Summary: Response to: https://simplechurch.org/view-article/money-for-missions-not-a-priority The response argues that mission is not an optional activity of the Church but its very purpose, rooted in the Father’s heart and clearly commanded by Jesus in the Great Commission. It challenges the Church to examine its stewardship, noting that the minimal resources directed toward unreached peoples reveal a misalignment between stated beliefs and actual priorities. 

Call To Action: By comparing current spending patterns to mismanagement in any organization, the response calls the Church to repentance and realignment, urging believers to place their resources where God’s heart is—so that the gospel reaches those who have never heard.

Church Exist For Missions, Does Our Budgets Reflect That?

Thank you for this article. It raises a painful but necessary question—one the Church must face honestly if we are to remain faithful to Christ.

Mission is not one of the Church’s activities; it is the reason the Church exists. From Genesis to Revelation, God reveals Himself as a missionary God. The Father’s heart has always been directed toward the nations. God called Abraham so that all families of the earth would be blessed. Israel was chosen not as an end in itself, but as a light to the nations. Jesus Christ came as the ultimate missionary—sent by the Father to seek and save what was lost.

When Jesus gave His final command, it was not ambiguous:

“Go and make disciples of all nations.”

This was not addressed to a missions department, nor to a select group of professionals, but to the Church itself. A church that is not mission-centered has drifted from its original purpose.

The statistics quoted are deeply troubling. If for every $100,000 given, only $102 goes toward reaching Unreached People Groups—even if that figure is off by a factor of ten—we are still left with a devastating reality: missions to the unreached are not a priority. And these are the very people with little or no access to the gospel or the Scriptures in their own language.

To put it plainly, if a company manager spent over 90% of company resources outside the company’s stated mission, it would rightly be called embezzlement. Yet we rarely apply the same moral clarity to how God’s resources are used. When the vast majority of church budgets are consumed by maintaining internal systems, buildings, and comfort—while billions remain unreached—we must ask hard questions.

This is not an argument against pastoral care, discipleship, or local ministry. These are essential. But when internal maintenance eclipses Heaven’s mission, something has gone wrong. Jesus never promised us comfort; He entrusted us with a commission.

Some leaders argue that “everything the church does is missions.” I would lovingly challenge that claim. Is the modern church truly a missionary movement—or has it become a charity primarily serving itself? Mission is not defined by geography alone, but it is defined by intentionality toward the lost. If our spending does not reflect God’s burden for the unreached, then our theology, however sound, is contradicted by our stewardship.

Jesus made it clear:

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Budgets reveal priorities more honestly than mission statements.

This is a moment for the Church to wake up—not with condemnation, but with repentance and realignment. To ask: Does our use of God’s resources reflect God’s heart? If the Father sent His Son, and the Son sends His Church, then missions cannot remain peripheral.

Money for missions is not optional—it is obedience.

The gospel was never meant to stop with us.

My prayer is that we rediscover the Church not as an institution to be preserved, but as a people sent—joyfully, sacrificially, and urgently—until the unreached hear the name of Jesus