Life on the mission field includes unique financial stressors. Many cross-cultural workers raise their own salary and expenses. Inviting others to join in the work of the Great Commission through financial contributions can be a blessing, and always helps to grow us in humility and trust in God’s provision. But it can also be uncomfortable, frustrating, and stressful when we don’t know if our next paycheck will arrive. In addition to the pressures of fundraising, life overseas is subject to other financial wild cards such as fluctuating exchange rates, inflation, immigration fees, unexpected expenses, and even increased risk of financial loss due to robberies. Workers may find that what they raised is suddenly not sufficient for a variety of unpredictable reasons. No one becomes a missionary thinking that they will get materially rich. In fact, many of us leave more lucrative positions in our home country to become missionaries despite the cut in pay. The missionary life is definitely not about making money, nor should it be. But even with the right motivations for missions work, ongoing stress about finances can take its toll over time, eventually leading to turnover. We measured the frequency and strength of influence on the return decision for the following statements considered to be financial factors:
Results The following table summarizes the results for each question by providing:
Discussion of Quantitative Results The majority of returning missionaries felt some degree of discomfort with raising money (67%) and experienced having low financial support at some time (53%). Both affected their return decision to some degree at least half of the time, and the strength factors (0.93 and 0.95, respectively) were the largest for this section, but moderate when compared to other factors in the survey. The next tier of financial concerns were cost-of-living or inflation surprises (strength factor 0.73), and being unable to save money (0.75) or plan for retirement (0.80). While many missionaries are able to raise support for their normal monthly expenses, it is less common to raise enough for future financial planning through savings and investment. While this may not be a problem for short-term assignments, long-term missionaries may find themselves in a financially vulnerable position later in life as they sacrifice their greatest earning years in the work force to missions. 38% of missionaries struggled to adjust to their missions salary, but it affected the return decision of only 1/3 of those and not to a large degree (0.53). It seems that most missionaries are prepared to buckle down and manage their salary very carefully. As a result, the remaining items surveyed were either experienced by few or of low concern to those experiencing them. Funding Status at Departure to Mission Field In addition to the quantitative scaled data, we asked each participant if they went to the mission field fully funded. If they did not, we asked them to supply a percent of support raised relative to their goal. 75% of participants in this study went fully funded to the field. The remaining 25% went with varying degrees of funds raised relative to their goal, as indicated in the chart above. Individuals who went to the field before reaching full funding went at an average of 63% of their goal, and a median of 70%. When we divide the sample into subgroups of fully funded and not fully funded, we see that those not fully funded experienced significantly higher levels of financial distress on all factors. First, we can see that the percent that experienced each stressor was higher in all cases. Next, we can see that in nearly all cases, the percent of respondents who felt that the factor affected their return decision was also significantly higher for those not fully funded. Finally, when comparing strength factors, we can see that nearly all of the financial factors were more heavily weighted in the return decision for the not-fully-funded group.
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