St. Paul's thoughts on Fundraising

This summer I took a class on the Letters of St Paul through the Augustine Institute. One of the assignments that I have been working on for the class was to a write a paper on one of the themes that St Paul goes after in his letters. So after some prayer and thought, I decided to write a paper of St Paul's thoughts on raising financial support.

As I started to research this subject, I found myself immersed in the life of a man that traveled throughout the entire known world and loved to write letters to the communities that he had established along the way. St Paul is one of the most committed men that has ever lived. What is amazing that he appealed for financial support to most of these communities in his letters.

Since this is not the paper that I am writing (if you want it I can send it to you in September when I am done), I will only highlight a few key areas that St Paul found important.

1) St Paul believed in partnership of the Gospel, which led people to give to being a part his missionary endeavors. The word for partnership is "koinonia" in the Greek. This has many meanings such as community, fellowship, participation, partner and even is the word that describes the highest of living in the Christian life - that is participating in the Mass.

We see St Paul's understanding of Partnership most played out in his letters to the Philippians and his letter to Philemon. In Philippians, it is their partnership with Paul in the Gospel that leads them to give to him. We see in Phil 4:15-20 a type of receipt that is given to them saying that their payment is now paid in full! In Philemon, we see Paul talk about his partnership with Philemon to ask for one of the most expensive request that one of Philemon's slaves be released. This all leads us to see that Paul's understanding of fundraising is personal and mission based

2) All the communities that Paul served gave him money to "send him on his way" This was part of of the understanding the early Christian communities had. It wasn't a "service charge" for we know that Paul gave the "gospel free of charge" It was a sending to a new mission ground, a way to support the missions. It is a lower form of the participation that we already talked about but a way to see the Gospel spread, none the less.


3) Paul did not ask money from people that he was still evangelizing. Why does Paul work in Corinth and Thessalonica? This is because the communities there were still not converted and hadn't entered into a partnership with him. It could be argued that Paul was receiving money from other communities during this time as well as working as a tent maker.

4) Paul saw giving as a need for all believers because it helped them grow in their faith life. This is very explicit in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. He is calling upon people to give freely and cheerfully because he knows that this will help them grow in their own relationship with Christ. We even see him speak of this relationship in Acts 20:35, where he quotes the words of Jesus, "It is better to a give than receive."

There is a brief introduction to where giving to mission causes and the Church come in the Bible.

If you want to join my mission support team, please click here. I would love to have many of join me as the early Christians joined St Paul.