Beyond good intentions
A few weeks ago, I sat with a ministry leader from Southern Europe who had spent years faithfully serving his community. On paper, the ministry looked robust and flourishing. It had international partners, well-funded projects and some impressive impact stories and reports.
And yet, as we spoke, something felt fragile. At one point, the leader looked me in the eye and said:
“To be honest with you, Redina, if two of our donors from the USA were to stop funding us next year… I don’t know what we would do.”
These words revealed more than any financial report could.
1. The slow drift into dependency
His story is not unusual; it is unfolding in parts of the former Eastern Europe, the Balkans and other parts of the world. In places and ministries where mission funding comes from abroad, financial planning becomes reactive rather than strategic. Budgets are created around available grants, and leadership decisions are guided by donor or international partners’ priorities rather than local mission discernment.
Perhaps, even without realising it, church and ministry leaders who depend on foreign funds stop asking themselves: “What is God calling us to build?” and focus instead on “What can we do to get funded?”
I define this as survival-mode fundraising, a posture oriented around securing the next tranche of funding rather than building locally sustainable ministries.
This approach falls short of what the Bible teaches because Scripture consistently calls our attention to what God has already entrusted locally. In (2 Kings 4:2), the prophet Elisha asks the widow, “What do you have in your house?”
Similarly, in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14–30), the master holds the servants accountable not for what they lack but for how they steward what they have been given.
In both these cases, the turning point is not external provision; it is using what God has already placed within reach.
2. The loss of confidence in local believers
As we continued talking, the ministry leader shared another interesting insight.
“Believers here … they don’t really give. That’s why we depend on outside help.”
Over time, reliance on foreign funding ends up producing exactly what he said: a diminished confidence in local capacity. And, this is how this narrative takes root:
A ministry is launched by local believers, sometimes in partnership with international ministries, but outside the local church. Usually, leaders with resources from the Global North commit to supporting this work for a period of time. From the start, resources are coming from elsewhere, and local people are recipients, not participants in the mission… Mission work starts with the wrong assumption that ‘foreigners have money, and they are generous. Local people don’t have anything to give.’
Yet the New Testament offers a strikingly different vision. The Macedonian churches, despite their poverty, are described by the apostle Paul as overflowing in generosity: “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (2 Corinthians 8:2).
Likewise, Paul reminds the Philippians that provision ultimately comes from God: “My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
What these passages and others highlight is that generosity, in the Kingdom of God, is not first about economic capacity. It is about participation in God’s mission. And when this important truth is lost, dignity, ownership, and the shared calling of God’s people are diminished.
3. When funding starts to determine what gets done
As the ministry leader and I mapped out their key programmes, we could see clearly that each initiative and activity was tied to some partner’s requirement and aligned with a funding framework.
There was a lot of good work being done, but little freedom to innovate. In addition to this, a lot of leadership time was consumed by reporting, compliance, and fundraising. In effect, this ministry had become an implementer of externally defined priorities.
The Bible once again offers a corrective lens. In (Proverbs 16:3), we read: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans” And in (Acts 13:2), we see a church that gathers in worship, listening, and discerning, and it is there that the Holy Spirit speaks and sends workers to the mission field.
The implication is that local churches and ministry leaders should be praying and discerning together the direction of the mission work, not international partners or funders.
4. The turning point
Toward the end of our conversation, I asked the ministry leader: If your funding stopped tomorrow, would you continue this work?
He thought for a few minutes. Then said:” I believe we would, but we need to grow local funding. We need to share our calling with local churches and invite them to join us in God’s mission.”
You see, breaking the dependency is not about rejecting foreign funding. It is about reclaiming a biblical vision for participation in mission that has somehow been lost. And it begins with inviting local churches and believers to support God’s mission, with celebrating local generosity, and with clarifying a vision that is owned locally.
This, I must admit, is slower work, less exciting for those who want quick results but more enduring in the long run.
