Funding the Family Business Pt 1 (Myles Wilson)

As cross-cultural Christian workers we all have to go through the process of raising support, or perhaps you are in the middle of the process right now – you know, finding friends and individuals who might be interested in standing with you financially as you go overseas to the work that God has called you to.  For the next few weeks we are going to be hearing from a special guest who is going to be talking about this subject.  His name is Myles Wilson.  He recently spoke to a conference of Christian workers in Europe and we are going to sample some of what he had to share on this subject that he calls Financing the Family Business.  That is how he refers to the process of raising support.  Let’s listen to Myles Wilson for a few minutes.

Myles:  I struggle in raising support.  Not technically, I’m Irish and I kissed the Blarney Stone when I was ten.  Irish people can talk and tell stories – we are good at that.  Technically it wasn’t a problem, but emotionally it was a problem.  I loved the giving.  I struggled with the receiving.  I talk to other people and they say they ‘have to’ raise support.  In English ‘have to’ is a negative term.  You don’t use that term for things like going out to buy ice cream.  So where did the joy go missing?

If the givers enjoy the giving but the receivers don’t enjoy the receiving, where is the problem?  Because of my pietistic background, people quoted all sorts of people to me:  Hudson Taylor, George Mueller - and then the other side, the D. L. Moody, these aggressive fund raiser types.

 I am in danger of interpreting the Word of God through the actions of Godly men.  I would rather interpret the actions of Godly men through the Word of God.  I read through the Scriptures trying to find out what the Bible actually says about this process. 

This morning I want to look at where we get a glimpse of how God funds His Family Business.  The first is the Levites.  The children of Israel were going back to the Promised Land.  They had no concept of land ownership.  They had no concept of freedom.  God had to reinvent an entire culture for them.  Not everybody got some land.  When God was talking to the Levites this is what He said, I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do when serving in the tent of meeting. [Numbers 18:21] ‘I will some of my people to set aside some of their money to cover your costs while you serve me.’  The tithe system is the first structured support system.  No matter what model you follow here, if you are funded it is because someone somewhere gives the gift.  It is a bit false to say that some of us live on support and some of us live on salaries.  Where do the salaries come from?  They come because someone gives a gift.  The difference is some of you know the donors and some of you don’t.  But you all live by donations. 

I want to explore that a little bit today as we go.  I wonder what it would have felt like to be a Levite?  God made it very simple.  He said you are not going to have two jobs; you are not going to have a normal income generating job with land.  You are going to work for me and I will make sure you are funded. 

Also from this we see that God provides through His people.  Remember He said, ‘I am your share.’  God is the source of our provision – it is not the supporters.  Once we start assuming the supporters are our providers it is one step to idolatry because we want to be nice to the people who provide for us.  If we get our eyes off God as the provider and onto people that is a shift that is very subtle and very dangerous.  He said, ‘I am your share,’ but the money doesn’t fall in a cosmic parachute from heaven.  It comes through individuals, primarily through God’s people.  Our provision depends on other people responding to God’s call.  That is the risky bit, the edgy bit, here. 

There is a call of God on people to give but they don’t always hear it.  A classic example, I think, is I Kings 17 – Elijah.  He annoys the king so he goes off and hides by the stream.  He is fed by the birds that come to the stream.  The problem is he has prophesized that it will stop raining.  Now that is okay unless you are dependent upon the stream for water.  So the rain stops and the stream stops.  God says to him, ‘I want you to go to this village.  There is a widow there.  I have commanded her to take care of you.  So down he goes.   He meets her; says, ‘Hello, I’m Elijah.  Please give me some food.’  Past tense: she has already been commanded by God to take care of him.  The call of God is on her life.  She says, ‘Of course,’ willingly.  No!  She says, ‘I have only one little bit of food left and I am going to eat it then my son and I will die.”  What would you or I do in that situation?  You go to someone for support and they respond that frankly all I have left is ten Euro.  If he had done what I would have done and said, “If that is your last food, I’ll not take it,” she would have died.  It is a fascinating story to look at – someone who refuses to accept a no reply when asking for support.  It is probably one of the most aggressive fund raising stories in Scripture.  I don’t know how Elijah felt doing this – I’ll ask him when I get to meet him.

Second Example:  Jesus!  I wonder how you and I would have advised God if God had……. Let’s assume that you are a God fearing Jew about the time that Jesus was about to go public.  You are asleep at night and God appears to you in a dream and says, ‘The Messiah is alive.  He is already born.’  You think: Wow I have prayed for this all my life.  This is fantastic.  He is about to announce Himself.   Even in your dream you can feel yourself shaking. 

God says, ‘He is giving up his job as a carpenter.’ 

A carpenter?  The Messiah?

‘And He is getting a whole team around Him.  They will have no income.  Please advise me how this team will be funded.’

In my dream, I wonder what I would have said to God.  What sort of options would there have been?  Give me some.  How could the Messiah have funded Himself?  You can talk to me – it is okay.

Yes, miraculous provision, yes.  Actually Satan thought of that as well in the temptations where he encouraged Jesus to turn stones into bread.  Jesus said no but He did prove in the feeding of the five thousand that He could have provided miraculously.

Maybe we would have gone to the wealthiest God fearing people in the temple – we have a major donor thing going.  This tells us what happened:  After this Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.  The Twelve were with Him and also the women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases:  Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others.  These women were helping to support them out of their own means.  [Mark 8:1-3]  Those who have been ministered to are often the keenest supporters because they have seen something happen in their own lives. 

Women, women are better givers than men because giving is a heart activity and women are better at heart responses.  It was also a society where women are marginalized and Jesus gave them the dignity of being supporters.  You see, there are three mentioned there.  Susanna we know nothing else about but the other two we know a little bit about.  Mary was basically from the streets.  Whether she had been a prostitute is debatable, but certainly she had led a life of disrepute.  Joanna’s husband was the manager of Herod’s household.  I wonder where her money came from – a corrupt political system.  I wonder where Mary’s came from – very scary.  But Jesus took it.  He built around himself a team of supporters from the fringes of faith – not from the center of faith.  Those were the people that Jesus said could come with me.  Imagine what this would look like in todays’ Sunday papers:  Self Styled Messiah Funded by Ex- witch and Corrupted Politician.  Very High Risk!

Everything was created by Him and for Him.  He was the creator in human form.  Financially He depended on Mary Magdalene.  He had rights and options.  He didn’t have to do it this way.  He could have commanded provision to be there for Him but He chose to be supported by those from the margins.

Interestingly the supporters were still there in the crisis.  Where do we read about Mary and Joanna again in the story of Jesus?  At the tomb!  Where were the team members at this point?  Hiding!  But these two women, and some others, went to the tomb where they expected good news?  No, they went to embalm a dead body.  Even at the point of their deepest crisis, where their hope had disappeared – the person they had pinned everything on – they still wanted to serve Him.  Isn’t it beautiful that Jesus gives and uses the resurrection to the supporters, not the team members?  It should have been the other way around.  You see, the supporters rushed to the team members and said, “Jesus has risen.” 

They replied, “No he hasn’t – he is dead.”

“No, we have been there.  He has risen!”

You see, it should have been the team members sending out the newsletter to the supporters saying, “Big News!”  But it is the other way around.  Sometimes your supporters will stick with you longer than your team members because they support you because of who you are, not because of the organization; not because of the structure; not because of the plans or strategy but because of relationship.  Something had happened between Jesus and these women that even death could not hold them back from wanting to serve him. 

Today He knows the risks.  At the right hand of the Father is someone who knows what it is to live on a support basis.  Those days when you feel rotten about it are days when the Son turns to the Father and says, ‘Let my Spirit go and help.  I know what it feels like to be financially dependent on a bunch of strange people.  I know the risks of going somewhere and not knowing where I am going to speak the next night, but I also know the provision that comes from caring people. 

If Jesus had followed the miraculous provision route, I couldn’t have followed that.  I could turn bread into stone if I leave it out long enough but I couldn’t do it the other way around.  The major donor stuff - I don’t know enough guys who are major donors.  I do know plenty of weird people at the fringes of faith, as well as some at the center of faith, who are pleased to stand with us in the work that we do.  It is a delight to me today that there is a man in heaven who understands that, who lived it, who modeled it, and can encourage me at the times of difficulty.