“We can’t plant a church there. We don’t have sponsorship and funding to do things for people to get them to come to church. No one will believe on Christ unless we have something to offer.” When national believers think this way, there is no real future for sustainable gospel ministry.

Maintaining a consistent spiritual focus in ministry, especially in places where poverty is the norm, is not easy. Faithful proclamation of the Gospel requires deliberate effort to ensure that generosity never overshadows or confuses the message of the Gospel or hinders the obedience of local churches.

After decades of war, Cambodia opened to the world and received a flood of foreign aid — much of it from Christian groups combining the Gospel with humanitarian relief. As the nation recovered, aid programs multiplied, and many Cambodians began to view Christianity as a path out of poverty, tied to language lessons, stipends, food, and jobs. This damages gospel witness. Unbelievers watch people convert for material gain. Self-sufficient locals conclude Christianity is only for the financially desperate.

The Patron-Client Trap 

In many cultures, relationships of financial dependence—“patron-client” systems—are normal. The patron provides resources, and the client offers loyalty. Most politicians work in this theater, as well as many government agencies worldwide. Unfortunately, local believers often assume that spiritual leaders in local churches should also function as financial patrons.

When a cross-cultural missionary becomes a financial patron, his influence and authority shift from being rooted in the Word of God to being rooted in the material benefits the missionary provides. This encourages national pastors to think spiritual ministry is no different from secular leadership in the world around them.

The New Testament provides a different model: spiritual patronage.¹ Spiritual patronage is focused on the message of the Gospel and is based on communicating God’s truth. It is not about material provision. Paul and the Apostles were spiritual patrons, never financial ones.² This includes all the “big A” and “little a” apostles described in the sixty years of church history given to us in the New Testament.

When today’s foreign missionaries lead from a position of financial power and influence, national believers naturally imitate this leadership style. It lines up with the way politicians and the powerful wield influence in their culture. What these local believers should be learning from their missionaries is an appropriate expression of biblical servant leadership, which is always countercultural, as Jesus said.³

Some local believers in contexts like what we’ve been discussing recognize the dangers of material patronage from missionaries. Some are willing to do hard things to distance themselves from this problem. One young woman in our ministry quit her job working for missionaries to avoid the perception that she had converted due to financial influence. For the same reasons, one church in Pursat refused outside funds from a Cambodian American who wanted to buy land and build a church building for them. 

However, in such contexts most churches that find an opportunity to get a foreign patron do so and become dependent. Congregations come to expect material provision from foreigners and their leaders. Nowhere in the New Testament do we see this dynamic. We instead see the opposite—spiritual leaders who are dependent upon their congregations.⁴

The Need for Reproducible Methods 

If church-planting efforts are tied to financial backing from abroad, everyone looking on will be affected. This includes other national pastors and men and women God will yet raise up to labor in His harvest.

Foreign organizations may believe that funding local pastors is strategic, but doing so undermines basic Christian discipleship. God’s design is for local churches to support their own leaders according to their means, demonstrating love, honor, and obedience to Christ. Mature disciples of Christ learn how to serve Him in the context He has provided for them when they were saved.⁵

Pragmatic, business-minded approaches may seem efficient, but they are not God’s way. In the long run, they saddle national churches with financial burdens they were never meant to bear—endlessly seeking financial patrons and maintaining programs and ministries they would never have chosen for themselves apart from the funding.

In my inbox this morning was a blog article from a missionary friend in South Africa entitled, The Surprising Scarcity of Self-Supporting Churches. The author reminded his readers about how horrifyingly dependent so many African churches still are on foreign sponsorship.

I also had a Bible study this morning with a family I have been teaching who have not yet come to church. The husband had experienced the whole gamut of financial patronage from foreigners, professing Christ through an organization to get a job and being active in churches that revolve around aid organization benefits. He has many scars.

Contrast him with the member of our church who voluntarily assisted me at the Bible study. This man came to Christ simply through the testimony of God’s people and the preaching of the Gospel. It was a real joy to see his clear faith and discernment as he clarified truth to my confused Bible study couple.

Some Guiding Principles for Missionary Giving   

It is possible for missionaries to give generously without denigrating the God-given responsibilities local believers have in their assembly.

• Our mission is a spiritual one. Remember we are here to preach the Gospel and make disciples, not to solve society’s problems.
• We give as one member of the Christian community. We avoid excessive giving and refuse to buy influence.
• Let the local church respond first. Meeting immediate ministry needs is the responsibility of the local body, the missionary is just one contributor.
• Seek local counsel before giving. Local believers usually understand cultural dynamics better than we. Find believers who understand what we are trying to do and lean on them.
• Avoid financial obligations. Give gifts, not loans, to prevent shame or damaged relationships. A one-time gift is often better than any regular stipend.
• Separate community projects from local church ministry. Keep foreign-funded social aid ministries distinct from the local church. The local church must not exist solely on the back of a mercy ministry.
• Never encourage dependency. Ensure that personal giving does not discourage local believers from contributing themselves.

The Holy Spirit and the Great Commission 

When Jesus gave His Great Commission, He told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit before beginning. It is critical to understand that the only essential element for fulfilling the mission is the Holy Spirit. Through Spirit-filled believers and the Word of God, the Lord can accomplish the work of the Gospel anywhere.⁶   

Any method of missionary outreach that adds institutionalized charity or heavy funding as essential to local church evangelism departs from the New Testament model.

In Cambodia, both unbelievers and many Christians assume evangelism without material incentives is impossible. Almost all early evangelism in Cambodia was married directly to compassion ministries. After the masses that once professed Christ in this context fell away, a nucleus of genuine believers remained. Since most of them came to Christ in conjunction with aid ministries of various kinds, they tend to believe that this is how evangelism is done.

God’s plan is much different. When believers see that others have come to saving faith in Christ through the gospel message proclaimed and testimonies of His people apart from material leverage, their confidence in God’s power grows. Faith is no longer placed in money, but in the Spirit’s work.

Where dependency and patron-client relationships have become the norm in missions, biblical Christianity cannot flourish. More than any other matter, money issues create strife and bad blood inside the Church and outside of it. In the New Testament, false teachers and false Christianity are forever tied to covetousness, greed, and abuse of power through money.⁷   

Building Relationships Without Foreign Aid  

Relationship-building is necessary for effective gospel witness in most situations. We must not assume that aid ministry is vital to this end. In many contexts missionaries can integrate into community life naturally: 

• Volunteer in local schools or prisons.
• Enroll your children in local education or language classes.
• Join sports clubs or community activities.
• Teach skills such as music or languages in public venues and private businesses.
• Help in hospitals or visit the sick and grieving.
• Live among the people, shop where they shop, and use services they use.
• Participate in cultural events or public service projects.
• Find ways to become a learner from locals.

These activities are low-cost, reproducible by local believers, and free from the baggage of financial dependency. 

Trusting God’s Power 

Ultimately, the missionary’s task is to help national believers trust in the sufficiency of the Word and the Spirit. If our methods of evangelism and church planting lead them to believe they cannot obey Jesus Christ without foreign funding or professional programs, we have failed them. 

When missionaries keep their focus on the Gospel, guard against the patron-client dynamic, model biblical leadership, and teach locals to lead and give, God is glorified. The ministry becomes reproducible and the Great Commission attainable for their churches.

If you would appreciate a fuller discussion of these topics and biblical argumentation, consider reading Pioneer Missions: Meet the Challenges, Share the Blessings.