Greetings from France! I stumbled upon your site through a search that had nothing to do with fundraising, but since I had already been through the process without finding much online help, I thought I’d give your site a look!

Something that struck in the above article was #3 on your list of things not to do when raising the support of a pastor and, eventually I presume, his church. While I certainly respect your pastoral experience with missionaries stopping by out of the blue to talk with you a few minutes (and while I completely agree with the other two things on this list), I have to disagree entirely with your intent to dissuade missionaries from doing #3. I have a few reasons for this:

#1 - I did this. Why? Because missionaries don’t have the guts to do this anymore, nor are they willing to do much more than write letters and change the addresses and greetings on them and send them out. The pastors I met and spoke with, in person and in several southwestern cities, were mostly astounded that I was willing to drive hours to a town just to meet pastors face to face.

#2 - They knew I was serious. They knew I was real and that getting to the mission field was heavy business for me. You can write the best letter in the world, packed with a full color portfolio and the works, and not convey that message one bit.

#3 - 99.99999% of the time, calling doesn’t do a lick of good. Secretaries do a lot of things, but they learn in about 24 hours on the job how say in the sweetest tone (and, if they’ve been at it awhile, a not so sweet tone), “I’m sorry, but the pastor is [in a meeting/studying/praying/on visitation/eating/not available] right now, can I direct you to his voice mail?” 99.99995% of the time, that voice mail isn’t going to get answered. But, 99.99995% of the time, a secretary is delighted to meet a friendly new face who hasn’t harassed her with the routine “3 attempts and let it rest” on the phone.

Brother Jim, I admit, I’m not a conventional guy. But, it seems the only church offices that had a problem with me stopping by were huge, overstaffed churches with 30 different ministries going at once, sometimes none of which had anything to do with real missions.

On the flip side, I know a pastor has to set his limits. He can only do so much and, if he’s diligent, he’s got a plan and a schedule for each day. That’s how it should be. But, if I was a pastor (and I’m not), I’d be “turned off” by the letters and portfolios from people who were not willing to stop by my office before I’d be turned off by the ones who were.

With sincere respect,
James

Thanking you.
Yours in Christ
Bro: B.Isarael,
Redeemer Gospel Ministries,
Plot No: 23, Kamalabai NagarColony,
Nagaram (Village & Post),
Keesara Mandal, R.R district,
Hyderabad-500 083,
India.

Now as missionaries on the field, we greatly appreciate our mission agency’s policy of screening all who want to come and “help”. We’re currently waiting on approval for a young lady from one of our supporting churches to come for several months and have been in contact with other young adults who would like to come next year. We see great value in providing opportunities for those serious about ministry (missions or otherwise) to come for visits or extended stays, but we also see the value of making sure they’re ready.

It is an investment of time and money on the part of both those who come AND the missionaries so it goes without saying that thought and prayer need to go into the planning, preparation and actual trip.

Thanks for this ministry.
Paul.