Atlanta’s Victory Church Gives $100 Million to Missions

Church set goal in 1990s, and dedicates 20% of budget to missions.

From furnishing battered women’s shelters to building schools and digging clean water wells in Africa, Victory Church—a megachurch with over 18,000 members across four campuses in Atlanta—reached its goal of giving $100 million to missions since its founding in 1990.

Victory Church helped fund foster care homes with Mission for Compassion in Paraguay / Photo via social media @victorychurch

Now founding pastor Dennis Rouse hopes to see the church give another $100 million, but hopefully in half the time it took to give the first $100 million.

“This isn’t about us. The victory isn’t ours. The victory belongs to Jesus,” Senior Pastor Johnson Bowie said in a press release. “This is all for God’s name. This is all for God’s fame. This is for His kingdom. This is the Good News of the gospel. The point of our faith isn’t just to gather. It’s also to scatter and change the world around us.”

To reach the giving milestone, the church has dedicated at least 20% of its receipts to missions over the last 34 years. Rouse estimated that 50% of the giving goes to local projects and 50% to world missions.

“I think at the core of every effective church that has real impact in the world is their generosity outside of themselves,” Rouse told MinistryWatch.

“Most churches are afraid to step that deeply into missions because it then pulls back from maybe building a building or doing things for people inside the church, but we try to teach our people that church is not about a country club or a gathering place on Sunday morning. It’s not a place we go to, it’s a life we live,” he added.

Early on in its history, Rouse said the church had a vision to give to missions as part of the Acts 1:8 instruction by Jesus to be His witnesses to the “uttermost parts” of the earth. The church mission includes two pillars that affect its mission giving decisions: transforming communities and impacting the world.

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Rouse explained these pillars are essential to the vision of Victory Church and are part of the messages shared with the congregation.

In its first year, the church gave away 10% of its receipts. The second year it gave away everything it had left at the end of the budget year—about $30,000. By its fourth year, the church set the goal of giving away $100 million, and it increased its commitment to giving between 20% and 25% to missions.

This budget year, Victory Church will give about $8 million to mission causes.

Rouse told the story of a project in Uganda that builds self-sustaining villages where they rescue widows and orphans from the war. They put the widows and orphans together in homes to create families for those in need.

“We’ve seen incredible results from these villages,” where thousands have been rescued and provided for.

Early on, the projects Victory Church funded came by way of recommendations. As they got to know those leaders, they would learn of other opportunities.

The church’s missions pastor and staff meet with candidates for funding, interviewing and screening them. Often they travel to the project sites to evaluate the work and effectiveness.

After their initial work, the missions pastor presents the potential projects to the four lead pastors (including Rouse), who decide which projects to fund.

At Christmastime, Victory Church has the Christmas Gift to the World campaign in which it asks congregants to give “their best gift” to Jesus in a special offering. In 2023, the church raised $1 million in that offering alone.

This Christmas, the church has a special focus on the elderly, providing food and assistance for their needs. It will also give a large gift to Convoy of Hope that feeds hungry children all over the world.

The church has also implemented a program called “Heart of the House,” where they ask the congregation to donate over and above their tithes for a dedicated missions fund.

“We believe that one reason we’ve experienced such favor with God is because of our missions giving,” Rouse told MinistryWatch. “It’s not just missions giving overseas—we do a lot of stuff to help our community.”

The church has bought houses for those rescued from human trafficking and has furnished safe houses for women escaping domestic violence.

Rouse and the leaders at Victory Church do a lot of leadership development with other pastors, in which they share their vision and the importance of generosity.

“We tell other pastors that if they set themselves a goal to give, God will put His hand on them and bless them financially,” Rouse said.

He also tied the missions giving to trust. “When you give 20% of your money outside the church” then share with the congregation the projects that are accomplished with the money, “people don’t have any trust issues with giving.”

Victory Church provides a full accounting of the church finances every year, he added, in order to demonstrate that it is “trying to operate with high integrity” when it comes to money.

Because of their common goals, the church’s biggest recipient of funds is Equip, led by John Maxwell. Equip’s mission is “to develop and mobilize Christian leaders within their circles of influence.”

It also generously supports Messenger International led by John and Lisa Bevere because of its work in translating discipleship materials into 133 languages around the world.

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