Be careful with the coin. Three years ago, I stood in the sanctuary of a large church in Belarus that had the capacity to seat over one thousand people.
The church congregation was a few hundred and the giving of the congregation could not pay the monthly heating bills or building maintenance.
The Pastor told me in his office that the building had become an albatross around the neck of the church. As he said that, I looked over his shoulder at the picture of the American and South Korean at the ground breaking ceremony.
They had funded the building of the structure that was now an albatross. I have witnessed this many times in Eastern Europe.
A year ago, we met a Christian leader in India that told us there are many house church pastors receiving fifty USD/month from several different ministries making them the wealthiest men in their villages. All the villagers know that the money comes from the USA.
The funding of ministry in other countries from US sources is another reason that Christianity is easily labeled a foreign religion.
Two Problems with Foreign Funding
Matthew 6:21 makes it clear that where someone places their treasure is where their heart is. This creates two problems with foreign funding.
1. Foreign Funding Creates Ownership Problems
As funds are given from American churches, foundations, and other Christian entities, they also give their hearts to the ministry funded.
In fact, Matthew 6:21, appears to indicate that the more treasure given; the more heart invested. Although the giver means it as a gift, the sense of ownership often lies with the giver whose heart is fully invested.
This was evident in a friend who gave money for a freshwater well in an African village. About six months after giving the funds he was able to travel to East Africa and see the well in the village. He received a live chicken as thanks and had a wonderful cultural experience.
Several months after that, he received a call at his office in the US. It was from someone from the village who had traveled to the capital. He was calling to let the American know that his well was broken and needed repair. It was an American well in Africa!
2. Foreign Funding Creates Local Funding Problems
The Christian community in the culture is spiritually handicapped as their giving is supplanted by foreign funding.
The church is conditioned through the giving of others to not give their hearts to God in their own tithes and offerings. Someone else, who has money will give; specifically, the wealthy in the US.
We experienced this in Poland when the church roof began to leak, and a congregational meeting was held. It was announced to the members that repairs would cost about 30,000 USD.
The immediate and consensus opinion was to call the Kentucky Convention to elicit their financial help. Or maybe they could send a team to repair the leaking roof. This is not an isolated instance, but merely one example of what I have frequently observed.
3 Ways to Give and Avoid the Label of Christianity as a Foreign Entity
The church in the US is wealthy and called to give, there are so many needs, and our wealth is so great that giving can be done in such a fashion that it causes more harm than good.
This has been the cause of recent writing in books such as Toxic Charity and When Helping Hurts.
Foreign funding has created a kind of dysfunctional dependency and also hampered the spiritual witness of the indigenous church. It has also made it possible to easily label Christianity as a foreign religion.
There may be some ways to give and avoid the label of Christianity as a foreign entity.
1. We need to follow the giving of the local Christian community
We need to give where the local Christian community is already giving. The local community is best informed about ministry within their own cultural context.
When they give, it is most frequently sacrificial as discretionary spending is very limited.
If local community doesn't give it's likely that the need/project is not important. It is apparent that a large number of ministry projects funded by foreign funds are not particularly relevant in the culture.
2. Giving needs to be done through and under the auspices of the church
There are a vast number of para church ministries that are being funded entirely from foreign funding.
They are accountable, primarily to foreigners and not their own Christian communities. They are perceived by the local communities as a channel of foreign funding and are the poster child of Evangelical Christianity as foreign.
3. Foreign funding should be limited to one-time needs and not linked to ongoing expenses
It is significant that the Gentile churches in Galatia, Macedonia and Corinth were seeking to relieve the Jerusalem church's hardship does not provide for the ongoing financial needs of the Christian community in Jerusalem.
This has been a long-standing policy established by American Christian foundations and is rooted in wisdom and experience.
Closing Thoughts
Just a few weeks ago I was in a church in Uganda that had over 1,000 people crammed into their building. The floor was dirt, no glass in the windows and people crammed into rickety pews.
I was invited to speak at their membership service and afterwards I was presented with an honorarium of 2,500 Ugandan Schillings (1 USD).
One dollar is not a lot, however, it belonged to them, their building, and their ministry that I was invited to join. No one would think this church "foreign" and their witness in the community powerful.
→ Read the third part of Why Christianity is a Foreign Religion