Missionary Confidential

Missionary Presentation Training

Editor’s Note: Please welcome our new contributor, D. Simon, to the blog. If you have a written piece about general missions issues and would like to be considered for a Guest Blog Post to the site, please contact us on our About page.

Being sent to the mission field by my home church, I don’t have the mission agency experience that most missionaries probably have. So I have a question, do mission agencies train their missionaries on how to deliver a fundraising presentation?

Perhaps I should back up for a moment to explain why I ask. I am called a missionary by many because I am serving in a foreign field, sent by my home church, and supported by churches and individuals in my home country. However my role is essentially the same as it would be if I was still in my home country; I am a pastor. The church I serve was started over a hundred years ago by a national and from what I can discern, I am the first person to pastor it from the States.

Last Sunday morning I had an interesting experience. We had a national who is on furlough from his mission field speaking at our church. Here I am the foreign pastor, listening to the “pitch” being given by a local in my mission field who is heading back to his mission field. That in itself was an odd experience.

I was looking forward to his presentation and was very interested in learning more. While I wish I could say it was informative and captivating, I’m afraid it was neither, but it was a very long fifty minutes. There were stats, stats, and more stats, but no personal stories from this family that had already spent four years in their field. After fifty minutes I knew very little about what he does, and absolutely nothing about his needs, financial or otherwise.

This experience made me wonder, did his mission agency prepare him for this?   Read More…

Fundraising Through Facebook?

A friend forwarded me a newsletter that he receives which deals specifically with missionary fundraising, both training and suggestions.  The current issue suggests joining Facebook, if you haven’t already, then finding school friends or old acquaintances specifically to (in time) ask them to financially support your ministry as a missionary.

I’m not on Facebook, but I was on MySpace a couple years back and must admit that I tried just what they are suggesting.  It didn’t work for me; perhaps it would work for others. Check out what the newsletter had to say below:

Facebook: The Support Raiser’s New Best Friend

“I Can’t Call You a Missionary”—ouch

One of our supporters showed up last week. We barely knew her, but she was planning a vacation to our mission field and thought it would be great to stop by and visit. Having gone through this before, we knew the drill what we would be asked and which areas would be key to show our supporter.

Because of the distance from where she was staying, an overnight stay with us made the most sense and we were happy to accommodate. We met up with her and began the tour. First we showed her the church that we work with, which is a Gothic-style, small building in need of repair. Despite the improvements and maintenance needed, it is a beautiful building, complete with stained-glass windows of angels and mortals looking up to heaven. Being American like us, our supporter was astounded by the church, partly because there aren’t too many like this in our home state.

After showing the surrounding areas and explaining the spiritual need of the country, we continued on to our house. As she walked through our place, it was then that she made the statement, with a smile, “I can’t call you a missionary!” Read More…

How I Became a Missionary, Part 4: You’re Nuts

I’ve been posting a series on how I became a full-time missionary to Western Europe. Click for “Part 1: My Backstory”, “Part 2: Ashes in My Mouth”, and “Part 3: Learning the Ropes”.

With our “marching orders” from God, we set out to begin the fundraising process and, at the same time, reveal our future plans to friends and family. Because of our denominational history and our family’s lack of encouragement in ministry or missions, we knew that this would not be easy.

I wish I could give a report of hugs, joy and excitement from those who knew us well, but you can probably anticipate that’s not part of this story. We explained God’s call, our heart, the (very) long-term nature of our ministry in Western Europe, and the fact that we were about to sell off or give away most everything that we’d accumulated during our marriage. Yes, everything: car, furniture, basically all you would find in a three-bedroomed house. I do not mention this out of pride but the fact is necessary to understand people’s shock and disapproval.

Friends received the news with polite looks of concern, you know, the pained grimace of a smile with the drawn out, “Well, if that’s what you want.” I know that they were quietly reviewing the other ministries we’d been involved in and (understandably) thinking that this was just another phase for which we were liquidating our life. Some felt we wouldn’t even make it out of the States. Read More…

How I Became a Missionary, Part 3: Learning the Ropes

This week I’ve been posting a series on how I became a full-time missionary to Western Europe. Click for “Part 1: My Backstory” and “Part 2: Ashes in My Mouth”.

So the scary word “missionary” was before us. God had made it clear that this was what He wanted for us, and it was rather daunting. Unlike some Christians I have met, this had not been a goal for either of us at any point in our lives, before or during our marriage. We were not PKs (Pastor’s Kids) or MKs (Missionaries’ Kids), nor were we hyper-religious. We did not grow up reading stories of famous missionaries. While I believed in the Great Commission and had much respect for those in the mission field, it didn’t seem like it was for me. It seemed weird. And difficult.

The questions started swirling around: what will this look like, how will we live, what about funds and, most importantly, where will we go? Some of our lack of comprehension about missions was further complicated by the fact that the large denomination that we were raised in (they are not responsible for sending us here, by the way) sent and paid missionaries at the administration level, discouraging the fundraising process or individual churches sending missionaries. We had a missionary or two speak at our respective churches, but because the need to appeal for funds was absent it seemed that few were willing to talk to churches about what they did in the field. Read More…