Posted by D. Simon on May 18, 2009
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…
Posted by C. Holland on May 07, 2009
Continuing with Question Week:
Do we obsess too much about details in ministry?
Here’s what I’ve noticed: over the years, both in the States and now in the mission field, there seems to be an attitude of having to do things a certain way to attract people to church/Christ, or it won’t happen at all. For instance, an emphasis on only a certain style of worship, or the way that all churches are now encouraged to join Facebook and constantly Twitter. Or the importance placed upon incredibly high production values on Sunday, such as laser lights, full rock band and video production for the sermon. There is an underlying attitude that if your church gathering doesn’t tick all the right boxes, there’s no way that people will come to your church—or even come to Christ.
But the reality is that people do on both accounts, even when things don’t seem perfect to us. I remember some of the services in our ministry history that didn’t go right because something electronic broke down were often times the most poignant as there was a simplicity to them. I’m not arguing against excellence, planning or doing a half-baked job (for a great post on how we may be taking excellence too far, see this blog post from Collide Magazine). I just notice the attitude among ministries both in the States and in my mission field that if you can’t do a “big thing” in church service, then don’t do it at all. Yet in unglamourous industrial estates or in peeling, dilapidated stone churches there are people finding Christ for the first time.
Those who are originally from countries other than the States, is this a specific cultural thing coming from America or is it more pervasive in Christianity throughout all cultures?
Posted by C. Holland on May 05, 2009
Another Question Week:
How much (or what) should you communicate back home to your supporters?
We live in a unique time when we can instantly update or be updated about a number of things, from the trivial to the most important. There’s a lot that we can share with people to educate and update about our missions ministry, including prayer requests and praises. Our communication strategy includes an e-newsletter every other month, a quarterly printed newsletter (for those who don’t have email—yes, those people exist!), and a blog that we update several times a month, trying to include pictures as well. For specific supporters or churches, we’ve sent personal letters, postcards, thank you notes, and even made phone calls to keep the communication flowing. We even maintain a telephone number in the States that forwards to our mission field. If anyone said we were unreachable or weren’t letting supporters know what we’re doing, I would have to laugh.
We try to report what we do, but often times I find that a lot of it is the same sort of thing over and over, so we try to supplement with information about the social changes in our field that could affect peoples’ openness to hearing the Gospel. Sometimes we’ll post photos that aren’t completely related to ministry. I struggle with what to say or how much to reveal because, while I want to make sure our personality comes through, I don’t want to be terribly public with everything in my life.
The other issue that I struggle with is the fact that our nationals do try to research us on the web, and this includes our blog. We’re not in an overly-hostile mission field, yet we quickly found that the blog’s innocent reporting became a lightning rod of hostility from those who do not want us here. Due to some IT magic, our missionary blog is no longer viewable within our mission field, and it’s important we think about safety.
What do you tell your supporters, and how much/often do you communicate?
Posted by C. Holland on Apr 23, 2009
A good friend here in my mission field (a fellow American Christian who’s here for a secular job) recently had a great dialogue with me about why people find ministry so difficult in missions work. While our interaction was specific to our area, it did make me wonder if some of the following questions were posed to potential missionaries, either through their mission agency or their sending church.
No matter where your particular mission field may be, if you’re considering missions ministry (in the full-time sense), you might want to ask yourself the following questions.
In relationships, what if… Read More…
Posted by C. Holland on Apr 10, 2009
Finishing up Question Week:
What books/reading would you recommend to someone considering full-time mission work?
As referenced on our “So, You Want to Be a Missionary…” page, the book we considered invaluable to our journey was “Funding Your Ministry: Whether You’re Gifted or Not” by Scott Morton. We most certainly would have made several errors without it, and it includes honest talk about myths, mistakes to avoid, strategies, and a section for beginners. Especially helpful are communication techniques and money management ideas.
I’m curious about what book(s) have helped you on your journey (and we can all agree that The Bible should be on the list!).
Missionary Confidential by Email
I jest. Good one!