During the 40 years in ministry and training thousands of Christian leaders, ministers and missionaries, the one question I hear everywhere as soon as everyone is relaxing and nobody is trying to impress anybody else, is: How can I sustain myself and my ministry/mission financially?
So, how I can help you doing just that?
Of course, there are many ways of doing that.
I have tried many of them myself. The reason for that was the following: From 1979 till 1993, I was a pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church and was remunerated by my congregation and the denominational church I’ve been part of.
But since 1993, after resigning as a pastor of the DRC to be available in the whole Body of Christ, God was and is, till today, our Total Provider.
Our ministry is totally faith-based financially, which means that God provides everything we need.
Because of my understanding of what it means to be a “faith-based ministry”, I thought it meant that God will always provide only through His people sowing and giving into our lives and ministry.
And, of course, God is always faithful and providing in the most astonishing ways.
The challenge, because of my misunderstanding, was that His people that He wanted to use to bless us financially, were sometimes just not sensitive enough or just plain disobedient. And the other side of the coin was, because of my misunderstanding of what “faith-based ministry” really meant, I didn’t take my responsibility to also provide in our family’s needs financially seriously enough.
And, as most in ministry know from experience, all of this can cause very stressful situations.
So, when business mentors came into my life, God used them to help me to get to a more Biblical balanced understanding of what my responsibility towards our financial support was.
Over the years God showed us many ways that we could use to build these “pipelines” to channel finances into our ministry and into our lives.
Some of the channels that we build over the years were freelance writing, designing web pages, mentoring Christian businesses, etc.
One of the very important things God taught us was what I would call, BUILDING A PIPELINE RATHER THAN HAULING BUCKETS EVERYDAY.
If you don’t understand what I am talking about, see this short video on YOUTUBE about that:
(If you are interested in looking at the longer version, see
https://youtu.be/s83lEJKn7lQ )
One of the best ways my wife and I discovered over the years to help us build different financial pipelines, was through joining very successful network marketing businesses in areas of our interests and where our own passions lie.
I know, most of us, because of bad experiences with so-called “network marketing businesses” over the years, and because most of us “hate selling all the time”, immediately just want to shut down the moment we hear this term.
But, please, don’t do that when I use the word!
What I am talking about here, while explaining three of our family businesses to you, will be just a different, and on a totally next level, kind of marketing business.
After going through the pains and sorrows like many of you have, we discovered and chose these businesses that I will tell you about, that allowed us the opportunity to build financial pipeline/-s that are capable of carrying us as a family and our ministry through tough financial times.
I really believe it can also be your experience too!