I can’t be sure, but I think I was weaponized once.
I had finished my support presentation, and challenged folks to join with me financially and prayerfully to reach students with the gospel. They had committed to give monthly toward that goal.
Then, out of nowhere, they commissioned me to be God’s answer to prayer regarding their wealthy next-door neighbors.
My support spiel all but assumes the faith of the person being challenged to give. Sure, during my training, we briefly discussed how Nehemiah (in the book of the Bible that bears his name) provides a biblical warrant to ask nonbelievers for money. But anecdotal evidence is hardly enough to make it a mandatory practice, so I tended to only approach and challenge other Christians.
This sweet family decided, when I asked for the names of other folks in their sphere of influence to challenge to join us financially and prayerfully, to send me to outreach to their wealthy pagan next-door neighbors.
Jimbo: You think Jill and Bobby would like to hear this presentation?
Susie: Well, I know they go to that Buddhist meditation and training center every week, but I also know that they have a ton of money… It can’t hurt.
Because nothing makes people want to come to Christ like a Christian asking them for cash.
The weaponized missionary approach, or WMA, is a tactical strike on your neighbor that alleviates all of the pressure from you in evangelism, and instead places it squarely on the shoulders of a missionary. After all, we are the pros, and it only stands to reason that you would expect us to be able to handle the pressure. Like a NASCAR driver at the local Department of Motor Vehicles, we’ve got this.
Don’t want to share the gospel with your wealthy neighbor? No problem. They are used to getting solicited for cash, right? What better way to smuggle the life changing truths of the message of Jesus into their lives than through a 30-40 minute missionary support presentation? It could work. And either way, they’ll likely take it as a compliment that you think they are flush enough with cash to send them the Christian version of an Amway salesman. Even if they blow off the missionary, a seed will have been planted.
Right?
Have you ever seen support raising work as an evangelistic tool?