In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35
“It is easy to give money naively, never understanding that your gift made a difficult situation worse. It is also easy to decide that it is best to never give, justified by the idea that outside funding harms people and leads to dependency. The more challenging space is to remain open to the leading of the Holy Spirit and discerning regarding the character of leaders, the viability of financial processes and ministry strategies, and the impact of cultural realities and expectations, to know how to share God’s resources in God’s mission in ways that truly further His purposes and foster ever-deepening growth and spiritual maturity for everyone involved.”
Mary Lederleitner, author of Cross-Cultural Partnership: Navigating the Complexities of Money and Mission in When Money Goes on Mission: Fundraising and Giving in the 21st Century by Rob Martin (Chicago: Moody, 2019).
Lederleitner is a good friend of GTP. She shines light on a huge issue: the danger that our giving might foster dependency. And not giving is not the answer for avoiding it.
She also offers great advice for us on Giving Tuesday about following the Spirit’s leading with discernment. Firstly, let’s look at the dependency issue.
Giving money naively can actually make a bad situation worse. Handouts create unhealthy dependency. Instead, when we aim at giving a hand up, or “help the weak,” we build disciples.
Sadly, most international giving promotes dependency. Charities overseas cry for money. But when the funds are expended, have they built local capacity or just consumed them?
What should we do to avoid continuing the problem and to be part of the solution? This leads well into the second idea: follow the leading of the Spirit and exercise discernment.
Give to ministries that don’t just consume the resources but rather use them grow people, to multiply disciples. Consider using that as your measure and follow the Spirit’s leading from there.
And on this Giving Tuesday, I ask every reader to consider a gift to GTP today.
The video is called Palmful of Maize, and it’s a vision spreading across Malawi. Click here to watch the video and to make a gift. Giving to GTP is turning dependency into discipleship.
Rather than depend on outsiders, which has been the pattern in Malawi for years, your giving deploys a team to train national workers how solve local hunger problems and show God’s love through generosity.
And, it’s and drawing many to Christ. I was there in Malawi in October when we shot the video. And I heard the testimonies of pastors talking about how children were bringing new families to the church.
I saw the impact of training this one teacher (see her the header photo). Watch her passion come to life in the video. See for yourself. Yet, this impact has reached 12 of 28 districts (or states) in Malawi.
It costs only about $5,000 to send the team to reach every church in a district or state. Imagine shaping the future of an entire districts (or states) in Malawi for that small amount.
Your support to GTP helps the weak. And, as it’s better to give than receive, please consider making a gift today. Pray and follow God’s leading about giving to GTP and other ministries.
And pray with me for about $200,000 by year end to spread this vision in the other 16 states and take it to neighboring Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2023.