Like LL Cool J, I feel like this topic is less of comeback, and more like I’ve literally been here for years.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about raising funds.
Perspective, when it comes to finances, is something I lose about every 15 minutes. I need to be reminded of the truth on a regular basis. I figure if I lose perspective, so do the people who support us. Hopefully not as often, though.
So when we talk about moving, and among the first questions is the ticking time-bomb of “will you still have to raise support?” I like to pause and remind myself (and anybody standing nearby enough to hear) why support raising is not a chore, but a blessing. A privilege. Not a “have to” but a “get to.”
The short answer is yes, we are still fully supported by the generous contributions of concerned individuals and churches. There’s no central fund for paying office staff or field staff within Campus Crusade.
And I’m glad. This way, we really rely on God even for the folks in the cubicles in Apex. There’s still a department that does the hiring, but God does the confirming by doing what we can’t do, raise up the funds to pay the staff. And as I’ve mentioned in the past, raising support is a constant reminder (in the midst of the money-driven “ethics” of western culture) that I am not a rock or an island, no matter what Paul Simon tells me, and I can’t do or have it “my way,” even if Frank Sinatra or Burger King urge me to. Calling folks and challenging them to be on my team of ministry partners pushes me toward a biblical, humble, interdependence with others.
In answer to Colleen’s specific question about the difficulties we’ve been having raising support recently, what coming off campus for a whole semester did was help us see clearly what it might look like to be off campus. So, yeah, the support struggles lately did help us to make the decision, but not because we are done raising support. They just afforded us the opportunity to see outside of the “campus” bubble we’d been in for years. And we liked it outside of the bubble.
So, until the next time I need reminding, you can always join our team of partners here.