Our church in Makati has been supporting four overseas missionaries for the past decade. For most of those years, the support was tracked in a notebook — monthly pledge amounts, actual receipts, disbursements to each missionary. The notebook worked, more or less, until the notebook keeper retired.
Setting up proper missions tracking in StewardTrack took us one Saturday morning and has made everything cleaner since.
Setting Up Missions as a Ministry Fund
Create a dedicated Ministry Fund called "Missions Fund." All missions-designated giving flows into this fund. No more mixing it with general offerings.
Tracking Monthly Support Pledges
For each supported missionary or missions organization, create a giving category (e.g., "Support — Ptr. Ramon Santos, Cambodia"). When a member gives specifically toward that missionary, their donation is coded to that category. This lets you see, at any time, exactly how much support has been received for each missionary this year.
Recording Disbursements
When you send the monthly support remittance to a missionary, record it as an expense against the missions fund. The expense category might be "Missionary Support Disbursement — [Name]." This way, your fund balance reflects actual cash on hand, not just income received.
The Annual Missions Report
At the end of the year, run a report showing total missions giving received versus total disbursed. This report is valuable for presenting to the congregation during the annual meeting, sending to your supported missionaries as a summary of their support, and informing decisions about whether to add or adjust missionary support.
"Our missions partners actually thanked us for the year-end giving report. They said we were the only supporting church that sent one." — Finance Elder, Quezon City
Missions giving is an act of faith and partnership. Tracking it properly honors both the givers and the recipients.
