10 Reasons We Hesitate to Pay for International Training Events

We are sometimes told by those in the majority world that if we do not pay for people to attend our trainings then not many will be willing to participate. While many western-based ministries have chosen to pay for their majority world brothers and sister to attend their events, we do not operate in this manner.

The Keystone Project recognizes that there are appropriate times and situations in which paying for local training events is necessary and Spirit-led. However, we believe that the practice of westerners paying for every training expense is unbiblical, harmful, and demeaning, and we discourage it as the norm for missionary work.

Galatians 6:1-8 is an important passage for us as we weigh our financial partnership with majority world leaders and churches:

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

In this passage, the Apostle Paul is working out in practical ways what it looks like to walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). On one hand, we are called to imitate Christ and bear the burdens of our brothers which they cannot bear on their own. These burdens might be spiritual such as a need for prayer or accountability, but they also may be financial. Whatever the type of burden, the context and the Greek word used here suggests that burden in question is oppressive and not bearable without outside help. Where there are crushing financial burdens on the leaders with whom we work, we seek to help relieve these burdens to the best of our ability.

But not all requests that we receive for financial support fall into the category of “crushing burden.” Many times the requests that we receive are simply for us to carry the financial “load” that God has given to each man to carry on his own (Gal. 6:5). For us to carry the God-given load of our brothers would be dishonoring to them and would take from them the reward of sowing and reaping God’s blessing which is promised for those who share their resources with those who teach the Word of God to them (Gal. 6:6). We believe that too often, western ministries have mistaken “loads” for “burdens” and have given financial handouts when they instead should have worked in cooperation with their majority world brothers and sisters.

We are not peddlers of the Word of God and we do not charge anything for the training that we give overseas. When we travel to give a training, our teachers carry their own financial load. We expect the brothers and sisters who host and attend our trainings to do the same to the best of their ability. In addition to the teaching of Galatians 6, there are at least ten other reasons that we operate in this manner:

Top 10 Reasons The Keystone Project Hesitates to Pay for International Training Events:

1. It can lead to co-dependency.
2. It would severely limit the number of training events we can do.
3. Not paying for local training events is a screening tool to insure that those attending are doing so because they truly want the training.
4. It avoids any issues or conflicts arising from unfulfilled expectations.
5. It helps us discern God’s will in where to go.
6. Paying for local training events diminishes local ownership of those events.
7. It establishes a kingdom precedent of trusting God for every need in the lives of new Keystone Project leaders.
8. It is not reproducible by the local leaders.
9. It requires a sacrificial investment on the part of those receiving the training, insuring they will take it more seriously.
10. We can’t afford to pay for every local training event.

For more on the topic of how western-based ministries can relate in a healthy way to majority world Christians, we highly recommend the books When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert and Africa Friends and Money Matters by David Maranz.