Frequently Asked Questions

Coworkers Ministry strives to keep expenses to absolute minimums, but there are always expenses involved with operating a nonprofit organization. Coworkers Ministry is strictly operated by volunteers, and pays no salaries. To date, we are pleased to say that just over 90% of funds raised have been used to directly fund short term international missionaries in their efforts to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Yes, we at Coworkers Ministry believe that, as Christians we all should tithe or give financial offerings to our home church.

However, the local church generally has a much larger overhead. A study by David Joannes of Within Reach Global states that as much as 85% of funds donated to the local church goes directly to Internal Operations, which is completely understandable. That same study shows that in many cases only 2% goes to overseas missions (both evangelistic and charitable). Another source listed in that study finds that only 0.5% is used to reach the unreached.

At Coworkers Ministry funding the short term international missionary is our only focus.

Yes, but the vast majority of those organizations provide financial support for long term missionaries. Funding for short term international mission trips most often comes from the missionaries personal savings or personal fundraising efforts.

Through our own experiences, God has shown us that while an individual may be willing and available to go on a short term international mission trip, and very capable of meeting the needs of the receiving organization and sharing the Gospel; finances are often a mountain sized obstacle. Short term international missionaries make many sacrifices like using vacation or PTO for the time on the trip versus a personal vacation. They spend time and effort preparing for the mission trip often learning about the culture they are going into, and ways to better share the Gospel with that particular people group. In many instances, they are already serving their home church, perhaps in multiple capacities. Extra time for fund raising could be just too much for an overextended Christ follower.

We all know that in America, as much as 70% of our population lives paycheck to paycheck. With upwards of 68% of Americans identifying as Christian, there is definitely some overlap. All that to say that there are multitudes of Christians that could/would serve Jesus on an international short term mission trip if they just had help funding it.

Most other short term international mission trip scholarships offer very limited funding support, with the most common scholarship capping at $500 per missionary per trip. Occasionally an individual missionary may be able to receive multiple scholarships from multiple organizations.

While we do acknowledge that the individual missionary should bear a portion of the cost, at Coworkers Ministry we believe wholeheartedly the context of 3 John versus 5-8 (specifically versus 6 & 7) gives us the blessed responsibility to meet as much of the need as feasible, and as the Ministry’s funding allows. Therefore, we offer up to 90% of the travel expenses with an individual missionary receiving not more that $2500 in scholarships from Coworkers Ministry per year.

3 John verses 6 & 7 CSB: You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God, since they set out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from pagans.