To Give or Not to Give: Rethinking Dependency, Restoring Generosity, and Redefining Sustainability

Modern mission theory is guided largely by the three self paradigm that suggests indigenous churches can only be healthy if they are self-governing, self-propagating, and self-supporting. Consequently, Western missionaries, their churches, and their agencies have been increasingly indisposed to giving generously. We must rethink the interplay of dollars dependency and what it means to do the right thing with our money as we pursue twenty-first century missions. This book answers the questionswhether Westerners ought to give or not to give in support of global evangelism and encourages maximum generosity as the path most reflective of God's heart on the matter.

Rev. John Rowell received his undergraduate college education in California and began his business career as a Certified Public Accountant working with Arthur Young Company. He has also worked for several large corporations including a Fortune 500 multi-national company. He was deeply involved in disciple-making ministries before beginning his transition from the business world toward full time vocational ministry in early 1978. John is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Free Church ofAmerica and serves on the Executive Board of Directors for Food for the Hungry (US). He also directs a consortium of more than thirty US churches committed to working to build a church planting movement in Bosnia.