The Realities of Money and Missions

Global Challenges and Case Studies

• Editorial: William Carey Publishing
• Año: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781645083054
• Categoría: Teología y religión
• Categoría: Ministerio cristiano

Integrity, Viability, and Accountability Perhaps there is no greater challenge in missions than money. Paul reminds us, "For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man" (2 Cor. 8: 21). Money sufficient to assure the viability of one's life work carries with it an insidious ethical virus that can easily infect the integrity and accountability of its stewards. The Realities of Money & Missions provides a unique level of credibility and transparency as it calls for evangelicals to reevaluate their relationship with money, both personally and corporately. Global case studies, workshops, and testimonials cover a broad range of topics such as: Misalignment between fiscal theology and practice Environmental stewardship, community development, and business as mission Mobilization, fundraising practices, and "faith financing" Short-term missions, patronage, and dependency Power dynamics and structural injustice The Realities of Money & Missions was not written by experts in the fields of investment, money management, or fundraising, but by men and women whose calling as missionaries, pastors, and administrators has brought them face-to-face with the complex, real-life issues involving the intersection of money and ministry. Read on and be challenged to change

Preface 1

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus
(1 Thess. 5:16–18, NIV 1984)

by Jinbong Kim

The fear of the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world had a significant impact on the 2021 Korean Global Mission Leaders Forum (KGMLF), which is held every two years. The forum was held in a hybrid fashion for the first time, with over thirty-five international speakers joining online from all over the world. Thankfully, sixty Korean participants were still able to attend in person at Kensington Hotel, located in beautiful Pyeongchang, where the 2018 Winter Olympics was hosted. Dr. Jonathan Bonk, who suggested the topic "Missions and Money," was also forced to join us online while staying up all night in Canada. However, when we prayed continually with thanksgiving and faith in the Almighty God, who controls all situations perfectly, I never imagined that the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic would be an even more amazing opportunity for blessings for our hybrid forum in Korea.

I was asked by several participants, “How was the Pyeongchang KGMLF hybrid forum able to be completed successfully?” My answer in one sentence is, “It was entirely by God’s grace.” However, if I were to explain in more detail, it was through the efforts of Rev. Jae Chul Chung, president of Asian Mission and Rev. Sang Joon Lee, executive director of Asian Mission, who gave great financial support and excellent cooperation. It was also possible because of the humility and support of Rev. Jae Hoon Lee, senior pastor of Onnuri Church, with all his outstanding leadership that surveys the flow of world missions in the twenty-first century. In other words, KGMLF was able to proceed because of the astonishing collaboration between the Asian Mission and Onnuri Church. Special mention should be made of the wise advice and practical help of Dr. Jonathan Bonk and Dr. Nelson Jennings, who have been my sincere academic and spiritual mentors for many years. Faithful support provided by multiple mission departments of the Onnuri Church community under the remarkable leadership of Rev. Jae Hoon Lee, along with the extensive networks cultivated over the years through KGMLF executive members’ mission and academic careers, have made it possible for our international mission forum to succeed since 2011. Praise the Lord.

We faced several challenges concerning the KGMLF hybrid forum. For example, how should we schedule the forum’s events, considering the many international participants who live in different continents, and how could we avoid any technical problems? How can we simultaneously translate more than fifty different English papers into Korean and vice versa, as well as transmit them through Zoom? Many other challenges presented themselves as well. Even so, the dedication and hard work of the forty plus staff members of Onnuri Church were able to handle all kinds of challenges and difficulties. The word “unbelievable” showed up many times in the feedback we received about the Onnuri staff.

I want to express my respect for the leadership of Rev. Hong Joo Kim, the head of the Onnuri 2000 Mission Department, with whom we have had excellent cooperation since 2015 to make this work possible. To single out just two representative 2000 Mission staff members, I would like to express my gratitude to Rev. Kyung Hee Lee for his meticulous administration and service; also, Mr. Peter Ban spared no effort in his professional expertise so that more than eight hundred people could access the KGMLF 2021 website, with some of them able to participate in the forum via Zoom. I would also like to thank the Onnuri M Center staff who worked beside Rev. Kyu Suk Rho and the fifteen plus translators who worked with missionary Florence Kwon for their efforts in translating and making international communication possible in our hybrid forum. I am also grateful to Mrs. Sookyoung Han and her team for their hospitality and providing tasty refreshments to all attendees. I would also like to thank CGNTV for filming the entire forum.

As soon as the Pyeongchang KGMLF forum was over I left for Dallas, Texas, USA to attend the Mental Health and Mission Conference, which I hope will develop into a more international event. More than two hundred member care experts and some directors of various mission organizations attended, and they showed great interest in the previously published English KGMLF books I had taken and displayed. Many attendees remarked that they were grateful to learn about the Korean church and missions through the KGMLF books. They really appreciate our forum and encouraged me to continue to serve the KGMLF.

An important consideration in starting KGMLF as a new type of forum in 2011 was the publication of a well-edited book that would present the contents of the forum, a volume that could take its place, for example, in a wide range of libraries worldwide. For that reason, editing, translation, publication, and distribution are perhaps the most key elements of KGMLF.

My sincere thanks go to Dr. Soonuk Jung, who translated the English edition into Korean. And I pay my respects to Dr. Michel Distefano, who showed excellent ability in editing and revising all the English papers. Also, I express my gratitude to William Carey Publishing and Ms. Melissa Hicks, who have contributed much since the KGMLF 2015. I would also like to thank the staff of Duranno Press for its sincere work in publishing the Korean books since 2013. I especially wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all the contributors for putting in extensive time and academic effort for the KGMLF 2021 book. Finally, I am so thankful for my wife, Soon Young Jung, and my two sons, Yohan and Yoseph, who have helped and encouraged me in many ways behind the scenes.

I hope that this book will inspire missionaries, church leaders, and Jesus’s followers around the world to consider afresh “Missions and Money” matters in more concrete and proactive ways. May the recent KGMLF forum and resulting two published volumes be instruments in the hands of the Lord for furthering these worthy aims! Soli Deo gloria!

Preface 2

by J. Nelson Jennings

Money piques most anyone’s acute interest. In today’s economically-driven societies almost all individuals and groups need, must somehow acquire, and necessarily administer money. Churches, mission agencies, and missionaries are no exception. The sixth biennial Korean Global Mission Leaders Forum (KGMLF), held in November 2021 at Pyeongchang, South Korea, tackled the vitally important topic of “Missions and Money.” This volume carries that same theme as it comprises the forum’s various presentations: Bible studies, case studies, workshops, responses, and testimonies. As with all KGMLF gatherings, each presentation was prepared well in advance so that all forum participants could read and otherwise prepare to discuss the selected topics meaningfully during the 3.5-day forum itself.

One foundational KGMLF characteristic is the interaction as equals between Korean and non-Korean participants. COVID-19 restrictions prevented most non-Koreans from attending physically, so they took part through prerecorded videos and live online discussion periods. This book’s contents represent the prepared presentations, some of which were refined afterward due to interactions during the forum.

Another fundamental KGMLF value has been “accountability.” This forum and resulting books (one in Korean and one in English) have thus been guided by various aspects of the subtitle, “Integrity, Viability, [and] Accountability.” As broad as that threefold rubric might be, nonetheless it provides guardrails to the otherwise unwieldy topic of “Missions and Money.” Who’s to say how scattered and quite likely self-serving an untethered forum and book by a group of mission leaders about money matters would have turned out?

Furthermore, the combined result of the forum’s penetrating Bible expositions, concrete case studies, practical workshops, and challenging responses is an in-depth panoply of essays that address poignant money-related challenges facing Christian missions today, be they Korean-initiated or otherwise. The essays do not provide easy or stock answers. Rather, they help to sharpen the questions that missionaries, those who send them, and those who receive them inevitably raise about funding sources, supporting and owning such new institutions as mission schools, financial management, justice issues, environmental implications, and cultural values.

The Korean-global mix gives this volume all sorts of hidden nuances interwoven among the topics that are examined. The contributors and their reflections have been forged in mission contexts. No matter who you or those among whom you live and serve might be, the money-related studies offered here should provide helpful pointers for navigating delicate and crucial financial issues.

BIBLE STUDY 1

The Integrity of Our Funding in the Eyes of God
1 Chronicles 29:1–19

by Christopher J. H. Wright

Big projects need big funding, as any church or Christian mission organization knows. And big projects for the Lord God need God’s people to respond from the heart, out of gratitude for God’s redemption in the past and commitment to God’s mission in the future. That is what happens in the story we read in this chapter.

This is, in fact, the second great fundraising moment in the Bible. And they both have the same purpose—to build a structure that would be the focal point of God dwelling in the midst of his people. The first was Moses’s appeal to the people to provide all the materials needed for the tabernacle in the wilderness (Exod. 35), and this is David’s appeal for all that was needed for the temple in Jerusalem, which replaced the old portable tent.

But we shouldn’t think—Oh, these were just fundraisings for a building project. For who were these people, and why did God want to dwell in their midst? Answer—the people of Israel, whom God had created and called for the sake of his mission among all nations on earth, as he promised Abraham. And, as Moses pointed out to God himself, the only thing that distinguished Israel from other nations was the presence of the one true, living God in their midst (Exod. 33:16). That was what the tabernacle and the temple provided for—in a visible, tangible way. So, these were moments of providing funds in order to “enable God,” as it were, to inhabit his people for the sake of their mission and God’s mission in the world.

That makes it relevant to any fundraising we do for the same purpose. Why do we raise funds for our work? Not because we think God can’t do anything without us. But rather because we know that God chooses to act in his world in and through us. We build “structures”—yes (whether physical or organizational), but not just for our own convenience, comfort, or efficiency. We do so for God to inhabit them, so that by God dwelling in our midst God’s purposes are accomplished in the world.

So in this chapter, in vv. 1–9 we see David’s heart for God as he holds a great national Gift Day, and in vv. 10–19 we hear David’s great hymn of praise and humble prayer.

I. David’s Heart for God (vv. 1-9)

Here’s how David introduces the whole project in the previous chapter:

King David rose to his feet and said: “Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people.

I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it” (1 Chron. 28:2).

Then he goes on to say that God told him he was not the one to build it, but Solomon would. David, however, made the plans and set about raising the funds. His heart was in it—and as we’ll see later, he knew very well also that God knew what was in his heart. Two things stand out in the way the event is described in the first nine verses:

The Leaders Took the Lead!

Clearly there needed to be some real generosity if the plans for a glorious temple were to be realized. But notice where that generosity started. It started with those who owned the most and controlled the most. They led by example, not just by appeal. So David sets it all in motion himself, by giving out of his own wealth. We may wonder when and how he came to be so rich (especially in view of the warnings that Deuteronomy 17:17 gives to kings!), but the point here is simply that, without boasting about it, he claims, “With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God …” (v. 2). Only then does he appeal for others to join him: “Now, who is willing to consecrate themselves to the LORD today?” (v.5)—implying of course that such consecration to God would include giving to God’s dwelling place among them (rather as Paul says that the Macedonian believers had first given themselves to the Lord before giving to Paul [2 Cor. 8:5]).

And then, I love verse six! The leaders of the whole communi...

Índice

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures & Tables
• Foreword
• Preface 1
• Preface 2
• Bible Studies
• 2 Accountability in Our Stewardship of the Grace of God: 2 Corinthians 8:16-9:5
• 3 The Viability of Our Ministry under the Sovereignty of God: Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
• Section A: Case Studies
• Section B: Workshops
• Section C: Testimonies
• Section D: Conclusion