Serving Bread

(A series on what I appreciate about fundraising)

1. Fundraising has taught me more about the character of God than any other practical activity.
2. Fundraising surrounds me with people who believe in me and my ministry. There are too many days that go by where I struggle whether God has called me to the ministry. Ministry invites me to interact and tackle the disappointments of life. What fundraising has done is it puts me among people who believe in me and believe in my ministry. There are many reasons why people give a portion of their income toward my ministry. It may be that they do it because they like me or because they like the ministry (and if I were to leave, someone else would get their gifts). But what it comes down to, people give because they want the ministry to succeed, and they believe that I am a worthy investment toward that end.

   Like all other things, if my identity was solely based on my funding, I would fail to recognize how God shapes me and calls me. And my funding level and successes can warp how I view my worthiness. But at its best, what a life of fund development does is that it surrounds me with people who really believe in the things that I’m passionate about. In Scripture, Elijah went through a season of depression because he thought he was alone in worshiping God. In his kindness, God showed him the many people who are still worshiping.

   Fundraising surrounds me with a team of people who believe in my ministry and are praying for my ministry (in addition to funding the ministry). These team members are not just the equivalent of shareholders of a corporation. They are not just stakeholders who wish for the ministry to succeed. They are committed to contribute what they can toward the vision of the ministry. In many ways, we really are in this together. And the most unfortunate element may be that I see the fruits of the ministry more frequently and more personally than they do.