Pastor to Pastors - What To Do With Missionaries You Don't Know.
The Missionaries You Don't Know
One of the interesting aspects of itineraton after having been gone for 11 years is the relative anonymity. Most of the pastors we connect with don't know who we are, and if they do, it's often a vague recollection of previous limited interactions. Even people we knew well have not thought of us for a long time and are unsure what to do with us now that we're itinerating as missionaries.
This very situation lead to a conversation with a pastor recently who essentially asked the question, "How do I determine if a missionary I don't know should be invited for a Missions Moment or be given the pulpit for the full service?" He went on to say, "it would be so nice if the missionary could provide a sample of their preaching."
Having Pastored in Ferndale for 13 years I can totally relate to this struggle. We want our congregation to be engaged in missions but not all missionaries are engaging. There's no doubt that some great missionaries struggle to communicate effectively in the US and find it difficult to inspire support from congregations here. Many missionaries benefit from a short mission moment and a pastor who can carry the ball for them inspiring support from within their congregation.
Amazingly, there is a simple, modern solution to this dilema, because other churches have already provided the missionary's portfolio of preaching and missions moments on YouTube. That's right, YouTube. Just search for this unknown missionary in YouTube and see what comes up. To test this out I searched for Chelly and I to see what would come up. I put the following string of text into the YouTube search window,
"Mike & Chelly Rody" | "Mike Rody" | "Chelly Rody" | "Michael Rody" | "Pastor Mike Rody" | "Michael S. Rody"
If you want to see what that search returned, here's the link. I was interested to see that the first two that popped up included a recent Mission Moment and my most recent preaching at a local church. Lots of other content popped up as well, but it was easy to see that preaching sample
If you're trying to figure out how to best support missionaries as they come to present at your church, check YouTube and ask the missionary to do what you believe is most effective in your congregation. You know your people and you can get a pretty good picture of how the missionary will fit with the people you lead.