Over $1 Billion for Missions from the SBC

I've figured out a relatively simple way for the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to raise well over $1 billion dollars for international missions every year.

The way to raise this money is simple: all pastors give up their salaries and work regular jobs. The churches then give the amount of the salaries directly toward international missions work.

The SBC has about 45,000 churches. Being conservative in our math, let's say that the average is one full-time pastor per church. Some churches have more pastors than this while others have less (bi-vocational). Continuing to be conservative, let's say that the average salary is $30,000 per year. Some pastors make far more than this while others make less. The math, then, is 45,000 pastors multiplied by $30,000 each. The total is $1,350,000,000. That's well over $1 billion.

I've used only the SBC because that's the denomination I'm most familiar with. If all churches in the USA did this, I imagine the total would be well over $20-25 billion. All for missions.

The interesting thing about this is that it doesn't require churches to give any more than they are already giving. It doesn't require them to alter anything about their buildings or programs. It simply asks the churches to dramatically change who or what is receiving a big chunk of the church income.

The pastors don't have to resign. They can remain pastors at the same churches. The only change is that they will have to obtain regular jobs.

An additional benefit to all this is that the church people will have to do much more ministry because the pastors will have to cut back on what they are doing. This will force the body to become more active, which can only benefit the church as a whole.

The only truly difficult aspect to this is that it will make the pastors' lives more difficult and less comfortable. Jobs do that.

A few years ago the IMB was not able to send as many new missionaries to the field as it desired. The reason? Lack of funds. Each Christmas time the IMB has to put forth great effort to raise money for missions. This past year the goal was $175 million. With the solution I propose here, the IMB would have nearly eight times that amount.

For the good of reaching the nations for Christ, I'm asking all pastors to strongly consider sacrificing your salaries and getting normal jobs. This will be a challenge. I can testify to that. However, the benefit will be much more money for the Great Commission task.