Less for More with graph

Some people argue that churches should provide full support for their missionaries. That would be cool. But I know it is not realistic for most churches. Plus, many churches are not sending churches to any missionaries and they need to support missionaries. I think that a huge percentage for any missionary receiving support from one church would be 50%. Our church has done up to 25% and that has been wonderful. 

There is no doubt in my mind that moving to a less for more strategy in churches will save money; maybe not as apparent on the church’s end, but on the missionary cost, which ultimately saves the church’s money. The big saver has to do with time spent on pre-field ministry. With less churches to visit, the missionary would save thousands each month he is on the field and not at home. He would also save hundreds on gasoline and car costs. In addition, the mailings it takes to gather speaking opportunities is tremendous and would save much time and money. The church would save budgeted money when they are not paying out honorariums, travel and boarding costs for 6-10 visiting missionaries each year. 

With this system, I believe the missionary attrition rate would be lowered, thus saving the churches money as well. Having 4-5 strong partnership churches (with an emphasis on a very strong supporting church), the missionary can better receive counsel through the hard times that almost always happen in fitting into a different culture. It costs over a hundred thousand dollars to send a missionary to the field for a couple years, so obviously, any missionary attrition avoided saves much money. 

So how should we support missionaries? I suggest shooting for a long term goal (maybe 15-20 years down the road) of having under 10 missionaries, hopefully 4-5. It really depends on your church size and capability of supporting missionaries. I have made a little graph of different support amounts where you can see the differences in numbers and budgets and give you an idea of where you can maximize your partnerships. The side by side columns go together as a sending church partnership plus a non-sending partnership. Probably no church will fit exactly into any one of these exact amounts and partnerships, but it does give you an idea of around how many partnerships you could have and at what level of commitment. 

Yearly Missions budget of	Monthly amount of support	500/month	100/month		2000/month	500/month		3000 month	2000/month
	Yearly amount	$6,000.00	$1,200.00		$24,000.00	$6,000.00		$36,000.00	$12,000.00
$10,000.00		1	3
$25,000.00		3	5
$50,000.00					1	4
$100,000.00					3	4
$250,000.00								4	4
$500,000.00								8	8
$1,000,000.00								16	17

I also doubt that any church can go immediately into this amount of a partnership (unless you are a brand new church), but they can be goals to shoot for over much time. Missionary support in churches constantly changes as missionaries leave the field for various reasons and as hopefully the budget goes up (as you as a church are missionaries reaching your communities). Use this money to work towards your goals.  

What do you think? Is this an attainable goal? Is your church already working towards something similar? What does it look like? What are your doubts about moving to a system like this?