Donations

Many years ago I was watching a very popular televangelist and I was stunned.… Absolutely dumbfounded… when he spent a full twenty-seven minutes of a 30-minute broadcast doing nothing but begging (and I do mean begging!) for money.

I was shocked. Embarrassed. And quite frankly disgusted.

I made up my mind then and there that if the Lord continued leading me in the direction He was at the time (I.e. into ministry) I would never allow myself to get into a position where I would feel it necessary to do what that televangelist did.

Pkease understand,  If there is one thing I have learned about money as it relates to ministry work, generally speaking, if donations are not requested, donations are not received.

In fact several years ago I hosted and produced a short weekly radio broadcast on a nearby Christian station. After several months of paying for the broadcast out of my own pocket I eventually had to pull the plug on the show because I simply could not afford to pay for it myself.

Imagine my surprise when, after I had been off the air for a few weeks, I began receiving letters from listeners telling me how sad they were that the show was no longer on the air and how much they missed it!  That was nice to hear of course, but why did such folks wait until that point to let me hear from them instead of jumping in to help sponsor the show?!

I guess it was because I failed to ask them to!

Too Big Too Fast

I believe another way to explain my way of looking at this is by comparing it to business…

Suppose you own a small retail store.  You do not have a lot of stock or a lot of choices for customers but you do quite well.

But then it begins - you have a thought that if you were to bring in more selection, perhaps accessories to compliment the items you already sell, you will probably make more money.

So you place a few orders and put yourself into debt.

When the delivery arrives you realize you need more space to display all your new items so you pay a contractor to add-on to your store. And you go deeper into debt.

The first few days go quite well and you are very excited. But before long the novelty of the new items wears off and your sales begin to slide. Now you realize you need to advertise. And you do. And you go deeper into debt.

And this cycle, if not vigilantly kept in check, reaches deeper and deeper into your bank account while you realize what a great position you would be in had you kept your business the way it was and taken much smaller steps to grow.

Big Ministries are Bad?

Let me quickly point out that that is most definitely not what I am trying to say! There are many ministries today with mailing lists in the hundreds of thousands. Daily radio broadcasts. Weekly television broadcasts. Offices in more than one country. Is this a bad thing? Does this mean they have grown too fast?

NO! Not necessarily. Certainly some do. …And then they find themselves with absolutely no choice but to literally beg supporters for more and more money just to keep themselves afloat. But others are huge because the Lord has blessed them and frankly He wants them as big as they are!

A Fine Line

I believe there is a fine line between asking for financial support (which by the way, allows the opportunity for the giver to be blessed!) and centering all of your efforts on fund-raising.

Many? Most? ALL? Ministries ask for financial support. They have to! It is the way it is. And I am in no way criticizing or condemning them for doing so! Not at all!

But As For Us

Victory Through Jesus Ministries belongs to the Lord. Plain and simple. Cut and dried. Therefore, rather than constantly asking for donations, we simply trust the Lord to put it upon the hearts of His people to give to this ministry as He leads them. And rather than purchasing property, buying airtime on television or radio, etc., and then having to beg for money in order to pay for these projects, if the Lord wants any of these things to be done through this ministry we will wait for Him to provide the money before we do them!

But We Do Need Support!

Having said all of that, the bottom line is that, of course, we DO NEED money to operate this ministry and to spread the Word of salvation through Jesus as far and wide as we are able.  So please, do contact us if the Lord leads you to help this ministry. But to sum up what I said earlier, we will not be sending out mailings asking for donations to those who contact us.

We are content to wait upon you and/or others as the Lord speaks to your hearts!

Sincerely,

Charles