Call To Repentance

What do we Want?

"Hello, this is Tim Rickel with World Gospel Mission calling. The purpose of my call today is simply to thank you for your involvement with WGM in missions."

This has been a common beginning to many phone conversations this fall as my coworkers and I have been calling all of our donors simply to thank them for engaging in missions with us. People have been surprised and grateful. But there was one reaction I personally wasn't expecting.

One of my coworkers was on the phone with an elderly donor. "I'm sorry," she said, "but I'm 81 years old and have given all I can this year."

"Oh, ma'am," he replied, "I am only calling to say thank you!"

And then, the lady broke down and cried.

This, then is the result of years of marketing research in the Christian non-profit fundraising sector. A dear saint, upon receiving a call from us, can only imagine that we are calling for a donation.

And she isn't alone. The most common reaction to our calls has been the hesitant question as the call winds down, "Aren't you going to ask for money?"

What kind of relationship has resulted in this situation. Certainly not a Biblical relationship. I am reminded of how Paul writes the Philippians in chapter four. This is from The Message.

" 4:1 My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don't waver. Stay on track, steady in God."

And then these verses

10-14I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you're again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don't mean that your help didn't mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.

Paul's total communication about their giving is about how it benefits them, not Paul. His joy is in what is happening in their lives.

I think a good season of repentance is in order for activities that have created a reaction of dread rather than delight when people receive a call from the agency that they partner with in ministry. May God help us to value our partners and to call them because we want to know them better and to delight in what God is doing in their lives rather than to "update" them on our activities and "make the ask" to supply our needs.

This doesn't mean we will never ask them to be involved in ministry through a financial gift, but that should only happen based on what God is doing in them rather than what we are doing in our ministries. And that knowledge only comes through genuine authentic relationship.

What do you think. Am I overreacting, or do I have a point?

From Ireland to Arizona

Everything old is new again


Just one month ago I was boarding a plane from Ireland back to Indiana. Laurie and I had gone for a week along with other WGM administrators to meet with our WGM UK Council. That is a wonderful group of people from England and Northern Ireland who have a passion for missions and who are involved in getting people from that region of our globe involved in mission efforts on WGM fields. They have taken teams to Ukraine and Uganda to build or teach or do whatever they can to help out our missionaries in those places.

We went to talk with them about how we might coordinate our efforts even better from the US and the UK. I fall in love with just about every country I visit in the world, and Northern Ireland, where we had our meetings, was no exception. That's one country where I could easily blend in, at least until I opened my mouth!

This past month included Thanksgiving, a time when I took some much needed down time to just vegetate. It included a wonderful time in Chicago with some old friends, Terry and Natalie, who share my passion for mission and who have partnered with us in ministry for many years. Chicago at the beginning of the Christmas season was fun!

I took this past month off from blogging. My schedule was so crazy this summer I just needed to let something go for a while to catch my breath. Now, at the end of a visit to our mission work in Arizona, I am picking it up again.

This weekend was incredible. I am on our American Indian Field for three days of lending the folks here a helping hand and helping them celebrate a milestone in their ministry.

For more than half a century, centered in the Phoenix area we have had a work among Native Americans. For many years in Peoria, Arizona, where I am now, we had a boarding school for native kids. Times change and the boarding school approach became outdated as families preferred to keep their kids at home as time went on. So a move was made to open schools on the reservation back in the first part of the 90's. The struggle was what to do with the large school facilities that we had. We tried different things, and after a lot of planning decided this past February to consolidate what we have here and use the money from the sale of property to update the facilities that we keep, making more effective use of the space we have. What was neat to me was that a number of alumni of the boarding school were here helping with this move and will be part of the force shaping the future of our new ministry outreach.

And what an exciting outreach that is! Phoenix has become the seventh largest city in America with huge ethnic populations living all around the school property. We'll continue to reach native children as well as other groups as these grounds are converted into a multi-purpose ministry center complete with recreational and instructional facilities. This place offers a great opportunity for people to get their feet wet in missions, and in fact, on this trip we brought 17 people from our staff, some of whom have never been to a mission field before!

Yesterday we split out into groups to attend church on the reservation. That was a new experience for many, let me tell you! I'd encourage you to plan a visit here just to check out what God is doing in this corner of the world. You'd be surprised, and blessed!