It's a word that elicits nausea and makes me want to hurl. The very mention of the word makes my skin crawl.
Fundraising...talk about uncomfortable.
If your husband has, is, or will be planting a church you've got to come to terms with fundraising. I'm the type of person that wouldn't ask for a cast if I broke my arm because I wouldn't want to trouble you. Unfortunately, you need money to start a church plant and the only way to get it is to ask for it.
When we started we mainly did two types of fundraising. First we wrote letters to our friends (including acquaintances) and family (who are mainly non-Christians). We also did fundraising banquets with Virginia Vision, and Vince and Tim spoke to churches individually. The banquets and churches were fine, mainly because they knew what what was coming. But the individual friends, acquaintances and family felt like a totally different thing to me. I felt like a telemarketer (in college I worked one summer as a telemarketer. It was seriously one of the worst things I've ever experienced) or worse yet, like a door to door salesman. I felt horrible asking my friends, who I knew weren't in the best financial situation, to send us money each month. It was even worse asking our non-Christian family members to send us money. I felt like one of Sally Struthers' kids from those Christian Children's Fund commercials.
Feelings aside, fundraising is critical to a new church plant. Vince says that if you can't raise money, you probably shouldn't be a church planter. It's that whole "sell your vision" thing that a church planter needs to have. If you can't convince your friends and family that what you're doing is important, then it will probably be hard to convince complete strangers to catch your vision.
When it was all said and done, we raised enough money. People were generous. Churches were generous. God was generous. And I survived!
So, if you feel like me, just hold on. God's way bigger than us. He's got way more money than we can imagine. And being uncomfortable isn't going to kill you...although it might feel like it is at times!
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Monday, January 14, 2008
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2 comments:
Jen,
Karen and I are experiencing this right now. It is frightening, weird, exciting, and humbling all wrapped up in one. Please pray for our efforts. Thanks for sharing.
IHL,
Karen and Richie
My husband found this and sent it to me... we needed to hear it right now as he's in the process of raising funds. He is currently serving as the "church planter in residence" at THE JOURNEY NORTH in Brainerd, MN for Mark Bjorlo (your husband met him in Florida I think). We'll serve there and learn the "tricks of the trade" for a year and then go out and plant.
My husband is currently raising funds, and it's been extremely hard and trying. Thanks for this post. I'm looking forward to reading more. I think it's unfortunate how little we hear from church planting wives, as I have so many questions! Thanks for your honesty.
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