“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation<\/em>” (Mark 16:16). It is called the Great Commission, and so it is. First given to the apostles, the work of Christians everywhere is to take the gospel to the lost. The church at Thessalonica is a good example for us: “For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth<\/em>…” (I Thessalonians 1:8). Our challenge is to imitate them, but how do we do it? How do we take the gospel to the world? One way is through the financial support of men who preach.<\/p>\n Paul argued his right to receive wages when he wrote, “So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel<\/em>” (I Corinthians 9:14). In fact, he received wages from other churches while in Corinth (II Corinthians 11:8). Further, the church at Philippi supported his work in Thessalonica (Philippians 4:15-16). Therefore, it is certainly scriptural for an evangelist to receive wages and for churches to send wages to those who preach.<\/p>\n In April of 1992, I wrote an article in Searching The Scriptures<\/em> entitled “Seeking Outside Support.” Designed to help preachers with this process, I offered the following practical suggestions:<\/p>\n I followed that article the next month with another entitled, “Sending Outside Support.” This article was directed to churches that can support men in other places. I made the following five recommendations:<\/p>\n More than twenty years later, though I would likely add to both lists, I believe they still contain solid advice. Notice, however, the thread that runs through both lists: Good communication. It is imperative to raise, maintain, and provide support to ensure effective, thorough communication flows between a preacher and his supporting church(es). Effective communication is to a relationship what blood is to the body: it gives life. Without it, relationships do not work well, and many fail altogether.<\/p>\n How do we fuel the fires of evangelism, especially foreign evangelism, within a local church? Good, effective communication! In our VBS this year, we developed an “Interactive Evangelism” classroom. We brought all our kids through this room to inform and explain to them the work of evangelism. We used Skype to connect with Brian Allen in South Africa, John Gentry in Moldova, Dennis Allan in Brazil, and Joel Holt in Puerto Rico. These men did an outstanding job in telling our children about their work, and the kids responded with excitement.<\/p>\n Another thing we do is use each fifth Sunday night as “Evangelism Report” night. One of our young men compiles the reports we have received over the past quarter and presents them to the church on the work being done. We pray for the needs of these men and their work. Because of the positive response to our VBS use of Skype, we plan to use it to deliver live reports from men we support around the world (much better than letters, which few may read). Once more, the key is effective communication. In both instances, it takes the form of presenting to the church a clear vision of what we are doing to support preachers elsewhere, with the added benefit of helping these men keep in touch with us.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jim Deason via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 14 No. 8, August 2014 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:16). It is called the Great Commission, and so it is. First given to the apostles, the work of Christians everywhere is to take the gospel to the lost. The church…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1511,536],"class_list":["post-93923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preachers","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56572,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gospel-paul-preached\/","url_meta":{"origin":93923,"position":0},"title":"The Gospel Paul Preached","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sean P. Cavender The book of Romans is Paul's defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout the epistle, Paul details man's sin, man's need for justification, the conditions for justification, the effects of God's grace, and the assurances of the child of God. He makes several statements of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90778,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gods-power-to-save\/","url_meta":{"origin":93923,"position":1},"title":"God’s Power to Save","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0by J. F. Dancer When Paul wrote the letter to the saints at Rome, he explained to them why he had not yet visited them. He had promised to come and still intended to do so (Romans 15:24), but had been prevented (Romans 1:13). Then he set forth the basic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21620,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gospel-and-the-social-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":93923,"position":2},"title":"The Gospel and the Social Gospel","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What is the Difference? by Bob Myhan Many of the Lord's churches have gone the way of the modernistic de\u00adnominations, abandoning the gospel for\u00a0\"a different gospel, which is not another\"\u00a0(Galatians 1:6-7). Paul, in the passage just quoted, used the word \u201cgospel\u201d in an accommodative sense. There was but one gospel.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/outreach\/","url_meta":{"origin":93923,"position":3},"title":"Outreach","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jimmy Mickells The word \"outreach\" is an expression that has been coined in recent years. If I understand what is meant by its use, it means an effort by a local church to reach out to those that are lost to save them from sin. That certainly is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/outreach.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18236,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-the-gospel-have-been-preached-to-every-creature\/","url_meta":{"origin":93923,"position":4},"title":"How could the gospel have been preached to every creature?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My brother and I disagree about Matthew 24:14. I used it in relation to where Paul said the Gospel has been preached in all the world. His response was that was saying Jesus' death had been proclaimed to all the earth but not preached. I understand his point of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45139,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-articles-are-not-the-gospel-they-only-use-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":93923,"position":5},"title":"Your articles are not the gospel, they only use the gospel","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was happy to read your statement on your home page and hope to visit you when am in Omaha. What bothers me is \"the articles you write and put on the site.\" The New Testament church must and should only preach the word of God. Most, or all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Seeking Outside Support<\/h2>\n
\n
Sending Outside Support<\/h2>\n
\n
Good Communication<\/h2>\n
An Idea or Two<\/h2>\n