I sit at my desk staring at the calendar, trying to map out how I am going to help our students pay for another summer mission trip. For months we plan, work, advertise and encourage (Sometimes we use guilt…) our congregation to give to our mission. Fundraising can be an exhausting, time-consuming part of the already busy life of a student pastor, but what if we’ve been missing the big picture about fundraising? What if it’s not about the money?

We get so caught up in creating big events that raise money that we forget that nothing will compare with the support we receive as we invite others around us to come and see, participate, understand, pray and invest. Could it be that what we need to do is move away from fundraising and back to support raising? I can (and do) create opportunities for people to support financially the student outreach we have happening in our church, but I see that the financial side must be balanced with vision and awareness in order to help people in our congregation see the big picture of God moving into the world through them.

I can ask someone to give money, or I can invite the person into an experience in which he or she can see why we are going, see what the needs are and participate in the mission alongside us. If you are not clearly articulating the answers to the last sentence (why, what, how), do not expect the people in your church to get it or join you in making it happen. However, once your congregation begins to understand God’s call on individual lives, as well as the needs you are highlighting, you no longer will need to go to them year after year asking for support. They are in; they get it; they be coming to you with future mission ideas and often the financial support to help make it happen!

Whenever I enter a time of fundraising, I try to remember a few key ideas and questions so I don’t miss the big picture on raising lasting support:
1. Knowledge is power!
Knowledge gained under the lordship of Christ and the leading of the Holy Spirit is life-altering! Learn all you can about where you are going, the needs and the opportunities; and then find creative ways to bring it to the congregation (without asking for a dime). You may create a video with testimonies, a live Skype on a Sunday morning with the mission leader on the field you’ll be serving with, or an interactive display with media, facts and prayer guides about the place you are going to serve. Create awareness, and allow God to move in the hearts of people–some of whom will then support you financially. Even if they don’t, what you are doing as you serve in the world around you is worth talking about! Sometimes having somebody walk away saying, “I just had no idea this was going on,” or “I didn’t realize how big the need was,” is just as important as the money in their pocket and can have a much bigger, long-term affect on your ministry.

2. Prayer is not the second option!
Prayer is not just a box to check on a support letter we leave for those who can’t give money; it is the life-blood of being on mission. Do I really value prayer as being vital to the mission I am pursuing? If so, then I must keep it in front of my leaders, volunteers, staff and congregation. Create prayer guides, mission prayer eblasts or even text prayer updates; with social media, the possibilities are endless. For several years, we had a lot of fun and raised a lot of money having a rock-a-thon outside the doors of our church on a Sunday morning. Yet even at that fundraiser, we had a prayer tent where people could walk in, read some information about where we were going, pray over a list of students or actually have students from the team inside the tent so they could be prayed for in person. Long before your departure, enlist a few people to form a mission prayer team who can begin to support your team with something greater and more powerful than any check. I’ve found these teams do not quit praying even after our trip is finished. You need people like that in your ministry.

3. Who are you inviting to get their hands dirty?
There will be plenty of people I will ask for money, but am I also inviting those same people to be a physical part of what they are supporting financially? Our mission teams are mostly students and regular volunteers, yet we always are looking for other adults God may be leading to join the team, connect with students and receive a new vision for what God wants to do in the world around them. Work with your mission team or leader in your church to find people you can invite to fill a spot you have left open just for someone in your church to come and see. You could ask one of your regular volunteers to drive your team to the homeless shelter where you serve, but you could also invite a church leader, deacon or Sunday School teacher to drive and participate. As important as it is to have those people support you financially, if you can bring them in to participate in the mission, where they rediscover the needs of the world around them, as well as the joy and purpose found in doing what God has called us all to do, you will have someone who will support the mission of God for the rest of his or her life.

Support raising is about so much more than car washes with dirty sponges and so much bigger than pancake suppers at greatly inflated prices. You have the opportunity, even in the midst of seeking donations, to raise awareness of the need and the call, as well as invite others into the vision of what God wants to do in the world. We often say that if we come to the end of a fundraising season and someone has not given a dime but has learned more about a specific need, spent time seeking God about how to meet that need and prayed continuously for us, then we were successful–not just in fundraising, but in support raising, which in the long run has proved to be priceless.