On Planning a Missions Conference

Dear pastors and other church missions people, If I was in your shoes, preparing a church for a missions conference, I would want to prepare it for the maximum benefit of both my church and my missionaries. I would want my church to be enlightened about and enthused for missions; I would want my missionaries to be encouraged and better equipped for their mission. Here are some practical things, from a missionary perspective, that I would suggest you do or not do:

1. I'd get the church learning about and praying for the missionary families and their fields well in advance. There's nothing that has blessed us more than meeting believers who are asking us specifically about certain issues or ministries that we've been facing the past year. This is so rare that when someone asks us a specific question that we know could only spring from an actual reading of our prayer letters, we are floored (not to mention warmed).

2. Speaking of questions, I'd encourage people to ask a lot of them, maybe even devoting some service time to this--a "panel discussion" or something. Missionaries love talking about their field and ministries; they spend a lot of time trying to cram the immensity of their burden into an 8-minute video or a canned speech they present four times per week. But their passion and personality tends to come out more in Q&A. Ask them good questions and you'll be amazed how much of an impact it will have on you--and them!

3. Far in advance, I'd tell the missionaries what to expect all around, including where they will be staying, what their activities will be, what the weather is usually like, when they are speaking, how much time they have, what themes you want them to touch on, what their options are for multimedia. Yes, we are usually flexible on all these things, but if we are prepared, we will be more effective in your conference.

4. I'd give them the name, phone number, and email address of the church's audio-visual guru to pre-discuss compatibility issues for their presentations.

5. Churches have different dress styles; missionaries often have to pack three different wardrobes to make sure at least one of them will be appropriate! So I'd tell the missionaries how people typically dress for your services and for the other events they'll be attending. What does the pastor wear when he speaks? If dress codes aren't that important to you, tell the missionaries that and put them at ease.

6. I'd involve my church by asking members to list their abilities, hobbies and resources that they would be willing to share with the missionaries. Got a mechanic in the church who could work on their car? A barber? An educator who can evaluate their home-schooled kids? A doctor or dentist? A computer geek who can tune their computer up? Someone who has access to pharmaceutical samples? Give a checklist to the missionaries in advance of the conference and have them check off the resources they would like to take advantage of--then hook them up!

7. I'd never ask them merely, "Is there anything you need for your ministry?" What's a missionary to do with that question? Many of us don't want to be presumptuous by asking for the Land Rover, especially when other missionaries go modest and ask for a book. No missionary wants to come across as a "moochinary," but on the same time people can't support visionary projects they are ignorant about! So help the poor missionaries out! If you have a desire and the ability to fund a significant need like a vehicle or building project, tell them "Don't be bashful. Tell us all your ministry needs, however great or small." Or, "we have about $X,000 set aside for each missionary to support a special ministry project ... give us some ideas." And don't forget to include a nicely-worded disclaimer that they may not get what they request, just to avoid any misunderstanding.

8. Along the same lines, I'd rethink how you shower gifts upon your missionaries. Whenever I have been on the receiving end of a "Christmas in September"-type evening in a missions conference, I have enjoyed the glee on the faces of the church members almost as much as the glee on the faces of my children. So this paragraph isn't critical at all! This is a GOOD thing to do for missionaries and for your church! However, again, you need to prepare the missionaries for the event. If you are a church prone to extreme generosity, you should INFORM the missionaries that it's OK to ask for the computer or the digital video camera. Tell them that no one will think them presumptuous. One church told us wisely to ask for a few big-ticket items, some very small-ticket items, and some medium-ticket items, and then forwarded us the kinds of lists given to them previously--lists which they thought were very appropriate. What a great help to us! Also, be sensitive to minivan-missionaries who are already overloaded with their kids, strollers, and the obligatory three wardrobes. Can they pack it all in? How about an online shopping spree--so the stuff can ship to their final destination? How about gift cards? And always, always include gift receipts, because clothes don't always fit!

9. I'd tell my people not to expect the MKs to be perfect. Coop up your own toddlers for hours each day, put them in a new home and a different Sunday School class every week, and see how perfect they are! I would offer activities for their kids, but would make them optional, realizing that missionary parents may or may not want their kids doing these things for good reasons known to them.

10. I'd be sensitive about providing babysitting for the missionary kids. How would you like your baby, toddler or small child to be in a different nursery every weekend? It's not easy! Maybe you've planned a huge event for the missionary couples, and have arranged babysitting ... great idea! But what you don't know is that some parents are very sensitive about dropping their kids off all day with people they don't know well. And is that unwise in this day and age? Can we blame them for not assuming anything?! Don't scrap the idea altogether, but talk about this with the missionaries and allow for different levels of parental paranoia without making them feel like you think they are over-protective or distrustful of you.

11. I would not run the missionaries ragged; I'd give them some family time. We understand that you want to make the most of your opportunity to let us fire up your people for missions, and we cherish the opportunity; but if we don't have a little downtime to reflect, to catch up on our correspondence, to pray, to read, and to homeschool, and if we do this week after week, you will have missionaries ministering to you on fumes. We need some pitstops.

12. I'd encourage the missionaries to be both positive and real. I'd urge them to impress upon my people the joy of serving the Lord as a missionary, yet at the same time I'd tell them it is OK to also share the burdens of the ministry. I'd acknowledge that their work must be warfare and that they probably have wounds. I would want my people to know that being a true missionary is not a life of getting digital cameras and seeing dozens saved, but also a life of loneliness, hardship and demonic attacks. In short, I'd want people to see a realistic picture of how missionaries suffer for the Gospel, but I'd want the missionary to paint the picture in the light of the infinite worth of Christ and the eternal weight of glory!

13. Missionaries often get hurt badly from the most unexpected sources, and sometimes they like to talk about it. So I would categorically forbid any missionary from engaging in gossip about how they have been hurt from other missionaries, pastors, or their agency, while at the same time offering pastoral counseling if they need help in inter-personal relationships (or family issues, or anything else for that matter).

14. I'd equip. Missionaries love to give and share and inspire. And yet on the foreign field, we can't stay up-to-date on new resources available. We don't have pastors' conferences, Christian Book Distributors, etc. Here are some tangible things churches have done for us to empower us--things which might spark your creativity:

• One church gave us a CD of .pdf files with all their pastors' teaching and preaching notes from the beginning of their ministry. Whether or not a missionary will ever want to preach someone else's sermons or not is up to them. I don't usually, but I have gotten loads of great ideas and illustrations from that one CD.
• Pastors and churches have taught us all principles of time management, leadership, discipleship, and philosophy of ministry.
• Especially gifted presentations-people have given lectures on the best ways to use Powerpoint, video, and desktop publishing.
• One church bought all the missionaries a new digital camera and trained us in photography with the new camera.
• Pastors, what are some of the most important books you have read in the past few years? Hand them out or spend an hour sharing the cliff notes with the missionaries.

I may add to this post later, but here were some things from off the top of my head.