Questions about Support-raising
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Assemblies of God missionaries are not allowed to serve in their mission until they have assembled a team of churches and individuals willing to fund their ministry. This often confuses people, so I thought I’d answer what I perceive to be the common questions.
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Can You Just Give Me a Quick Explanation?
  • ministers should be paid by the people of God
  • pastors are paid by people in their church
  • missionaries are paid by others than the ones they are ministering to
  • Chi Alpha campus workers (us) are missionaries
  • most of the people we talk to are not Christians, so we don't expect them to support us
  • so we are required to recruit people to support us financially

There is a consistent principle taught in the Scriptures: ministers should be paid by the people of God. In this regard, there are two broad categories of ministers: pastors, who are paid by the local congregations they serve, and missionaries, who are paid by others than the ones they are ministering to.

Chi Alpha campus workers are missionaries. The reason for this is very simple: college students don’t have any money! In addition, the college scene in America is as pagan as any place on earth, so there are few who would be willing to pay Christian workers even if they did have the resources to do so.

For this reason, then, Chi Alpha campus workers are required to build a support team to aid them in their ministry. Part of that support is prayer, part of it is emotional support, and part of it is financial support.


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Is this Biblical? (Goto top)

Yes! For more detail, read our essay on The Biblical Basis for Support-Raising.

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Why doesn’t the church pay you?(Goto top)

The church is paying us. The church is not a building; the church is people!

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Ha, ha. So why doesn’t your denomination pay you a salary?  (Goto top)
  • If the denomination salaries missionaries, the money has to come from somewhere–and that somewhere is the churches. So the denomination will end up requiring all churches to give a certain amount of money to the denomination.  Effectively, it becomes a tax on churches.
  • Historically, denominations that tax churches this way have very few missionaries–nobody likes to pay taxes, not even churches. Raising support by contacting friends and family is a far more effective strategy. Plus, it’s the Biblical method!
  • It’s a scalable system. Every new missionary is required to go and generate the funds necessary for their own ministry. No matter how many missionaries we have, we can always have more because there’s no fixed allotment that all the missionaries have to compete for scraps of.
  • Raising support requires that a minister build a network of relationships which keep him accountable and motivate him to work diligently. If you know that your best friend is paying part of your salary, you’re much less inclined to goof off.
  • Missionaries beget missionaries! Most missionaries become missionaries through contact with another missionary.
  • Support-raising forces missionaries to develop relationships that ultimately result in the production of new missionaries.
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Why do you have to raise your full budget first? 
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What does it mean to "raise your full budget"?  Assembly of God United States Missions (AG US Missions) and Chi Alpha establishes a minimum amount of total monthly donations missionaries need to raise in order to be on the field.  Missionaries do this by asking churches and individuals to make monthly contributions.  When the total of the monthly contributions sent in match the minimum amount set by Chi Alpha and AG US Missions, then the missionary is has "raised their full support" or "raised their full budget".  Why do missionaries need to raise a full budget before being on the field?  See below.

Because Chi Alpha wants long-term successes, not one-shot wonders. If missionaries reach their fields before they raise their full support, they are much more likely to fail their task. They become consumed with their work, and they eventually reach a point where they must either quit, get a part-time job, or live in unhealthy conditions. None of these things is conducive to long-term ministry. By forcing missionaries to raise their budget in full, the A/G contributes greatly to their longevity in ministry. By contributing to longevity they contribute to effectiveness.

Longevity aside, insufficient funding has immediate implications. Without a full budget our ability to minister is literally compromised. Our missionary budget is not just our salary! It’s actually the full organizational budget for our ministry. Out of that budget, a certain amount goes to our salary and the rest goes toward work expenses: without those funds ministry opportunities have to be passed up. Like everything else, ministry requires money.
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Who oversees the finances?  Goto Top

We are accountable to Assemblies of God US Missions. All funds are routed through them in order to provide financial oversight for the missionaries.

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How do I begin supporting your ministry? (Goto Top)
If you have not already, we would like to meet with you to share with you about what God has done, and what we are believing for Him to do in the future.  You can send us your contact information here so we can meet!  (If you live far away, we can meet via video on messenger.)  Why do we want to meet?  
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Can you just work at "secular" job to support yourself, and also work in Chi Alpha?  Goto Top

We actually did that for the first four years we served in Chi Alpha.  I was a computer programmer while serving in Chi Alpha.  We felt led to serve in Chi Alpha full-time for the following reasons:

-reaching international students with the gospel is a wonderful opportunity that is worthy of our full-time attention.

-Some people work full-time in non-profit organizations such as The American Red Cross, and in many other worthy causes.  The salaries of the people in these organizations are also paid through donations.

We know that sharing the transforming gospel to one of the most pivotal mission fields on earth is an extremely important endeavor worthy of our full-time attention.