The Financial Policy of CLC

By Guy Cornell, UK National Leader

We trust God to supply all of our financial needs, and not only that, we trust Him to supply all of our workers, our shop locations, our customers, the materials we sell – we are wholly dependent on Him. This thinking goes back to the first days of CLC when we were founded in the 1940s.

There was a time before this when missionaries in general were founded by denominational groups. They did good work, but the denominations would only send out the amount of missionaries that they had funds to support. This left many needy areas. People like Hudson Taylor of China Inland Mission and later C.T. Studd of WEC began to wonder if the call of God was enough, if they should proceed in ministry without the backing of a denomination or a wealthy benefactor. They finally decided that they would appeal to God directly for funds and not to people; if He really wanted the ministry to go forward He would provide.

George Mueller, in opening many orphanages in the Bristol area, admitted in his autobiography that the orphans themselves were not the primary reason he began the work. It was a worthy work and he had a great heart for the orphans, but his first reason was that Christians in his day needed “to have their faith strengthened. I longed to have something to point to, as a visible proof, that our God and Father is the same faithful God as ever He was; as willing as ever to prove Himself to be the Living God, in our day as formerly, to all who put their trust in Him… Now, if I a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained, without asking any individual, the means for establishing and carrying on an Orphan House: there would be something which, with the Lord’s blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted of the reality of the things of God.”

This is the tradition we come from, where the original founders, Ken and Bessie Adams, felt we were not to make appeals for money but to take them to God, not receiving any salary from the work. Here in the UK, things have changed some since the early days; even though we still don’t pay salaries, we now help to provide housing and utilities, and make sure people can travel to the shop where they serve. But each person is still dependent on God’s provision for their needs, as a testimony to them as well as to others. Watchman Nee once said, “There is an idea prevalent that if a Christian worker has a settled income he can be more at leisure for the work and consequently will do it better; but as a matter of fact, in spiritual work there is need for an unsettled income, because that necessitates intimate fellowship with God, constant clear revelation of His will, and direct divine support. God wishes His workers to be cast on Him alone for financial supplies, so that they cannot but walk in close communion with Him and learn to trust Him continually.”

This is our heritage, and one that we believe God wants us to continue. As an added blessing, we have found that in not paying salaries, we have money available to use in support of CLC works in other countries. In 2007 we will send £100,000 to supplement works and for special projects in countries like Poland, Sierra Leone, Russia, and Myanmar, among many others. As God gives to us, we feel we are to give back to Him as He directs.