The Value of One Soul

Missionaries in the Assemblies of God have a somewhat unique obligation. They must raise all of their own support. While there are some general funds to help offset expenses incurred in the application and training processes, the budget of a missionary must be secured by the missionary.

In the process of meeting their financial obligations, AG missionaries go church to church. They sometimes preach for a full service, but other times are given a smaller window in which to present their call and vision for ministry. It is very easy for the itinerating missionary to become overly focused on the objective of raising support. Sometimes, this focus comes at the expense of hearing from God and maintaining a focus on Him. Yes, missionaries have this problem, just like everyone else.

For several months now, God has blessed us with an abundance of offering support. It has allowed us to meet our day-to-day cash flow needs. Additionally, it has enabled us to build up a cash reserve that is required by the Assemblies of God World Missions. We have truly been blessed in this area throughout the second half of 2005. However, that has changed in a big way as we have entered 2006.

Although the month of January is only a little more than half complete, it has already presented significant challenges. For the first time in many months, we had two service slots that remained unfilled. No service means no offering. Twice this month, Rebecca or Tammy have been sick on service days. This has prevented them from traveling with me. Frankly, the best part of the family gets left behind when that happens. Every service we have had this month has involved a significant commute. In many cases, our gasoline expenses were greater than the offerings we received -- eating into those cash reserves we had started to build. It has been a troubling start to the new year.

I was sharing these troubles with a friend at Book of Hope and he helped me to put it into prospective. His take on it reflected the words of wisdom that one of the Pastor's I've met with this month shared. God will frequently take us through a season of fire, pruning, and testing in order to refine, reshape, and prove us. These times are difficult. However, if we remain faithful to His call and His purpose for our lives, He will give us the ability to see it through.

The difficulties of this month all faded away last night. No, there was no huge offering that wiped away all our deficits. However, there were five lost souls who's names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Five individuals who made a decision to accept Christ as their Lord, as their personal Savior. Was it great preaching on my part? No way. On my best days I am only a so-so preacher. What made the difference? God gave me a word for this church. He told me to minimize my focus on our ministry and maximize my focus on His message.

In the end, just like every other service this month, I spent more than I received. However, at least on this one very special Wednesday, it wasn't about an offering. It wasn't about a budget. It wasn't about a target date for completing itineration. It was all about the power of God's word to deliver someone out of the darkness of sin and into the light of His eternal love and grace. It was about the value of one soul. A value that goes beyond any economic measure.