Fundraising has been around for a very long time. Even biblical heroes like Moses, David, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, Jesus, and Paul asked people to financially support God’s work. Despite this, almost every time I’ve told pastors that I love asking people for money they say, “Thank God you like doing that! I hate talking about money. I’m sure glad someone enjoys it.”
I really do enjoy asking people for money—asking people for money can be one of the best ministries in the world! Asking for money is a tangible way to advance the Kingdom. Jesus had more to say about money than about most other things that we talk about in church. Money gets right into the real stuff of our lives. Most of us commit incredible amounts of our time, energy, and creativity to making money, but comparatively few seem to know how to handle it.
There’s no greater joy than seeing someone invest in something they deeply care about. This article isn’t about financial stewardship; plenty of wonderful books on that topic are already on the market. I’ve listed some of those at the end of this article. This article is to help give a biblical framework for asking for money. It’s intended for both practitioners and for volunteers. My prayer is that it will inspire millions of believers—lay and clergy—to begin the exciting journey of fundraising.
Before You Get Started
Let’s start this journey by looking at how money was raised in the Bible. I’m not sure it’s appropriate to try to develop a model of biblical fundraising by copying any one of these stories. But I do think we can extrapolate some pointers or principles that will help us raise money for God’s work in a way pleasing to Him.
Although lengthy, I’ve included the large portions of the text of the stories to encourage you to actually read them and not merely rely on my assessment of what they say. You’ll get more out of this article if you read the observations with the biblical texts.
It may be easier to print this out and read it. For a cleaner printed copy, download a PDF version here.
I’m indebted to Whitney Kuniholm for drawing my attention to most of these sections of Scripture. As far as I’m concerned, this is a work in progress. Feel free to email me your thoughts at marc@givingcoach.com.
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