Archive for the 'Finances' Category

Between now and Memorial Day, we are trusting God to provide enough monthly supporters for our campus ministry so that we would reach a minimal goal of being 80% funded. The Spring “Fund” Drive has simply been a tool for inviting people along for this incredible ride of watching God transform the lives of college students.

And that is certainly what God is doing. Over the past two weeks I’ve been able to disciple a UC student who I recently lead to Christ (Many people have been pointing her to Christ…I just had the privilege of praying with her in that final moment of decision). Though she is in the midst of some difficult circumstances, it really is amazing to see what God is able to do with a young trusting heart. With only a few weeks of the Spring quarter remaining, I am trusting God not just for financial provision but for the opportunity to pray with one or two more students to trust Christ as Lord.

I have to say, after I recently prayed with this college student to enter a new life in Christ I could NOT wait to share the news with our team of financial supporters. Never before in my 18+ years of ministry have I felt such a sense of partnership with a group of people. Those who regularly invest their financial resources in our ministry through the CCO to students in Cincinnati are literally partners with us in ministry. Were it not for their support, I would be forced to provide for my family another way and would NOT be able to live out my calling to be on campus with students.

#1            The sense of partnership we get as we collaborate with God and visionary supporters to impact the lives of college students.

So that would be the absolute best thing about raising support and partnering with Kingdom-minded donors who recognize their role as stewards of God’s resources.

With about 2 1/2 weeks left in this “Fund” Drive, we continue trusting God to provide a few more of these great partners who get to celebrate with us each time God transforms the life of a college student. If you would like to become one of our ministry partners, click here for more information and simple instructions for how to give.

We are in the midst of week 2 in our Spring “Fund” Drive…an effort to find 100 new ministry partners!  If we’re able to add 100 new ministry partners at $10/month…we’ll reach 80% of the needed funding to continue reaching students at the University of Cincinnati. If 100 new partners give $20/month…we will be at 100% and that would be amazing. We’re praying that God will provide the resources to reach that first goal by Memorial Day and the second goal by the end of the summer. We’d love to crank up our outreach on campus another notch or two in the Fall…and being fully funded would free up time and mental resources to do that for sure.

Each time I engage in the support-raising tasks which make for a successfully funded campus minister, I bump into an interesting form of resistance. Often, it’s from a campus ministry peer who laments that we have to overcome this hurdle (fund raising) in order to “do” ministry. Other times, it comes in the form of someone we have invited to support us who wonders why we don’t just find a church or organization who is willing to fully fund us. Those kinds of encounters tend to remind me of the things I love about raising support for campus ministry (no, I’m not joking). And that brings me to reason #3 in this little series of five posts.

#3 Raising financial support puts God in control of our finances.

From a theological understanding of God’s sovereignty, this seems like a moot point to some. But at least in the realm of self-perception, this biblical understanding of stewardship transforms the way that we live, give, and generally interact with money. The resources that God chooses to provide for us through the generosity of others seem more like God’s property than other paychecks we’ve received in the past. Obviously, whether someone gets a steady paycheck from a church, the government, or a private employer…the source is ultimately the same: God. However, since we pray daily for God’s provision through financial support, it seems that we are more intensely aware that God is in control.

From a different perspective, raising support also frees God up to provide as much or as little as He sees fit for us. Since we are not fully funded just yet, what we are living on now is less than I’ve earned in the past as a staff member at a church. Fortunately though, if God chooses and provides our full support, we’d actually receive a wage that is better than any church board has seen fit to “provide” in the past. That’s another way in which we feel like God is in control of our provision. So we feel a bit more like the Apostle Paul who could say,

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

So there you go…a third great reason that we love raising support in order to live out our mission of transforming college students to transform the world.