Living by Faith

 Jesus told us to seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things would be ours as well (food, housing, clothing, basic needs).  He told his disciples, to leave behind houses and lands for the sake of the Kingdom and God would provide for them.  This was based on the long history in Israel of the Sabbath and Jubilee years, every 7th and 50th years, here God would supernaturally provide sufficient, where they were not to store up for tomorrow, but each day he would provide.   Thus our primary mode of raising support is to pray and to have others pray with us.

The scriptures teach that the labourer is worthy of his hire, especially those who labour in preaching and teaching.  However because we are working overseas much of the time where our work is not seen by those who can support us, we end up spending time working on good communications.

With the modification, that in the 21st Century we manage money by months rather than by each day, the principles remain valid.

Such living by faith is not in conflict with wise management.  In fact these are two of nine major Biblical principles in the use of finances that need to both followed.  Thus we keep good accounting of finances, and work under a board to make sure this is true, have audited accounts and so on.    This involves responsible reporitng back to people.  Since the rich are very sensitive to stewardship issues it involves hours of time filling in the appropriate forms when they wish to make a larger grant, and that means having skilled staff to operate in their world.  But these things continue to be primarily driven not by management skills but by prayer. 

The history of Urban Leadership is a history of the miraculous provision of God for many good works, of wonderful answers to prayer at each turn.