The High Cost of Missions

Max Dauner, my colleague from Marseille, France wrote up the following article a few months ago. The dollar was at a near historic low against foreign currencies, something that bothers people evangelizing outside of the USA, but may be an “unknown” to you. He was kind enough to let us use his article here. BTW, the dollar has made a spectacular rebound in the last 3 or so weeks. That’s good news for us.
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There was a day when a missionary left for Africa, and all he needed was a pith helmet and a Bible. Those days are over. There are presently 61 countries around the world where the cost of living is higher than if you lived in downtown New York City. Add to all of this the weakening dollar, and you have a recipe that produces a high support base for missionaries.

International companies understand that when they send personnel overseas the salary package has to be doubled. That does not happen in missions even though a missionary is a self-contained unit of ministry. The missionaries pay their own office rent and expenses, supplies, phone bill, postage, cost of travel, insurance, social security, and sometimes pay taxes in two countries. There’s no way around it: missions is expensive! The obvious question is, “What can we do about it?” We do not have control over the world economy. Therefore, our focus should be on that which we can control. I suggest that we examine our priorities.

The problem is not money. The Christian Booksellers Association recently reported that they are a five billion dollar a year business. That means American Christians have that amount of disposable income for T-shirts and bumper stickers. We have the resources to fulfill the Great Commission. The only question is, “Where are we going to put those resources?”

Yes, missions is an extremely expensive proposition. But it is obvious from Scripture that missions is not an option. It’s a command of God. We support missions, not because it’s cheap, but because it’s God’s will.