Greetings!

FB Meyer once said, "You never test the resources of God until you attempt the impossible."  Simply put, this means that if we only attempt that which is possible, we've no need to trust God. 

"When Missions Vision Is Bigger Than Missions Budget" is the theme of this edition of ETools and in light of the challenging economic situation that we find ourselves in I trust that it will be a blessing to many churches whose desire to reach the world exceeds the limitations of their budgets.  We hope to inspire you to trust God to do the impossible and also to provide you with practical insights into mobilizing as many of the assets of your church as possible.  You'll also learn about Sixteen:Fifteen's free webinar "When Missions Vision Is Bigger Than Missions Budget" on 11-11-2011 --- if you desire to attempt great things for God you'll definitely want to take advantage of this inspirational and instructive resource.

Here's one more quote from C. Hudson Taylor, pioneer missionary to China, to help prime your heart to receive the message of this edition of ETools, "Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith."  

Matthew Ellison - 16:15 President and Church Missions Coach

Interview with Virgil Dugan from The Tijeras Foundation

Virgil Dugan

Virgil Dugan is a good friend of Sixteen: Fifteen and President of The Tijeras Foundation whose mission is to elevate, encourage and enable the ministry of Biblically-based organizations.

Matthew: Virgil, in our many conversations you have said that generosity flows out of a compelling Great Commission value proposition, or similarly that generosity must be contextualized within a compelling missions vision in order to gain traction.  Can you unpack this a bit more for us and tell us why this is so important to you?

Virgil: A fundamental truth of existence is that God owns everything (Ps. 24:1) and that He has allocated His assets among us for oversight, management, and investment; we are His "stewards".  As His stewards we are to invest His assets in line with His will and purpose.  Jesus has been very clear in expressing that will and purpose: "make disciples of all the nations" (Matt. 28:19).  When we align with the will of the Master, generosity becomes a natural response since we are investing God's assets in line with the "co-mission" that He has provided for us.  We are simply doing what He would do.

Matthew: Often churches look to the "usual suspects" when they are attempting to raise money for a significant missions vision, but can you give some insights into a how a church might mobilize the diverse array of assets that may not be in the hands of the "usual suspects?"

Virgil: I assume that you mean those members of the congregation who are perceived to have significant financial capacity when you use the term "usual suspects".  These individuals are of key importance to the accomplishment of a fresh missions vision.  Their "investments" form a foundation for other investments/gifts and their validation of the vision is important to many within the congregation.  However, it is important to realize that a major fraction of the total wealth of the average church is overseen by individuals with a net worth between $34,000 and $179,000.  These individuals are probably not considered "rich" or "wealthy" by worldly standards, but they are critical to the accomplishment of the mission of the church.  In other words, there is a very large amount of financial capability within the stewardship of many individuals who oversee relatively small amounts of money.

Matthew: So what is the key to "unlocking" this large, distributed base of assets for Great Commission work?

Virgil: Most of the people with relatively small levels of net assets give moderately to the operational needs of the church; the average gift is less than 2.5% of income.  When they become engaged in a focused missions activity, they should be challenged to consider giving out of assets in addition to giving out of income.  Most people have never even thought of this, but when a large number of people give a small percentage of assets each year, the integrated amount of the giving is quite large and the value for kingdom work is tremendous.  A church with this mindset can accomplish great things!                    

Matthew: Speak to the church leader who has a heart to do something significant to reach the world but he is concerned that doing so in the midst of this very real economic crisis might cause people to divert their giving away from the church's general giving.

Virgil: When people get a vision for reaching a lost world and see the practical value of giving out of assets for that mission, a beautiful thing begins to happen; the percentage of their income given to church operational needs actually goes up.  I believe that one of the best ways to improve ordinary church giving is to have a focused missions involvement that is church wide.  God blesses us when we dedicate ourselves to His work.

Matthew: Can you give us a preview of what you are going to share on the 11-11-11 webinar? 

Virgil: We hope to provide a comprehensive Biblical basis for generous giving in the context of Great Commission ministry.  Along with that we will give a statistical argument that supports the concept of giving out of assets in addition to income for comprehensive church ministry.  Woven into this narrative will be specific examples and practical suggestions for how this can be realized within the local church.