Stewardship: The Other Side of Generosity

It was Donaldson Brown who coined the phrase return on investment (ROI) in 1914. By the 1950’s, the simple formula was fully developed and adopted by corporations like the Ford Motor Company and taught at Harvard Business School. More recently, ROI is mentioned in less lofty circles, becoming a phrase heard in board rooms and backyard barbecues.

In Matthew 25, Jesus uses the principle of ROI to set a clear expectation of stewardship. His emphasis was not a reminder of Malachi’s fear-filled question, “Will a man rob God?” It was equally as scathing, however. In the same chapter that Christians refer to when congratulating each other with, “well done, good and faithful servant,” one finds these words referring to one who poorly stewarded his master’s finances:

Wicked.
Lazy.
Throw that worthless servant outside where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Few commenters use these words when communicating the importance of missions stewardship, and fewer still have actual advice for how believers today should manage the funds God has entrusted to them. However, Randy Alcorn offers five ways we can be good financial stewards:

1. Faithfulness and trustworthiness: using God’s money in a way that pleases Him.
2. Industrious: working hard to be faithful and trustworthy.
3. Wisdom: being resourceful and strategic.
4. Respect: there are repercussions for the poor use of funds.
5. Focus: stewardship is not a sideline or secondary issue.

Using The Parable of the Talents and Alcorn’s list for context, there are a few places that are the most obvious opportunities to investigate a believer’s ROI from missions giving.

Evaluate Where Your Missions Giving is Going

74% of the $13 billion in annual missions giving goes to sending American missionaries to serve in countries that have established and significant Christian populations and churches¹. Traditional receiving regions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America all have more believers than in the United States - believers that are capable leaders with the ability to make disciples and establish churches in new places. Compare this to non-Christian lands where 86% of the people do not personally know a Christian².

The investment of mission funds in non-Christian lands is about $250 million a year³. In terms of spreading the gospel to all people and nations, current missions dollars are given most toward places where less would do and less in places where more would produce greater results.

Evaluate What Your Missions Giving Is Doing

Some missions agencies provide some sort of reporting on the number of people saved, churches planted, and disciples trained through their work. Yet, few missions givers actually ask questions about the numbers presented in these reports; even fewer take a closer look to find evidence that validates the numerical claims. It is not unusual to discover cases where results are not as accurate as thought, so the gain compared to the investment is not that impressive after all, indicating a bad ROI.

An accurate assessment requires churches applying a little more rigor to validate the numbers. However, numbers are only one indicator. Doing it right also seeks to understand how lives are changing, harmful cultural practices are ending, and communities are thriving because of the gospel’s presence among them. This is the work of discipleship, which is the point of the Great Commission.

The Cost of Making Disciples

The mission model of equipping and sending western missionaries to serve in regions that have plenty of churches and believers is no longer an effective use of church mission funds. Research from a private Excellence In Giving case study suggests that the growing church in India calls into question the need for ongoing involvement of American missionaries⁴. And determining the cost-effectiveness of American missionaries in comparison to indigenous workers opens the conversation, as kingdom resources need to be leveraged wisely. The private case study reveals that indigenous ministries are 23 times more cost-effective in planting churches than American missionary teams⁵.  For example, over a five-year period it costs $233,000 for an American missionary to be linguistically ready and culturally established, yet it costs a native worker $5,500 over a four-year period. Supporting local indigenous workers clearly produces a far greater ROI.

As the parable demands, this is a prime example of producing a significant return on investing God’s money. Funding foreign missionaries in such places violates Alcorn’s first premise,—and indeed Jesus’ teaching on The Parable of the Talents—faithfulness and trustworthiness to use God’s money in a way that pleases Him.

Examining Organizational Effectiveness

The leader of one well-endowed foundation practices industriousness by ensuring that the agencies who receive their donations have a clear plan to produce a high return on mission investment, because they do not take their role as God’s stewards of wealth lightly. Before making a grant, there are a few key areas the foundation should examine in the ministry before making a funding appeal:

• What is their vision and what do they expect God to do in the long-term through that vision?
• Describe their methods to achieve their visionary effort.
• Provide a clear plan to achieve results.
• Knowing this helps reassure the foundation that the funds God has entrusted to them will be well-spent for the best possible kingdom results.

Without intentional financial stewardship, thousands, if not millions, of dollars in mission giving has fallen short in kingdom ROI. This is often because churches and donors assume their recipients know how to achieve good results with those funds. It’s a dangerous assumption.

Here are five questions missions donors can ask themselves to become better stewards of with their kingdom investments:

1. Does our church clearly understand the sort of impact we hope to achieve?
2. Do we work closely with our field partners to agree over what success will look like?
3. In working with our partners, have they designed a project that is culturally appropriate with clearly defined roles, goals, expectations, and costs?
4. Have they developed a way to monitor and verify how they are doing in achieving short-term and long-term impact goals?
5. Is sustainability built into the strategy, and is funding calculated in a way to get the best results with the amount of funds committed?

Stewardship is the responsibility of donors. It requires a collaborative effort to achieve productive returns with God’s money.

1. 306,000 people (approximately 73.1% of the workforce) are sent overseas to lands that are already saturated with Christians. Costing approximately $13 billion annually. Research by Gilles Gravelle, Ph.D., Director of Research and Innovation at Seed Company. 2010.
2. Estimates of the percentage of Christians in non-evangelized countries: Africa: 10.2%, West Asia: 0.6%, East Asia: 6.1%, South Asia: 3%. Research by Gilles Gravelle, Ph.D., Director of Research and Innovation at Seed Company. 2012.
3. 10,200 people are sent overseas to unreached lands. Costing approximately $250 million annually. Research by Gilles Gravelle, Ph.D., Director of Research and Innovation at Seed Company. 2010.
4. Research from an Excellence In Giving private case study. Details of the study remain private for safety reasons. 2012.
5. American Missionary teams’ cost per church plant averages $28,190. High-performing Indian organizations’ cost per church plant averages $1,000-$2,000. Data collected from an Excellence In Giving private case study. 2012.