Singapore churches can now apply for their missionaries who are keen to be sent out into the nations to receive funding support for up to two years with the launch of a new Missions Seed Fund.

Up to one-third of the total livelihood costs for the full mission duration will be covered. The funding is capped at S$1,000 per month for singles and S$3,000 per month for families (two or more dependents) for a maximum duration of two years.

The new Missions Seed Fund, an independent entity governed by an independent Seed Fund Advisory Committee which evaluates and decides on all applications, was launched on Thursday (October 2) at the Antioch Summit 2025 held at Bartley Christian Church.

The three-day conference is expected to draw over a thousand participants from 181 churches; 34 organisations and 37 overseas ministries from more than 10 countries will also be participating.

Participants at the Antioch Summit 2025.

“We hope to rally believers to give to the deployment and care of missionaries, especially to seed-fund smaller churches and for post-field support,” said Rev Ng Zhiwen, Strategic Coordinator of Antioch21.

The Missions Seed Fund was established in response to observations that some churches struggle to raise full financial support to send long-term missionaries out or to cover their needs when they return back home to Singapore.

As a nationwide platform for churches, the Seed Fund also enables believers to exercise generosity and give towards the deployment of missionaries. In partnership with local churches in Singapore, this fund seeks to support the sending of long-term missionaries to the nations, especially among the least-reached people groups.

So far, about S$107,000 have been raised from 14 partners (online and offline) on the Agathos giving platform for the Missions Seed Fund. This is a pooled fund open to all churches and individuals across denominations to contribute to.

The aspirational goal is to mobilise the Singapore Church to collectively contribute S$10 million to this seed fund for missionaries, said Ps Zhiwen.

Rev Ng Zhiwen, Strategic Coordinator of Antioch21, giving updates on the national missions movement.

The raising of S$10 million for missions work is one out of the three faith goals listed by the late Joseph Chean when he launched the Decade of Missions (2023-2033), a vision for churches in Singapore to be involved in global missions over the next 10 years.

The other two faith goals are to mobilise 80 per cent of local evangelical churches to engage in missions and to place 1,000 Singaporean missionaries and 300 migrant missionaries in the nations for at least two years.

Other ministry and setup costs, however, will not be covered. These include expenses involving the rental of premises for ministry, flights for pastoral visit and the hiring of domestic helpers.

Eligibility criteria 

To be eligible for funding, the missionaries need to have their local churches that are registered in Singapore to apply on their behalf. Individuals applying without local church support will not be accepted.

The missionaries must be engaged in long-term missions (two years or more), and they must be Singaporean, permanent residents or non-citizens who are residing in Singapore, and active members of the applying church.

The missionary should have sound character and competency, as vouched for by the local church. This includes the individual’s personal qualifications, maturity of faith as well as their track record in ministry involvement. 

The applying church should have the relevant structures in place to support the missionary holistically. This includes providing member care, having policies to support the missionary financially and having clarity on the vision and purpose of the proposed mission. 

Some key considerations that will be taken into account for the funding include a priority given to those focusing on unreached people groups (defined as having less than 2% evangelical Christians), and the clarity of the local church’s vision and commitment to missions as assessed using the Church Missions Readiness Assessment (CMRA) and longer-term plans from the church. Churches will have to submit applications with their CMRA, which identifystrengths and growth areas across four key domains for missions sending.

Antioch21 commits to journey alongside the local church to help them grow as a mission-sending church.

So far, two pilot runs for applications have been done with six churches and 11 missionaries have since been approved for funding.

For churches planning to deploy their missionaries before June 2026, the application process will start in November. Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed and the approved ones will be notified in January 2026. For those to be deployed later on, there are upcoming grant calls scheduled.

Churches interested in applying for the Seed Fund can submit an application form here, or drop the team an email for further details at MissionsSeedFund@gmail.com.

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