Like countless other ministries, Ratio Christi Canada’s team is made up of a mixture of volunteers and supported missionaries. While nobody takes issue with volunteerism, many raise an eyebrow at the thought of missionaries going around asking for money to cover their living costs and ministry expenses.

In truth, this is essentially no different from other charitable organizations who raise funds to pay their staff and meet other needs. Nevertheless, many people, including many Christians, are unsure about the idea of individual ministry workers having to raise donations to fund their own salary.

Most believers who fall into this category are simply unfamiliar with the missionary model and, quite naturally, have questions. Others, however, are skeptical or even cynical about missionaries inviting people to partner with them financially.

We could easily spend much time addressing every question and objection raised against the supported-missionary model. Some already have. My hope, however, is that we can put some of the most pressing concerns—in the mind of the Christian, anyway—to rest simply by exploring the biblical basis for supported missionaries.

Scripture provides us with a strong precedent, rationale, and command both for missionaries to raise support and, in turn, for the rest of us to financially partner with our missionaries.

The Biblical Precedent

The biblical precedent for supported missionaries is strong. Some like to point to Old Testament examples of people asking for material aid as somewhat of a precursor to supported missionaries. However, one need only appeal to New Testament examples to make the case.

Jesus repeatedly tells his disciples, for example, not to take anything with them for their ministry travels but to instead rely on the material support of others (Matt. 10:9-11; Luke 9:3-4; 10:4-8).

The apostle Paul, too, speaks openly about the fact that he relied on the financial partnership of fellow believers to do his work as a missionary. For example, he expresses his desire for support in his letter to the church in Rome (Rom. 15:24), and he praises the Philippian believers for their longstanding and generous partnership with him in his ministry, including when he served in other cities (Phil. 4:15-17).

Even Jesus himself was a supported missionary. Once he began his public ministry, that was his only job. But where did he get the money for food and other supplies? Did he simply make whatever he needed at any given time miraculously appear out of thin air? Though he certainly could have done so if he had wanted, he instead chose to have a team of faithful financial partners who funded his ministry. Luke says that as Jesus and his disciples traveled around doing ministry, there were many “who were supporting them from their possessions” (Luke 8:3).

But in addition to this strong biblical precedent for supported missionaries, Scripture also lays out the equally strong rationale for financially partnering with these faithful ministers of the Word.

The Biblical Rationale

The biblical rationale for financially supporting missionaries is simple: the one who works for something has the right to benefit from it.  In sending out the Twelve on a short-term mission trip, Jesus says, “the laborer deserves his food” (Matt. 10:10). Similarly, in sending out the seventy-two disciples, he says, “the worker is worthy of his wages” (Luke 10:7).

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul cites Jesus’ teaching and compares it to the Mosaic law code in Deuteronomy 25:4 to “not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” (1 Tim. 5:18). He makes the same argument even more forcefully to the church in Corinth, who had apparently been reluctant to financially support Paul and his work. While Paul graciously continued to minister to the Corinthians despite their refusal to support him (1 Cor. 9:12, 15; cf. 2 Thess. 3:7-9), he is adamant that this is not the way it ought to be, saying,

Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink the milk from the flock? Am I saying this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the law also say the same thing? For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain.’ Is God really concerned about oxen? Isn’t he really saying it for our sake? Yes, this is written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing the crop. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? . . . Don’t you know that those who perform the temple services eat the food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the offerings of the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel. (1 Cor. 9:7-11, 13-14)

In short, the ministry worker, like any other labourer, has the right to earn a living from his or her labour. In the case of the missionary, this mainly involves receiving financial support from churches and individual believers.

And this is something that is not simply modeled by Jesus and his earliest followers. It is, in fact, commanded.

The Biblical Command

Just as there is the biblical command to missionaries to receive the support of others, there is the biblical command of others to provide it. Paul, for example, tells Titus to offer support to two specific missionaries so that they would “lack nothing” (Titus 3:13). Furthermore, John in his third letter provides a more general instruction to partner with missionaries, saying,

Dear friend, you are acting faithfully in whatever you do for the brothers and sisters, especially when they are strangers. They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, since they set out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from pagans. Therefore, we ought to support such people so that we can be coworkers with the truth. (3 John 5-8)

A missionary’s work is meant to be funded by the generous giving of God’s people, not by the unbelieving world. Christians are even instructed to partner with missionaries they don’t even know. Why? To become “coworkers with the truth.” By partnering with a missionary, a person is serving with that missionary. We become, as Paul puts it, partners in the gospel (Phil. 1:5).

Of course, no one person can partner with every missionary out there. It’s therefore up to each of us to prayerfully discern as God’s faithful stewards those with whom we should partner to make a kingdom impact.

All we at Ratio Christi Canada can do is humbly ask that you would consider partnering with one of our own missionaries serving to equip young people across Canada to better understand, share, and defend the Christian faith.

You may also feel the Lord leading you to serve as a missionary yourself. If so, and if you want to help train up young people to love God with all their mind, then you should seriously consider some of the great reasons to join Ratio Christi Canada!