How would you like another stream of income for your church or missions budget?
What would you think if every time someone in your church missed a Sunday for vacation they were still giving to the ministry?
Somebody was paid a commission on every trip the people on your church roll or supporter list booked this year. A commission is generated whether or not anybody claims it for a kingdom cause. It is paid by the cruise line or the resort, out of their own margin, on a trip that was going to be booked regardless. Only the destination of the commission is still up for decision, and you are the one who can tell “your people” that it can go to your ministry!
If you want the long version, here is exactly how travel commissions work — who pays them, why the big booking sites are paid out of the same fare, and where the money goes afterwards.
How it works
Cruise lines, resorts and tour operators pay a commission on every booking made through a travel advisor, exactly as they pay one on every booking made through a website. When “your people” book through Steward Travel, that commission is received there and 5% of their booking goes to the ministry they name.
If you pastor a church, “your people” is your congregation. If you are on the mission field, “your people” is your supporters.
If you pastor a church
Count the families in your congregation who went somewhere this year. A week at the beach, a cruise for an anniversary, a flight to see grandchildren, a week in the mountains. Every one of those trips generated a commission the moment it was booked.
None of it came out of the family’s pocket, and none of it came to the church. It went to whichever website took the booking. Your people were already funding something — it simply wasn’t you.
I am not asking your congregation to give more. I am asking you to tell them that the giving they are already doing, without knowing it, can be pointed at the church they already love.
If you are a missionary
Your supporters take vacations. That is not a failure of devotion; it is how people survive long enough to keep supporting you. Those trips are already paying somebody, and you are not on the list.
This gives a donor a way to add to your support without adding to their budget. They were already going to take the trip. They were already going to spend the money. Their trip used to pay the cruise line’s commission — now it can become another one-time gift to your ministry account alongside their monthly support.
For someone raising support, asking donors to do something they already love but to redirect some of the money to a missionary they already love seems like an easy ask.
Rest is part of the calling too
A practical guide to planning time away that actually restores you: where to go, what it costs, and how to come back different.
Run the Numbers:
Across your congregation
Thirty families, one trip a year. In a church of a hundred and fifty that is deliberately conservative — it assumes most of the room travels nowhere.
Average booking $3,500. Two people, a week somewhere, flights and a hotel. That lands in the $2,000–$4,999 tier, where the gift starts at $100.
Thirty trips at $100 is $3,000 a year.
Now let ten of those thirty be the bigger trips a congregation actually takes — a cruise, an anniversary, two weeks instead of one, somewhere around $6,000. Those move into the next tier, where the gift starts at $250. Twenty at $100 and ten at $250 is $4,500 a year.
And one church trip — a men’s retreat, a mission team, a staff getaway — is a group booking, which can be worth more than the thirty individual trips put together.
Across your support base
Sixty supporting households, twenty of them traveling. Most missionaries I know have a list longer than sixty, and assuming two in three of them go nowhere is deliberately pessimistic.
Average booking $3,500. The same trip, the same tier, the same $100 — supporters and congregants book the same kinds of holidays.
Twenty trips at $100 is $2,000 a year.
Now let five of those twenty be the bigger ones — a milestone anniversary, a retirement cruise, the trip they have been saving for. Fifteen at $100 and five at $250 is $2,750 a year.
Put that next to what it costs to raise $2,750 in new monthly support, and against the number of newsletters and coffees that takes. This asks for none of it.
If I booked an entire church group to visit you on the field, you could get part of that commission as well.
Cut the number in half if you think I am being optimistic. It is still money your people are currently handing over to a booking website rather than a kingdom cause.
What it costs the traveler
Nothing. That is the whole claim, and it is worth stating in parts — the money was already in the price before anybody started shopping.
- The same price. Booking through me costs the traveler no more than booking the same trip directly.
- The same deals. Kids sail free, buy one get one, the free drink package, free Wi-Fi, onboard credit, the Black Friday sale. They belong to the cruise line, not the website.
- The same loyalty accounts. Existing cruise and hotel loyalty numbers go on the booking.
- No fee for planning. There is no charge to the traveler for the work of putting the trip together.
Is it appropriate for a pastor or missionary to route a commission to their own church or ministry?
Yes — and it is worth being precise about why it is not a conflict of interest. Nobody in your congregation actually gave anything. No money from the church budget was used. The money was never yours to manage in the first place: it is the cruise line or resort’s cost of sale, so the only question on the table is where the commission for a travel sale is being redirected.
Where it does need care is disclosure. You are the person telling your congregation to book their travel through a ministry site rather than the big-box websites. Let them know that you are not personally benefiting from the commission but the church as a whole is. You are not lining your pockets but you are helping bring in another stream of income for the church to help cover all of your different ministry line items.
And one thing to make explicit if you are a missionary: when you tell your supporters to book through Steward Travel, tell them where the gift actually goes. It is sent to your missions organization and credited to your ministry account — it is not paid to you directly. That is deliberate. It keeps the gift inside the same accountability your support already runs through, which is better for transparency and easier for a supporter to trust.
What to do next
This is one of the travel industry’s best-kept secrets, and I could really use your help getting the word out. It benefits you. It benefits me. It benefits the people doing the traveling. And it benefits God’s kingdom. Win, win, win, win.
Here is how you can help.
If you pastor a church
Say it once from the front. Two sentences in the announcements does more than a bulletin insert nobody keeps.
Tell the people who travel most. Every congregation has a handful, and they are the ones for whom this is worth the most.
Put it where trips get planned. A men’s retreat, a mission team, a staff getaway — those are group bookings, and the largest line on the table above.
Put the link where your church already looks. The bulletin, the app, the weekly email — wherever people go when they want a link from you.
If you are a missionary
Add two sentences to your next newsletter. Not a campaign and not a special appeal — two sentences and a link in the update you were already sending.
Then send one newsletter that is only this. It costs your supporters nothing, which is not a sentence they hear from you often, so it earns its own hearing.
Mention it on social once a quarter. Supporters book trips all year, and one post in January reaches nobody who books in August.
Tell your sending church directly. A sending church planning a team trip is a group booking, and the largest line on the table above.
Read next
The Gratitude Giving Program explains how the gift is calculated and paid — the tiers, the timing, and how you name the recipient. That page is for when you are the traveler. This page is what helps you know what to do with your parishioners or donors.
A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
