On BBQ Tickets and No Faith

**I know this post is quite lengthy, but I'm making up for not posting the last few days. :) Please read the whole thing. I'd love to know what you think.**

We're having a BBQ fundraiser this Saturday at the church to raise money for our youth to go to camp this summer (and this is free advertisement!....not really. It's more of me spilling my heart).

Let me begin by saying that, like most youth ministers, I really hate fundraisers! However, we have a lot of low-income students whom we're trying to send to IMPACT in June, and we just don't have the money to provide all of their ways. Our church is small, and while they can provide a few scholarships for some of our poorest kids, they just don't have the money to fund all of our students.

So, we're selling BBQ.

It's a lot of work trying to sell a bunch of BBQ tickets, particularly the way the economy is now. Businesses just aren't as willing to let go of a few dollars to give away this year. We're still getting some individual sales, but overall, we're having a lot more difficulty selling tickets this year than we did last year. For instance, last year we sold about 60 tickets at a couple of car dealerships. This year, we've sold 1. 1 ticket. Talk about frustrating!

I've been doing a lot of wrestling with God on several issues throughout this whole fundraiser deal. First of all, should we even do a fundraiser? I hate going around begging people for money. Part of me feels like we're not trusting God to provide for our needs. I don't know. I don't necessarily think that fundraisers are wrong. I've seen God bless fundraisers immensely and provide for them in ways that only he could receive the glory. I just don't know if we should have done one right now.

I was reading a story the other day about a man who had been doing ministry for over 60 years, and every time they needed money, all he did was post a note on their bulletin board about it, and their staff would pray about it until the need was met. Part of me thinks that's foolish, but most of me thinks that's true faith. Why don't I believe like that?

Aside from wrestling with that question, I've been doubting a lot that we will sell the 350 plates that we've committed to buying from the BBQ company. Without the car dealerships and big businesses buying, we're losing a lot of our big-ticket places. Things are really going to have to step up this week, or we're going to be stuck with a whole lot of BBQ and very little money raised.

As I think about all of this, I realize that my faith is very week. First of all, I doubted that God would provide for our needs and felt compelled to do a fundraiser (although you might disagree with me here....I'd love your feedback). Secondly, and more importantly, I have a hard time believing that we're going to sell 350 plates of BBQ. Right now, I've only got cash-in-hand for less than half of that, and the BBQ is this Saturday!

I admit that I'm struggling with trusting in God to provide for us.

I'll finish with this thought: I was reading yesterday about Gideon. If you're familiar with the story (Judges 6-8), you'll note that from a worldly standpoint, Gideon had no chance of defeating a vast army with only 300 men. God had taken away the majority of his numerical strength, and there was NO WAY Gideon could win the battle. It was too big of a task for him and his men.

But God provided, so that the LORD could be glorified.

I'm not saying this BBQ fundraiser is our battle against the Midianites, but we sure are in a similar situation. Our numbers aren't adding up to be successful right now, and for this thing to work, we're going to need the LORD to step in and provide for us, not so we can boast, but so that the LORD may be glorified and our students be brought closer to him.

May we have faith to trust in his provision.