Editorial: What Cost Promotion?

by Jim Reapsome

The cost of promotion is going up. Postage and paper are leading the way. There is no indication that things will ever again be cheaper.

The cost of promotion is going up. Postage and paper are leading the way. There is no indication that things will ever again be cheaper.

But what many missions are finding is that the whole fundraising apparatus is taking more and more of the donor’s dollar. The field is intensively competitive and it is becoming more and more specialized.

We not only have many candidates going to churches for support, we also have field men, deferred giving specialists, annuity specialists, and media specialists concentrating on getting more money for missions. The home office, in some cases, is becoming geared to this kind of huge investment in manpower and money to raise more money.

This is perhaps unavoidable, for most missionaries are needing more support in view of world-wide inflation. Institutional costs are skyrocketing. Land is prohibitive in many parts of the world. Missions are locked in to the world’s overall economic patterns. The missionary himself looks down the road and wonders how much his retirement will cost, and what it will cost to educate his children.

The economic factor lurks continually in the background of even our most supposedly "spiritual" decisions. Of course, money and discipleship are inseparably linked in the New Testament, so this should not surprise us.

On the other hand, how can the mission board and the missionary himself be delivered from oppressive bondage to money concerns? It begins with our Lord’s revolutionary concept that if you seek God’s kingdom first, the necessities will be taken care of by our Father in heaven. But do we go from there and say that missions should not promote to raise money? Should we concentrate on the Great Commission and let the Lord concentrate on moving Christians to give?

Over the years some missionary and other Christian ministries have thought it was indeed correct to make only prayer requests, but never to ask for money. But it became apparent. that as some groups tried to follow this practice, hypocrisy was hard to avoid. Asking for prayer became a subtle way of asking for money.

But many missionary candidates still find it hard to come right out and ask for money. And God has raised up support for countless hundreds of missionaries who have simply asked for prayer. But it seems today that the pendulum is swinging the other way. In some quarters, we are becoming technical experts in fund-raising. The appeals are becoming more and more overt, using the best of presentations at churches, dinners, and through the mail.

Of course, the fund-raisers will say that unless the money comes in, there will be no missionary work. Which is absolutely correct. But is there not a place for counting the cost of promotion, even as we count the cost of other things we do in Christian work?

Must fund-raising-whether by the candidate or by a team of experts in the home office-never be called to account for the way it is done? I do not believe we are on safe spiritual ground if we fail to ask how we are raising money for missions.

Are the needs so great today that it requires the efforts of more and more people on the home side to get Christians to give their money to the Lord’s work? Many pastors are beginning to question seriously the constant bombardment of appeals. How to sort them out becomes virtually impossible.

By all means, we cannot say that just because a "need" exists somewhere, we have to crank out a new promotion to meet it. More and more Christians are beginning to question so many critical "needs."

Our temptation is likely to intensify in the future as costs go up and inflation hits the Christian wage-earner. This only means that we must be even more scrupulous and circumspect in the way we appeal to these people for their money. They give it to the Lord, but every missions promoter is accountable to God for the way he raises it.

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