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Christian Leadership Training Course

By J.C. Choate

Lesson 15

Foreign Support

Since the church in foreign countries are still young, hardly any congregations are able to support their own preacher. In a few congregations the members do the preaching, or the preacher earns his living through secular work. There might be other situations which would make it possible for a congregation to have a preacher even though it is unable to support him entirely from the collection. Of course the church is growing over the country in numbers, in spirituality, and in ability, but probably it will still be some time before the local congregations become financially independent.

Because the church is not able to support its own preachers, this has led many men to seek foreign support. Brethren in America, Canada, England, Germany, Australia and other places have responded very generously. As a matter of fact, many of their preachers have come here and have seen the need. They have met men who expressed a desire to preach, and as a result, numerous ones have been put on support. This would appear to be a good thing, and no doubt it has been the means of helping the church to grow in some cases, but it has also resulted in some bad things.

With foreign support being available to young men who have no job and not much hope for the future, scores have been attracted to the ministry. This type of work has great appeal in a country where there are many religions, with many gurus, and so-called “holy men” devoting their lives to religious works. The majority of these men find it is easy to talk, having no stage fright. Because of their culture they prefer not being required to do any manual work, so the life of a preacher, as they see it, has wide appeal. Add to the advantage that these preachers will be able to take pride in the fact that they have a foreign salary, and perhaps will receive side benefits along the way, maybe even a trip to America or some other country. A further advantage is that they will not be responsible to any local brethren, and their foreign supporter will not be present to look over their shoulder and supervise them closely. Even if someone might be sent occasionally, he will not know the local language, and his visit will be short.

This summary is not meant to say that all who end up on foreign support take advantage of their foreign brethren, and neither is it implying that those who are still on foreign support –– and there are many –– are using and misusing their foreign brethren and the support that they are receiving while giving little or nothing in return. Certainly some of the preachers are good and honest and are trying to do a reliable job, but I must say that many others are not. This is the bad part about foreign support.

There are preachers who have even set up rackets to work their foreign brethren and to get everything out of them that they can. They are not ignorant. They find out what appeals to brethren and then they begin to push that program. Schools, preacher training programs, orphan homes, and preaching trips where hundreds and even thousands are baptized are some of the favorites. Some appeal to the sympathy of brethren by telling of orphans, fires, and floods. Then there are preachers who have letterheads and envelopes printed up so that they can write to hundreds and hundreds of their foreign brethren, asking for help. Even if a few respond, they can do quite well. Some are seen buying up property, houses, cars, videos, and other things, and of course all in their name. A few have even built small empires of control over groups of preachers during the past few years. True, in the end some will somehow get away with their fraud, but others will be caught. This will cause their foreign brethren to be so disappointed that they may refuse to help with foreign work all together in the future.

Those on foreign support may be lazy. Some of them don’t even know enough truth to preach a scriptural sermon. Just think about dozens and hundreds of preachers being converted from other churches. Why would they change in such large numbers? We would like to think that they heard the truth, saw their error, and had a desire to obey God, but to be more realistic, it is likely that most of them changed because they heard that the Church of Christ was hiring preachers and paying more than they were already getting. Now if they are put on support, what do you think they are going to preach? Christ said that the gospel should be preached (Mark 16:15), and Paul said that the word should be proclaimed (2 Timothy 4:2), but if preachers don’t know the truth, how can they preach it, even though they may receive support. This system produces a hireling system as anyone can see if he has his eyes open.

Also, as mentioned earlier, those on foreign support feel no responsibility to the local brethren, and the local brethren have no way of controlling them, or directing them. This creates a bad situation. Many such preachers are young, and they need guidance and supervision. But if they won’t listen, or just drift around over the country all the time, how much good will they accomplish?

Another bad thing about preachers being on foreign support, usually they will not settle down and build self-supporting works, for the simple reason that their foreign brethren will pay them more than local churches, and they don’t want to be on support to local brethren and having to answer to them. If they would build self-supporting congregations, then turn over to local preachers the work with those congregations, so they could move on to repeat their success, then I would be in favor of such an arrangement, but seldom does a self-supporting church ever become a reality. This means that the church itself is weakened to the extent that it relies on foreign support, year after year after year. It weakens the local church, too, in the sense that Christians don’t come forward to accept their individual responsibilities, feeling that this is a “foreign” work.

Another bad thing about foreign support is that local brethren tend to look to the foreign brethren with a desire to please them. When these preachers come they are asked to do all of the baptizing, and sometimes they come between local brethren and cause divisions that last for years. How sad it is that local preachers often divide up according to who is supporting them, and refuse to work together, etc. I would say to churches: it may be more difficult for awhile to do without foreign support but, in the end, you will be stronger when you support your own work. Why not determine to give it a try?