This is the second part of my post on the things a missionary, a short term missionary or church planter should NOT do if they are hoping to win a Pastor’s support. You can can find Part 1 here: “How Not to Win a Pastor’s Support - Part One“
When you do get to meet and visit with a local church pastor for the first time, it’s important that you make a strong first impression. As the old saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Hopefully, you made an appointment and didn’t just crash in on the pastor’s day. If he was expecting you, and agreed to see you, chances are he’s interested, unless you talk him out of it! Here are three “don’ts” you’ll want to avoid so that you won’t ”turn off” the budding relationship…
#1 Don’t hit the pastor cold turkey with this question: “We’re here to see if your church can start supporting us?” That’s a question to which there is no possible way he can answer “yes.” It can’t be done. There are some preliminaries here that have to be dealt with, so even though it sounds like an honest, up-front approach, I wouldn’t lead with that punch. In building a relationship, it’s nice if you ask a few questions to which he can say, “yes,” in some form, e.g., “Can you tell us the process by which we can apply for support?” Almost every pastor can say ‘yes” to that question, and now you’re rolling. You’ve got momentum, and you’ve got something to talk about that can be done.
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#2 Don’t fail to bring any materials: I’m often stunned at people who drop by, or come on Sunday, and want to tell me about their work, and are looking for support, but they didn’t bother to bring any printed material. It’s almost like they came to church, perhaps to worship, and were suddenly inspired to talk to the pastor about support. But wouldn’t it make sense to have some specifics, in writing, that could be left with the pastor, or passed on to the missions team? If you are building a new relationship, carefully prepared and nicely done materials will help you build credibility. If your materials make your ministry look like a fly-by-night shoestring operation, it does not inspire potential investors.
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#3 Don’t call up a pastor you haven’t seen in years and say, “We’re really in a financial bind and we’re calling to see if you can make a major special contribution, like this week, and via Fed Ex?” Do missionaries actually think that in times like these, local churches have bank accounts with surplus funds just sitting there? Do pastors come in on Monday and say, “Look at all this money, I wish someone had an idea of what to do with it?” Give me a break here, I want to help you, but you have to be realistic. It always takes time to get funds together, there are budget cycles, and even with contingency funds, there are procedures to follow to get at those funds. Yes, you’re under pressure in a financial crisis, but you can’t transfer that pressure anywhere except to God, and expect good results.
Again, as with part one of this blog entry, I confess to sounding like Mr. Gripey Pastor here. But honestly, all three of the above have happened to me in the last month. My heart is breaking for missionaries whose support funds are drying up, but for the life of me, I don’t understand why so many are so out-of-tune in ways of attacking the problem that might actually work.
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We have resources to help: our eBook ”Ugrading Your Missionary Financial Support” gives very practical methods to help you in getting your missionary support up to where it needs to be. Another eBook, “Raising Support as a Church Planter” is specifically aimed at helping those in church planting ministries.
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Maybe you’re doing ministry independent of a larger organization and need to know how you could become a 501(c)3 ministry so that you could give tax-deductible receipts. Well, we’ve got something for that, too, in our eBook “Steps to Starting a 501(c)3 Ministry“.
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You can find all of the eBooks, and more, on our MissionFundrasing.com/Products page.