There is always much to be learned from history in any discipline, and fundraising is no different. As we look at historical precedents for fundraising, there are many prominent figures from the past that we can look to regarding raising money. The two most famous are arguably George Muller and D. L. Moody. Both men had tremendous ministries and made a lasting impact for the Lord. And both could not have been more different in their approach to raising money. We will take a look at both men and their ministries during this series of posts on fundraising, how they viewed fundraising entirely different, and what that means for us today. There are really two philosophies of fundraising represented by these two men: fundraising by faith alone and fundraising by asking.
Faith Alone Fundraising
You want to fund your ministry and have the money to do what God has called you to do. You also want to remain in God’s will and trust Him to provide, as He promises He will. Yet you struggle to find a balance between asking and waiting on the Lord, between soliciting funds and praying for funds. And then some good intentioned friend reassures you that “if it’s God’s ministry, God will provide. Just look at George Muller. He never asked for a dime and God fully funded his ministry a thousand times over”.
Wow, you think to yourself. I want to have that kind of faith in my ministry. And so you set your heart to practice “faith-alone” fundraising. You will not ask for money, only pray for it. You will not solicit funds, only ask the Lord and wait on Him to provide. This is a revelation to you and a major milestone in your growth and understanding.
Sound familiar? For many of you, it might. The above scenario sounds very spiritual. But unfortunately there are two glaring problems with a “faith-alone” philosophy of fundraising.
Problem # 1 – It is unscriptural
We have already seen in our previous posts, asking directly for money for your ministry is biblical. We have examples of the Apostle Paul doing exactly that. And yet, the faith-alone method, standing in direct contrast to the Scriptural method of fundraising, is extremely popular with many people. Put simply, anyone holding to a rigid “faith-alone” philosophy is operating in contrast to God’s Word. That is not a place I want to be in my ministry. I suspect you don’t want to be there either. Again, trusting in God alone sounds very spiritual – it sounds correct; it sounds biblical. But it’s not! Trusting in God alone and never asking for help from those who are ready to help you is not what God wants you to do at all.
It is important for us to examine everything in light of the Scriptures, including our fundraising methods. Just because something seems to be good, doesn’t mean that it is.
Problem # 2 – It doesn’t work (usually)
There are more cases of missionaries who rely on faith-alone missions having to leave the mission field than cases of them becoming wildly over funded. I promise. The stories that you hear about Muller and others are not to be used as a guideline or a benchmark. Yet that is exactly what many people do – they base their entire understanding and strategy of fundraising on a few select “miracle stories” from the past. The “miracle stories” of George Muller and a few others are not the normal scenario. But for many, many missionaries, the story ends in defeat because they did not follow clear, biblical principles of asking for money. Following historical precedents for fundraising can be helpful, if one discerns those methods in light of Scripture.
In the next post, we will look at the story of George Muller more carefully and discover some dangerous misconceptions about the man and his methods.