William F. Sharpe won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for developing models to assist with investment decision-making. A product of Riverside Polytechnic High School, Sharpe went on to teach at Stanford University and was an economist at the RAND Corporation and consultant at Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo.
Sharpe’s first foray into economics came in 1962. He developed the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), which describes the expected return and risk involved in investments. After some initial skepticism, the CAPM model is now a cornerstone theory in finance and has encouraged greater transparency in investment reporting. But Sharpe was just getting started.
He eventually developed the “Sharpe Ratio,” which helps investors better understand if investment returns are due to good decision-making or poor risk assessment. The ratio sets a benchmark as investors consider multiple options. Should they do what they’ve done historically? Or will a better decision lead to a greater return?
When it comes to Missions stewardship, few people even ask the question if there is a better way.
The Cost of Traditional Missions
Since at least 1701, the path to supporting Missions has been a singular one: give money each month for years to western Missions organizations who dole a percentage of that support to well-intending believers “called” to a specific people group. While this method has been vital for the spread of the gospel, it is no longer the best way to reach the unreached. The first two years of a missionary’s career are often filled with language and culture studies, history and geography classes, and rehearsing the ways missionaries have evangelized in the past. Then, thousands of miles traveled to and from training centers in the U.S. before they ever step foot overseas. While there, many are encouraged to start businesses or find jobs in cities overseas where churches have already been established, all while still receiving support from churches back home, families, and individual supporters. According to the International Mission Board, the costs of keeping a foriegn missionary in the field add up to $60,000 per year per individual adult, not per couple or family. That’s $5000 per month.
If, like us, you have supported traditional foreign missionaries, you know the return on this investment is not immediately known. Reporting is spotty and unregulated, and missionaries themselves often return home with only anecdotal evidence of any benefits from being overseas.
It doesn’t take a Nobel Prize winner to suggest that there may be better options to fulfill the Great Commission. The simplest application of Sharpe’s principles shows that there is a much better way.
A Better Decision: National Church Planting among the Unreached
If we use Sharpe’s model and ask ourselves if a better decision in Missions stewardship would lead to a greater return, our answer lies in supporting national church planting in Unreached People Groups (UPGs).
UGPs comprise just 3.27 billion million people – that’s over 40% of the world’s population. The best strategy for reaching these groups is working with nearby nationals, not overseas missionaries, who are ready and eager to see their countrymen come to know Jesus as they do. The $5000 cost per month for a western missionary could support training over 30 full-time native church planters.
An upfront risk involved with the investment in foreign missionaries is that they may return home, realizing the difficulty of uprooting their lives was too much. Or, they may have to return home because local conditions deteriorate or because they have to furlough. And perhaps an even greater risk is that the missionary will spend the bulk of their time doing good but not making disciples. There’s a lot on the line.
In adjusting our strategy in reaching UPGs, a simple benchmark to help with decision-making could be looking at what method of missions is contributing most to the rise in salvations currently compared to the cost of supporting them. As churches planted by nationals among the unreached see increases in salvations at a fraction of the cost to send western missionaries, good stewardship requires us to invest in the greater return.