Let’s go back 2400 years to Nehemiah, the Wall-builder, for a second lesson on leadership and money. You know Nehemiah’s first lesson: Timber for his workers!

It happened again yesterday. I was having supper with a field missionary (J) who was lamenting his poor funding. 

Interview with Emeka Ohahuru, Navigators Funding Coach, Lagos, Nigeria.

Have you heard of William Thompson, AKA Lord Kelvin? He was a brilliant thermodynamics scientist who in 1848 discovered the temperature at which molecules get so cold that they refuse to move.

It was not Jesus who said the Pharisees were lovers of money. It was a parenthetical comment by Luke stating what everyone knew! What’s puzzling is that the Pharisees were the religious leaders of Jesus’ day…

Disharmony kills fundraising. When there is a disturbance in your emotional force, it is difficult to think of anything else except your wounding. Your emotions are frayed—you can’t stop thinking about what he or she did.

In the first century, the Gnostics sect declared that since God is holy, matter is evil. Only the spiritual is important. Accordingly, some early Church Fathers lived as desert hermits in an attempt to draw closer to God.

In my early ministry I struggled with “asking for money.” My conscience plagued me: If I truly trusted God, I would not need to lower myself to ask. Plus, I did not relish the idea of people saying “NO!”

A young gospel-worker said tearfully, “God called me to ministry—not to fundraising!” His first weeks of fundraising had gone well with many people saying yes—some before they were asked. But then it slowed down.