Support Raising

Heard in the wild

The longer version

What it means

Many Christian workers — missionaries, campus ministers, staff of organizations like Cru, the Navigators, InterVarsity, YWAM, and Wycliffe — aren't paid a salary by the organization. Instead, they raise it: they build a team of individuals and churches who each commit to give a set amount every month, until the total covers their salary, benefits, and ministry costs. Reaching that total is being "fully funded." The process involves meeting people one at a time, explaining the work, and asking directly. It often takes a year or more, and it never entirely stops — supporters move on, costs rise, and the missionary keeps raising.

Supporters receive regular newsletters and are treated as partners in the work, not just donors.

Why people say it

Organizations use the model because it lets them deploy more workers than a central budget could support, and because it ties each worker to a praying, giving community. Missionaries endure it because the alternative is not going. Many also come to value it: they're accountable to real people, and a hundred families are invested in their work. Paul's thanks to the Philippians for their gifts is the biblical picture.

How to respond

If a friend asks to meet and "share about their ministry," decide before the coffee whether you're open to giving; then listen, ask what they'll be doing, and answer honestly. "I'd like to give $30 a month," "I can do a one-time gift," and "I can't right now, but I'll pray for you" are all good answers, and the last is not a brush-off if you mean it. Don't ghost them; a clear no is far kinder than silence.

If you hear it in different churches

Evangelical, Baptist, and Pentecostal missionaries and parachurch staff raise support; it's the norm in that world. Southern Baptist missionaries are an exception — funded centrally through the Cooperative Program. Catholic missionaries are supported by their religious orders and dioceses; Orthodox by their churches; mainline Protestant missionaries by denominational boards. The coffee-meeting model is specifically evangelical.

Where does “Support Raising” come from?

Paul was supported by the Philippian church and says the Lord commanded "that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:14); 3 John commends sending workers on their way "in a manner that honors God." The modern model descends from Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission (1865), a "faith mission" that took no salaries and made no appeals but trusted God to provide through His people. Twentieth-century parachurch ministries — Navigators (1933), Cru (1951), YWAM (1960) — made personal support raising the standard, and training programs now teach it as a skill.

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