational mission program?

The short answer to your question is yes. I think we should support the mission work that God has given our fellowship—first at home, while reserving a portion for the gospel work being done by WCG fellow servants in other parts of the world.

We take Jesus’ priorities seriously. He made his priorities plain and unequivocal—he came to save people. Any other endeavor should be secondary to this imperative. 

We try to show compassion wherever possible, but we know that even an outright pagan can feed the hungry, provide for orphans, clothe the naked—and many do. But only a born again Christian can serve as the instrument that Christ will use in leading the lost to Jesus. That puts the onus on us to stay focused on the core mission that Christ called us to: Mission that results in a) people being brought from death to life; b) formation of spiritual community; c) equipping spiritual community to reproduce itself. 

One of the most valuable WCG blessings is our worldwide fellowship—brothers and sisters scattered like salt—accessible to most nations of the earth. This is a tremendous asset.

When a mission is established, it is supposed to be because there is no established community of be­lievers in that place. This is an expensive undertaking. It can easily cost $50,000 per year to send and keep a full-time trained mission presence. But chances are the WCG already has people there who are fired up to be trained and released to spread the gospel and plant churches. That’s what we do.

We carry the message of eternal life, form and equip communities of believers. We don’t run hospitals, we don’t run orphanages (although many of our local congregations respond to the need in their area with Christ’s compassion).

Our job as a denominational mission is to see to it that disciples are being made and brought into community whenever and wherever Christ wants. Once discipled, that community begins to show compassion all around them, while they also make more disciples. That gives the best spiritual bang for the mission buck. It is closest to the heart and command of Christ—and our little denomination packs a punch far above its weight class in this area.

 Should we be supporting the work of the WCG mission?

The answer to that question de­pends on your perception of whether there is divine purpose in the WCG being a fellowship or whether we just “evolved.” If all that we are is merely a result of time and chance, then we should feel perfectly free to support or not support the work of the denomination of which we are a part.

But most of us believe we have been placed in community intentionally by Christ, to serve his purpose. As his fellow-servants, it would seem that we have an obligation first and foremost to the household to which he has called us, to resource the specific tasks he gives us to fulfill. 

I want to alert you to a major change—we no longer provide a direct subsidy to overseas churches. WCG world mission does not support offices, administrators or expensive facilities. The denominational mission team has been in a process of restructuring from administration to where we actually carry out the same type of work that early apostles did. We go into an area that we perceive the Holy Spirit seems to be drawing us to respond and to serve (Acts 13).

We teach and preach, as did Paul, until the leadership potential begins to manifest itself. We work with those emerging leaders until there is both solid local leadership as well as enough training and maturity in that place to enable the new members to continue to extend the gospel outward without further assistance from the mission developer.

Christ has used us in his harvest. In 2003, 19 new congregations were planted outside the United States. These congregations are mostly in places where the gospel would not have taken root if believers had not made it possible by resourcing the ones carrying the message.

 You said, “The congregation should get an occasional letter from the missionary or organization to tell us what he is doing with the money.”

This is an issue of stewardship and accountability: You didn’t use these words, but I will, because it seems that people are asking that a) we be good stewards of their hard-earned re­sources; b) the decisions about how the money is used are made using sound biblical and strategic criteria; c) we report consistently and give feedback so that the givers can share in the joy of salvation and give glory to God.

Even now, our mission team is building the communication pipe­lines and the accountability structure to support that commitment.

I don’t mean it as an excuse or a condemnation to say that our historic form of governance was deficient in two-way accountability. Pastor General Joseph Tkach has asked that we change this and be­come accountable fellow servants. Part of our journey of transformation has been to understand that funding Christian projects was not about getting people to give. Rather our role is about being a high integrity pipeline for what God is doing in the hearts of his people.

God owns all resources and in turn places them with people. He then moves individual hearts to desire to participate in a particular aspect of his work. 

The mission team and I recognize that when we accept resources from members or congregations that we are stewards to make those people able to participate vicariously in the spreading of the gospel—even though they cannot quit their jobs, leave their families and go to difficult places to plant communities of believers. It is the giver and God who are the key players, we are just the middle men.

When you get a chance, review 2 Corinthians 9 in light of this principle. Paul seems to be talking about an ongoing cycle of edification and glorification that Jesus loves to see. The giver gives to the glory of God. The receiver who uses the resource is edified. God is glorified. Paul says Christ gives seed to the sower, to empower this cycle to continue—in each step someone is edified and Christ is glorified by the process.

Your point regarding the need for reporting to the congregations is both corrective and legitimate. I accept that correction and am happy to say that this has already begun to change. We will not stop until members are excited to be a part of what Christ is doing in this fellowship.

In next month’s Windows column I plan to respond to another pastor’s request to spell out how a person or a congregation can be involved with WCG mission. I will talk more about where we feel resources are needed. 

I hope this response has been as helpful for you as your letter was of value to me. I will look forward to your response, and am happy to discuss any follow-up questions.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2004