'I must be an acrobat, to talk like this and act like that...' -Actung Baby,U2
I am Jacob Bailey. I have been writing here for a while now. I am 27 years old, on the brink of moving to Spain. I love my wife and two beautiful children. Glad you stopped by - please let me know you were here by posting a comment.
leading with QUESTIONS
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
sometimes
But for the grace of God we are crushed under the weight of his holiness. I wonder if that is true? I think it's true. It sounds good. It kind of makes sense. I know I wish it was true. I know I hope that it is true. I know that tomorrow, in order to survive, I will have to live at though it were true. It is my truth right now. It may change...it may prove to be untruth altogether, but right now it is my truth...it is helpful...that means something to me...
I am wondering about so many things, stuggling about so many ideas. I realized today that it isn't that I have lost my grid of understanding and have none. Instead I am wondering if maybe there is a new grid in place and operating but I am not fully aware of it or how it works.
I have questions about "support raising." I am uncomfortable with it and I am not sure exacly why. It's not that I am trying to get around the fear of talking to people about money - that isn't the big problem for me. It is more like foundationally I don't believe in it. I have through IT been given all this info about "biblical foundations for fundraising" but I don't by it. I am not even willing to consider the "evidence." Not interested. This brings up a deeper problem for me...I hesitate to say it...but I don't trust our (mine included) interpretations of scripture anymore. I am totally suspect. I openly fear that we are "reading into" the text everything we want it - everything we need it to say. And we do this, I fear, whenever we need it to do want we want it to. In my experience we do this at our convenience. It is odd. I don't think we realize how odd it is.
I confess I have lost the ability to read the scriptures. You can probably tell that that scares me a bit. All I know is that we are missing some things. Whatever happened to leaving space for the Unknown One to remain unknown - or atleast shrouded in mystery? Why can't we reinstate the necessary gaps in our understanding of God and his ways? Why are we afraid of this?
Comments:
yo jacob!
hope you guys are doing well... I understand your hesitancy about raising support. The only thing that I can say is that, scripture or not, having a group of people behind you in a meaningful way in more than a cursory commitment to "pray for you" is really important. The sad fact (i hope i'm not being cynical, but 10 years in Spain gives me some lee-way right?) is that most people will say that they'll pray for you and then forget about it a week later (a week if they are really committed). But people that support you financially on a regular basis are much more likely to continue to journey with you and pray for you. Go figure.
I have found "Daring to Live on the Edge" by Loren Cunningham to be extremely helpful for me in this area. Hope that helps!
hope you guys are doing well... I understand your hesitancy about raising support. The only thing that I can say is that, scripture or not, having a group of people behind you in a meaningful way in more than a cursory commitment to "pray for you" is really important. The sad fact (i hope i'm not being cynical, but 10 years in Spain gives me some lee-way right?) is that most people will say that they'll pray for you and then forget about it a week later (a week if they are really committed). But people that support you financially on a regular basis are much more likely to continue to journey with you and pray for you. Go figure.
I have found "Daring to Live on the Edge" by Loren Cunningham to be extremely helpful for me in this area. Hope that helps!
# posted by 
: 9:42 AM
: 9:42 AM
BTW, there is something whacked about your blog design... the sidebar isn't separated out properly from the body of the blog...
# posted by : 9:43 AM
: 9:43 AM
Hey Jonah thanks for saying hi. I really appreciate your visit and words man. I am Okay with some significant relationships where people are truly connected to us and giving toward our ministry, but the approach being taught says "make a list of everyone you know or used to know - atleast 300 people - then knock em off one at a time asking everyone if you can share your vision with them and "make an ask" for support. That part get's me a bit...chained to the "donors" comes to mind?
sorry about the site...that's what I get for experimenting with html and leaving a project unfinished...
sorry about the site...that's what I get for experimenting with html and leaving a project unfinished...
I hear ya!
The problem is, if you only want to accept money from close friends, you are seriously limiting your influence on others and your ability to raise funds. I look at it this way: there may be someone that believes in what I am doing and although they are not close friends YET, they could be one day if they decide now to partner with me.
There is a couple that support us monthly with about $300 a month. They are not rich by any means, but are extremely faithful. They are an older couple and I can't really say they are "close" friends. A couple years ago, our church stopped supporting us, out of the blue half of our support was gone. Great. At that time, this couple really stepped up, the husband took ANOTHER JOB, just so they could give more. They doubled what they were giving us at the time straight away and were sorry it couldn't be more!!! I can now say that these guys are an inspiration to me and I will ALWAYS be grateful for them. But if I hadn't taken the time to keep in touch with them and make my needs known, who knows if this relationship ever would have happened?
Food for thought...
The problem is, if you only want to accept money from close friends, you are seriously limiting your influence on others and your ability to raise funds. I look at it this way: there may be someone that believes in what I am doing and although they are not close friends YET, they could be one day if they decide now to partner with me.
There is a couple that support us monthly with about $300 a month. They are not rich by any means, but are extremely faithful. They are an older couple and I can't really say they are "close" friends. A couple years ago, our church stopped supporting us, out of the blue half of our support was gone. Great. At that time, this couple really stepped up, the husband took ANOTHER JOB, just so they could give more. They doubled what they were giving us at the time straight away and were sorry it couldn't be more!!! I can now say that these guys are an inspiration to me and I will ALWAYS be grateful for them. But if I hadn't taken the time to keep in touch with them and make my needs known, who knows if this relationship ever would have happened?
Food for thought...
# posted by : 2:10 AM
: 2:10 AM
One other thing (sorry for the preach)...
If people support you, I have to be honest and say, that I think they are only doing what is the duty of EVERY Christian. Matt. 28:18 isn't just a nice suggestion for an elite bunch of super-christians. It is a commissioning for all followers of Jesus everywhere. If there are people that 1. aren't supporting mission to other nations or 2. aren't doing mission to other nations... Then I have to say that I do not think they are obeying one of the key commandments of Jesus.
By asking people to pray about supporting you guys in what you are doing, you are giving them an opportunity to step up to the plate and obey what Jesus has already commissioned them to do. I think that is a great priviledge for both them and you which shouldn't just be restricted to close friends.
If people support you, I have to be honest and say, that I think they are only doing what is the duty of EVERY Christian. Matt. 28:18 isn't just a nice suggestion for an elite bunch of super-christians. It is a commissioning for all followers of Jesus everywhere. If there are people that 1. aren't supporting mission to other nations or 2. aren't doing mission to other nations... Then I have to say that I do not think they are obeying one of the key commandments of Jesus.
By asking people to pray about supporting you guys in what you are doing, you are giving them an opportunity to step up to the plate and obey what Jesus has already commissioned them to do. I think that is a great priviledge for both them and you which shouldn't just be restricted to close friends.
# posted by : 2:20 AM
: 2:20 AM
Again I am grateful for your feedback here and moving things along in conversation. All of this is to be considered as my and wife and I try and get our hands around this whole thing that is "raising support." We know this for sure... the issue is multifacited, and there are plenty of angles worth praying/thinking through...thanks again man... onward we go!
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