55. Church Partnership 4 (mini series)

In Episode 55, we stress tailoring presentations to a church’s focus, and using the 5 Ws and H to share a ministry’s vision. Prepare well, secure slots early, and use stories and visuals. Keep financial asks clear, seeking larger support from home churches. Engage post-presentation with a table and follow-ups. Churches may give love offerings, regular gifts, or non-financial support like space. Gratitude and consistent updates foster lasting partnerships, emphasizing preparation and authentic relationships.

[1:00-3:00] Tailoring Communication: Corrie stresses customizing presentations to a church’s schedule and mission focus, whether a brief pitch or longer talk, to resonate with the congregation and highlight the ministry’s alignment with their goals.

[4:00-9:00] Vision vs. Financial Ask: The hosts distinguish between informing congregations about the ministry’s impact and making financial asks, emphasizing vision casting. Corrie suggests securing presentation slots via the pastor or missions committee, ideally a quarter in advance.

[11:00-15:00] Visuals and Storytelling: The hosts highlight the power of visuals (e.g., Bible translation examples) and storytelling to engage audiences, noting that stories increase retention significantly and should be paired with context for impact.

[23:00-30:00] 5 Ws and H Framework: Corrie explains using Who (people served/team), What (activities), When (timeline), Where (location), Why (purpose), and How (methods) to structure clear, compelling presentations, ensuring context before specific stories.

[34:00-39:00] Post-Presentation Engagement: Corrie shares tips for lobby engagement, like setting up a table with ministry materials and signup sheets, using body language to manage conversations, and following up to build relationships.

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network. Follow It’s Not About the Money for more insightful discussions on faith-based fundraising and support raising!

Get help today! Visit www.provisiofundraising.com

Follow along @ its.not.about.the.money.pod
. . . . .
THANKS FOR LISTENING!

Transcript

Heather: What if fundraising's, not just about the bottom line. What if it is about who you become and what you believe in the process? And what if the journey is bigger than you and your ministry? 

Andy: Welcome to season four of, it's not about the money. Join us as we examine elements of ministry fundraising through the unique lens of personal formation.

Let's dive in. 

Heather: All right. Welcome back to, it's Not About the money. We are in the middle of our miniseries on church partnerships. So picture this, you've poured your heart into your calling, and now it's time to share your mission with the church. But how do you make sure that your message resonates? How do you move beyond a one-time presentation to building lasting partnerships that fuel your ministry?

In this episode, we are pulling back the curtain on how to [00:01:00] effectively communicate your mission to churches without feeling awkward about asking for support. We will explore how to craft a compelling presentation, navigate church politics, and turn a five minute Sunday morning slot into a long term relationship.

Whether you're preparing for your first church visit or looking to refine your approach, this conversation is packed with practical strategies to help you connect with congregations, inspire action, and build a strong foundation for ministry support. I. Yeah, that sounds pretty great. 

Andy: It sounds great. Yeah.

And man, we have a lot of super practical tips for people today. 

Heather: Yep. Get your notepad and pin out guys. 

Andy: Totally. You're gonna wanna, this is 

Heather: your On the ground module 

Andy: on the ground? Yep. 

Heather: Underneath the road. Yep. 

Andy: This is, yep. Rubber hits the road right here. 

Heather: So I'm gonna kick us off with a, with a question guys.

Let's 

Andy: jump right in. 

Heather: Okay. So why is it important to tailor a [00:02:00] church communication plan before presenting your ministry? 

Andy: Hmm. 

Corrie: I think you gotta really know your church and what they're looking for. Um, some churches. Depends on their schedule. You know what they have going on that Sunday when you come and, and visit and speak.

And so you gotta know, do they want a five minute elevator pitch? Do they want a longer explanation? Do they want a q and a? There's so many things, um, that are really just pertinent to the church. And some churches want more, some churches want less. Um, and so you definitely wanna tailor it to that church as well.

As, um, if that church has a specific, uh, focus for mission. Mm. Um, you know, if they're specifically focused on, uh, it, the area that you're in, then you may want to connect the dots for them. 

Andy: Totally. So it's not a [00:03:00] one size fits all. 

Corrie: Right. Totally. 

Andy: That's correct. Yeah. It'll make 'em feel special. 

Corrie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And you may wanna say like how long they've been with you, because they might not know. I mean, most of the people in the church are not gonna know how long they've been, um, in relationship with you or in, um, partnership with you. 

Andy: Mm, 

Heather: mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. So as we were just kind of talking about some foundational pieces of c church communication, I'm also wondering if you could identify what are the key differences between making a presentation?

And giving a financial ask 

Andy: because they're not synonymous. 

Heather: Right. 

Corrie: But there's a lot of overlap too. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: Um, so I think, you know, we're gonna get into this later, uh, in this, uh, episode, but the. Ws and the H of like explaining who, what, when, where, why, and [00:04:00] how. Hmm. I think that's important for any presentation.

Mm-hmm. Um, one that includes a ask and one that doesn't include an ask. Um, but the key difference for specifically talking with a congregation and giving a presentation is that your goal here is to inform. It's not necessarily to move people to give, it's to inform them about what is happening on the other side of the world or in your ministry.

Maybe it's state side. Mm. 

Andy: To give them some vision. 

Corrie: Yeah. Yeah. You're, that's your goal is to cast 

Heather: vision. Yeah. So it's, it's basically distinguishing between informing or inviting. Exactly. Very true.

Andy: So let's get into maybe the specifics of how you even go about broaching the topic with a church, uh, maybe for the [00:05:00] first time or, or maybe just securing a presentation date. What are some, what are some best practices for that? 

Corrie: Mm-hmm. So, a lot of times by the time you get the chance to present to the congregation, you will have already received that green light.

From the church to, for them to give you financial support. Um, but that may not be the case. Yeah. So even if the church hasn't committed yet to financially support you, this presentation should still be focused on vision casting, understanding your ministry, um, rather than financial support. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: Um. So, but yeah, the first thing that you wanna do is get that presentation on the calendar and really understand who was in, who's in charge of that.

'cause there could be multiple people in charge of, of the calendar 

Andy: of the church calendar. Yeah. Good. 

Corrie: Mm-hmm. So it depends on how the size of the church, you know, so [00:06:00] sometimes it's the pastor directly, uh, if it's a small church, um, if it's a bigger church, you may wanna go through the missions committee.

Um, you could go through your advocate, or maybe it's the secretary at the church. So your, your first, um, item, task item here would be to find out who you talk to to get on the calendar. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. So, Corey, how far out, I mean, maybe it's different for every church, but in general, like how far out do you need to start thinking about planning for your presentation?

As far as like getting on their schedule? 

Corrie: Yeah, I would say just as far in advance as possible, um, like I would say the minimum would be a quarter ahead, um, just because churches are so busy and they plan their sermon series and oftentimes sermon series are, you know, 4, 8, 10, 12 weeks. Um, and so you, you want to make [00:07:00] sure that you're fitting into maybe.

In between a sermon series or a lot of times it'll be when the pastor is on vacation. Like you could find out when he's going on vacation, then you could fill in for him. 

Andy: Mm. 

Corrie: So, you know, there's, there's a lot. Or maybe it's in between series. So then they need a filler. Um. So there's a lot of different ways that you could, um, come in, fill in for someone.

Um, but you should also be open to sharing in like Sunday schools or in small groups, youth groups. 

Andy: Hmm. 

Corrie: Midweek services, et cetera. Um, I usually spoke at churches in the summertime, and I would always get those on the calendar in the spring or before that. 

Andy: So that as I listen to you, that brings up another instant question is how long are your typical presentations?

Are you usually given the [00:08:00] full Sunday morning or a full Sunday school? 

Corrie: Yeah. Um, a lot of times I was given the full time. Wow. Um, and I think, I think that has to do with the size of the church. 

Andy: Sure. 

Corrie: And so I was often given like the full Sunday morning service. Oh, wow. 

Heather: That does feel very different than other experiences I've had.

Mm-hmm. 

Andy: I 

Corrie: think it is, I think it's more of like a, a rural church thing where you know the pastor's on vacation and he doesn't have anybody to fill in and he wants you to come. Um, yeah. But if I didn't have the full service, I would often have a full Sunday school hour. 

Andy: Great. 

Corrie: So, um, and if that didn't happen, then it would be about 10 to 15 minute announcement, okay.

Before worship. So the churches [00:09:00] that supported me that were bigger were more often the 10 minute presentation. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Corrie: Um, the churches that were smaller were like the whole service. Okay. And they wanted a q they wanted a q and a and all the stories and everything. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Corrie: So then I had multiple PowerPoint presentations.

Um, you know, I would have one that was shorter and one that was longer. 

Andy: Sure. Yeah. Okay. Be prepared. 

Corrie: I. Yeah. Right, exactly. And I think it's important that before, like you get on the calendar, but then a week or two before your visit, you wanna confirm it to give them time to announce that you're coming because there may be some people at the church who know you or support you.

Andy: Hmm. 

Corrie: And they definitely wanna make sure that they're there. 

Andy: Hmm. 

Corrie: So, uh, or you know, some churches will have a bulletin that has announcements like, next week we'll be doing such and such. So just to make sure that [00:10:00] people know you're coming in the congregation 

Andy: and you might be tempted to think, oh, I don't wanna bug them, I don't wanna pastor them.

But I think it's fair to say you cannot over communicate to your church. That's 

Heather: so true. Probably true. 

Andy: Yeah. Yeah. 

Heather: How about ensuring that you are well prepared for maybe the technical or logistical aspects of the presentation? Any pointers there? 

Corrie: Yeah, so some churches want you, you to email your slides ahead of time.

Um, so you wanna find out if that's what they need. Um, and you know, if not, you can just bring it in your own flash drive. But, you know, sometimes they, they really want their audio visual person, it person. To communicate with you and know what's going on. Um, or they want to connect you with that it person so that you find them as soon as you arrive at the church.

Andy: Makes sense. So 

Corrie: that, because you'll need to communicate with them about [00:11:00] like, who's moving the slides forward. Are you gonna get a clicker? 

Andy: Sure. Um, 

Corrie: you know how, and. How are you gonna communicate if they need to move the slides? Are you gonna say next slide? Are you gonna give them a nod? Like so you need to communicate with that person 

Andy: a hand signal?

Yeah, 

Corrie: yeah, 

Heather: yeah, 

Andy: yeah, 

Heather: yeah. And you know, maybe, maybe your presentation doesn't utilize those kinds of things, but I just have to say, so Andy, I don't know if you remember this, but several months ago at our church, 'cause Andy and I go to the same church we do fun fact. And several months ago we had some visiting.

Workers and their presentation was so powerful because of the visuals that they used. They, so they put, they were, they work in Bible translation and they put up a sentence and then they removed like half of the words. Oh, yeah, yeah. And asked you to read the sentence. And then basically were like, does this make sense?

And then they used that to kind of [00:12:00] help people understand the value of Bible translation and, and translating into people's native language and. Having complete translations because obviously if somebody only knows a few words in the translation they're trying to read, they're totally gonna miss the point.

And that was just such, I mean, it was such an impactful visual. And I remember actually even texting Andy after the service, like, they need to come on the podcast because that was such a great, we could have 

Corrie: them. That's amazing. 

Andy: Yeah. Yeah. That was. That was fantastic and I think it really, the, the outcome for me is, is.

A number of things, but one of them is confidence. Like suddenly I feel confident that they are, their preparedness gives me confidence as a donor. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Andy: Like, they know what they're getting themselves into For sure. They're, they are, they're thinking this through versus someone who kind of just gets up and says, well, I'd just like to wing it.

Heather: Well, and it was compelling. 

Andy: It was very [00:13:00] compelling. Very thoughtful it to the point. Yeah. 

Heather: Yeah. It proved the need. 

Andy: Yeah. It's like I, I have trust that they are gonna use my finances well. 

Heather: And that they're needed. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Heather: Yeah. 

Andy: So that's, that's a good question, Corey, like what are, what is the role maybe specifically of visuals and storytelling in engaging the audience?

Corrie: Storytelling especially is huge. Mm-hmm. I mean, in, I just took a class in adult learning and there was a statistic I don't remember specifically, but I. It was about the percentage of memory that the listener audience has, you know, after what they remember long after that presentation. And if there's a story involved, that percentage goes up significantly.

Andy: Whoa. Yeah. 

Corrie: Um, if there's no story involved, they're, they're gonna forget it like the next day or two. 

Andy: Let's make up a percentage. [00:14:00] 70% more likely. 

Heather: We cannot fact that. Check that right now. No. Very high. Let's 

Andy: put it in the show notes or something. Well, and 

Heather: I mean, let's just consider that God chose to give us his word mostly through stories.

Andy: Yeah. Right. The OG storyteller. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So true. 

Corrie: Yeah. So if you combine that with visuals, it's even even more effective. I. Um, and I'll say that it's, it's okay if you're not able to do visuals. I think you can still be pretty effective, but, um, I think using visuals with stories is the best. Mm-hmm. 

Heather: Yeah.

And again, you know, we're always kind of, we're always kind of encouraging you to be aware of the way you hold stories and the way you communicate them, because I do think this is an area where. We do see people wielding storytelling and wielding stories to elicit a certain response, and I think [00:15:00] we're just so free to not have to do that.

I think we're free to, to tell stories, to engage and to invite and to inspire, but without the need for that story to make a certain thing happen. 

Andy: Mm. 

Heather: Right. Which I always come back to because you know, like I, like, we recently talked about in our episode with Stephanie Gutierrez, when she had us on the Modern Day Missionaries podcast.

I, I had an experience where there was a presentation given, but the story was told in such a way that it didn't really hold the people they were talking about with dignity. And it really put the audience in a position of. Kind of forcing a decision. 

Andy: That's good. Yeah. You don't wanna weaponize your narratives.

Heather: Yes. Yes. 

Andy: Yeah, that's good. Yeah. So, so Corey, when you're thinking about presenting for a whole, I. A, a whole Sunday morning. Um, how long does it take you to prepare and are you like practicing [00:16:00] ahead of time? Are you like going through like your, your blocking and your hand movements and your eye contact and all that different kind of stuff?

Corrie: I don't go that much into depth, but I do, I do spend hours like preparing and I will often walk out. How many minutes? I think it's gonna take me to do certain sections. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: Um, so that I can be aware of moving from one section to the next. 

Andy: Stay on pace, um, 

Corrie: yeah. Staying on pace, things like that. Yeah. Um, so I would say I normally see the presentation as a filter and if it is a.

Smaller presentation. It's just a shorter filter. It's still, it's still a filter. Um, so the filter is, the top is going to be the overall broad general introduction. You always wanna provide an overview of yourself, your family, your [00:17:00] ministry, no matter how many times you've spoken at a church, because there will always be new people who don't know you, they don't know your work.

Um. And then from that you go into your five, your Ws and your h you know who all of that. And then, which we can talk about later. Yeah. But then you get to the bottom, which is specific stories, you know, telling a story about, um, a, a new disciple, um, or, or something like that. Um, and so, you know, if it's. If it's a 10 minute presentation, then you may, you may just give your overview.

And then tell a very quick story and that's it, you know? 

Andy: Yeah. Um, 

Corrie: so it's it, and then if it's longer, then you may tell a couple stories That's good. And have more slides. Yeah. 

Andy: So for people who can't see her, which is everybody but us, [00:18:00] she's, she's narrowing her hands as she's getting closer, so it's like it's funneling down.

Right. Right. And I love that idea of needing the big picture and the little picture. And actually I talk about this with, with almost all of my clients, this idea of the, the, the ladder of abstraction, right? Where you have the abstract ideas and you have big numbers, you have the statistics, but you also have an, an example of those statistics in like an individual story.

Corrie: Mm-hmm. Right, exactly. And I think, you know, this is one of the common problems that I see among even some of my clients that I coach, that they, they just. Often speak in generalities or they jump into specifics too fast. Hmm. And so one of the things that I coach them in doing when they're, when they're starting to plan their presentation is think of it [00:19:00] as like you're in the audience and you don't even know what this person does.

And so, 'cause a lot of them will start off with saying. We, we, um, our church planting and, and serving, um, to get the such and such people group, um, you know, more aware of who Jesus is. And we've been serving there for five years and our team is doing this and that, and I'm like, okay, let's stop and take a step back.

And first we wanna. Find out like, where is this country on the map? 

Andy: Why don't you 

Corrie: show us, show us a picture of this country. Show us where, where you're at. Yeah, yeah. And then give us some statistics like how many unreached people groups are in that country or in that area. Tell us a little bit about the Unreached people group and how many people are in that people group.

What religion are they and what percentage of people follow Jesus within that people group? And then you go down and tell us how you're meeting that need, you know? 

Andy: Mm. [00:20:00] It. It's almost like, because you're gonna tell a story eventually. Mm-hmm. You need to give them some of the, the, the, the context you need to color in.

Yeah. At least loosely if it's not detailed, some broad strokes about, so they can kind of picture how the story is taking place and, and what these people are like. 

Heather: Yeah. I was gonna say, you're giving them hooks to hang things on. Yeah. You're giving them a, a context. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Heather: Something you said, Andy reminded me.

So you asked Corey about like, do you practice your hand motions, things like that. And actually there's this video, I recently watched it, it came out of the organization, the Science of People, and it was a video just kind of talking through, I. The way you present yourself and how some things create warmth, some things create competence, some things create power.

And actually, I mean, not that people need to become overburdened with thinking about what they are doing with themselves while they're public speaking, but it actually can be really helpful to just have [00:21:00] some understanding of the, the ways that you carry yourself in public speaking, right. And how that can.

Invite the audience in a different way. I'll, I'll link that video in the show notes for you guys. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Heather: But Andy, I think I sent it to you. 

Andy: It's fantastic. 

Heather: Yeah. 

Andy: I loved it. It's not necessarily, um, there, there's some inappropriate language 

Heather: I. Okay. I don't know if I watched that far. 

Andy: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. 

Heather: It's not a faith-based organization.

No. It's very secular. But the idea is make sense in our design. 

Andy: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Eyeopening really, 

Heather: right? 

Andy: Yeah. 

Corrie: Yeah. 

Andy: Good. 

Corrie: So I think it would be good to, to spend some time practicing, you know, before if you have a friend or somebody you can practice with. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Corrie: Especially if you get nervous when you speak in front of large groups of people.

Andy: Yeah. And you'll naturally get better at it. I mean, I'm sure Corey, when you were in church one versus church 12. Church 12 got a much better [00:22:00] presentation than church one. Oh, 

Corrie: totally. Yeah. Oh yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I was petrified in my first church. Yeah. Shaking in my boots. Yeah. But you know, it, it came more naturally because I was already passionate about the subject.

Yeah. So. I think if you, if you are already passionate about your work, which you will be, you know, uh, God's put it on your heart. Yeah. Then it will, once you start, you'll, you'll. Get into it. Yeah. And and feel a lot more comfortable. 

Andy: That'll carry you. 

Heather: Yeah. And it's just always good to remember that God is gonna do what God's gonna do and, and you practicing and you being prepared well, takes away some of the noise for people to hear the message, but if God wants them to hear the message they're going to.

Andy: Yeah. 

Heather: So, yeah. Okay. So we've referenced this a couple of times, but I think it's time to dig into it. Tell me about the five Ws and the H, that framework that you've mentioned. How do missionaries use that to craft their presentation? And what are those five Ws in an H? 

Corrie: Yeah. So this is a [00:23:00] really good rule of thumb, um, when planning your presentation because it literally covers everything that someone would want to know in general about your work.

And it, I don't think it leaves anything out. So the first is, who are you reaching? So that's the who. So like I talked about the. Unreached people group. It could also be who are you serving with? Like who is your missions organization? What are they about? Who is your team? Like, who are you serving with?

Who? Who's your family? Who's your teammates? So there's a lot of who that you could, you could go into there. The second one is what? So. What are you doing to reach out and to minister? It could be that, you know, you're in medical missions and you run a hospital, or you're in education and you teach university students, or you're doing refugee outreach.

[00:24:00] So what are you doing to reach out in general? What does that work look like? Uh, specific can come later. Um, the third one is when, so this one. Could be for people who are already on the field doing work, or for people who haven't left yet and they're still raising awareness and raising support. But so it could be when do you reach out?

So if you're already on your field, like when are the times of the day or times of the week or the month that are biggest for you to go and to reach out? Or it could be you're raising your support and awareness now and you're going to leave for the field. So when are you. Leaving, um, to go to the field 

Andy: mm-hmm.

Timeline, if you're 

Corrie: on. Yeah. Like what's your timeline or if you're on furlough, when did you come back? How long have you been here? When will you be going back, et cetera. Um, and the next one is where, so [00:25:00] where are you going to minister? Um, so you could work in a urban area or maybe. You, um, you know, you're living and working in a specific neighborhood and reaching a very specific group of people.

So like, where do they live? Mm-hmm. And, um, are you, you have kids, are you going to the park to reach moms? Um, you know, so where, where are you going Also, um. This, this, I think this one is a little bit more specific than like what country you're in. I think that would be top of the, like who, 

Andy: yeah. 

Corrie: Um, what are you doing to reach out?

But this would be the type, the type of people and, and how you get into their lives. 

Andy: Does it matter how you sequence this, Corey? Like, could you, do you have to do 'em in any specific order? Does it make sense to put the where next to the who or the what? [00:26:00] 

Corrie: I don't think so. I think you can craft it. I, I think as long as it matches that filter, that funnel that we talked about 

Andy: mm-hmm.

Then 

Corrie: I think that it, it, it could be put in any order. Okay. Um, but I do think that these, uh, Ws and h are more on the general side before you get into stories. 

Heather: Yeah. That 

Corrie: makes sense. So then the last W is the why. So why are you reaching out? So. Obviously we're all ministering because of the great commission, but it could be that you have a very specific mission statement, um, like maybe even your team has a mission statement.

Mm-hmm. 

Andy: Um, 

Corrie: that's different from, you know, your, your organization. So, um, like for example, I was just coaching a client whose [00:27:00] team is specifically trying to get. Uh, local believers to reach out, uh, in their communities and to plant the church instead of this mission team who's, you know, from the west planting the church.

Their goal is to help the believers there to do that. And so, um, that would be kind of the why of why is that important? Mm, and why are they ministering in that way? 

Andy: I feel like I, I've heard people give short presentations before, and maybe this is just because they only have a little bit amount of time, but sometimes the why can be a little too general.

Andy: Mm. 

Andy: It's because of, of the great commission. Well, yeah. We all know that. But like, what are the specific reasons why you're going to this particular group of people? What are the hurdles that they're facing? Why are they still so unreached? Mm-hmm. What does it look like for them to. Think about faith and what are, what are the things that are preventing them from [00:28:00] doing that?

Corrie: Mm-hmm. Exactly. So the final H, the final one is the H and that is how, so how do you reach out? How do you minister? So like for me, when I was doing international student ministry, I briefly mentioned that we put on cultural events, we show hospitality. We, um, teach English classes and we post bible studies.

Andy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: Those were some of the examples of how we reach out and it's gonna look different for each context. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Andy: If you had to choose one as the most important, 

Corrie: you mean which one? On this list? 

Andy: Yeah. 

Corrie: Oh, man. Probably where or what I think why is pretty important too, but like, if you don't explain to your audience.

Um, where you are, what you're doing, they're not gonna get it. They're not gonna understand. 

Andy: Gotta give them the context. [00:29:00] 

Corrie: Yeah. Yeah. What do you guys think? Like if you were in the audience, what would you 

Heather: want to know? The one that I immediately thought was why, but actually I think that what you said is compelling because maybe it's fair to say that most believers have at least somewhat of an understanding of why.

Right? Like you mentioned the great commission, this, this understanding that it, that it does matter to share the hope that we have. And so for. You know, kind of assuming that there's a foundational, even basic understanding of that. I think that what, and what'd you say? What and where? Yeah. I think that what and where is fair?

Because you're kind of identifying, I. How you and this particular thing are differentiated from others? 

Andy: Hmm. Yeah. I feel like they're, a lot of them are tied together. 

Heather: Yeah, they are. Um, 

Andy: the who, the what, the where, the why. I feel like the how is maybe, [00:30:00] um, interesting to some people. It's, IM, it's important to get it out there and the, the timeline, the win, not as probably.

Uh, inspiring. 

Andy: Right. 

Andy: But I feel like, yeah, the, the, who am I doing this with and who, who am I serving and why? Why them? That, for me, is compelling. 

Heather: Mm-hmm. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Heather: What do you think are some common mistakes that people make when presenting to a congregation?

Corrie: So, I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but I think one of the biggest mistakes I've seen is just jumping right in. Because when you are a cross-cultural worker, you are living and breathing and working in this ocean, you're like a fish in this ocean and you're not even thinking about the water. But when you're going to speak at a church, think about this audience that's coming from a completely different context.

Now, some of them may have not been overseas before or been in full-time mission work, and so [00:31:00] you don't wanna just jump right in. You wanna give an understanding of. Your work first before you really talk about the details. 

Heather: Mm-hmm. Which again, goes back to your funnel. 

Corrie: Yes. And I think some other examples would be not tightening up your presentation.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So giving too much information or not practicing your story and getting it. Really tied together well. 

Andy: Mm. 

Corrie: Or not practicing your transitions from one part of your presentation to the next. 

Andy: Mm. 

Corrie: So those, those are some of the things like saying, um, a lot or not being prepared. Those are some of the things that I've seen even in myself that I have had to work on over the years.

Heather: Yeah. And I'm just aware that even [00:32:00] in the past 10 years, people have been trained by. Our phones and by the kind of media that we consume, we, our attention span, I think legitimately like data Oh yeah. Supports that. Our attention span is shorter. So it feels like it's actually even more important that you have really shored up and tightened up your message that you're aware of.

Maybe not lingering too long in one space and kind of keeping the presentation moving even if you do have 10 minutes, maybe even just being mindful of how you break that up so as to. Not work against the shorter attentions being, I don't know. Mm-hmm. 

Andy: And if you're a stream of consciousness person that just like, well you're, maybe you're good at public speaking because you can just get up there and uh, and go off the cuff.

That's a special. Um, skillset. Uh, I was at a conference over the, over the weekend and one of the speakers says, you, it's called the, uh, the Longhorn technique. You've got a point here and a [00:33:00] point there, and a lot of bull in between. But even if you're that kind of person, I think 

Corrie: funny, 

Andy: it's helpful to have some bullet points that, you know, okay, I gotta hit, oh, I gotta hit these things while I'm up there.

I can't just. I can't just leave it up to, to chance and, and my ability to, to bowl. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Andy: My ability to just, um, think on my feet. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Andy: Okay. So let's, let's shift into something super practical. Um, let's talk about after the presentation. Um, what are some tips, what are some effective ways to connect with individuals after that?

Let's, let's, let's head to the lobby. 

Corrie: Ha. Yes, the lobby. My favorite part. So find out where people are gonna be milling around after church and ask beforehand if you can get a table to station there, um, to put some information [00:34:00] about your work. So when I was speaking at churches, I had this trifold, uh, backboard.

Where I put pictures of my ministry and on the table I had like really colorful, um, tablecloth, representing where I was serving and had, uh, a lot of information about my ministry. Hmm. So some examples of things that you can have on your table. You have a open Bible in the language that you're serving.

Um, you could have some brochures about your ministry or some recent newsletters. You could have your photo peer card. Hmm. Of your, of your family or yourself. Um, people love snacks or candy, so if you have some, some candy from your country of service, you could have that. 

Andy: Yes, we do. Um, [00:35:00] 

Corrie: yeah, bookmarks, prayer needs all that good stuff.

Andy: What about sign up for your newsletter list? 

Corrie: So that's really important to connect with people individually. So when people come to your table to talk with, you have that a signup sheet available for them to put their info. So you wanna get their name, their email and or phone number and their mailing address to put them on your update list.

So some people are gonna ask you directly how they can give. At that time. Mm-hmm. And it's good to go ahead and have an answer ready for them, whether that's a giving envelope or a QR code or something that explains how they can give online. But um, you can also tell those people, Hey, go ahead and put your info down here and I'll.

I'll check in with you this week and then contact them to see if you can have a phone call or an [00:36:00] in-person 

Andy: meeting. Mm. Buy 'em a cup of coffee. 

Corrie: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, since those people are already gonna know about your ministry, but when you talk with them or get together with them, you can go deeper into the work and you can, um, have, ask them to, if they have any questions about, about your work.

Mm-hmm. And, um, that might be a chance to, to further your support base. 

Andy: Yeah. Ask them about their own heart for ministry. Yeah. 

Corrie: Yes. That's good. Yeah. Yes, for sure. Get to know them too. Yeah. 

Andy: Does it have to be an iPad or can you literally just have, uh, a clipboard or a piece of paper? 

Corrie: Well, I, um, I always did this before iPads came out, so, okay.

Yes. I had a paper that worked just fine, but I think having an iPad would actually be a great idea because you wouldn't have to, you know, figure out what people, is that an A or an O, right. Read 

Andy: their handwriting. Yeah. 

Heather: [00:37:00] Yeah. Yeah, I think I would, I would have both. 

Andy: Yeah, 

Heather: because I, I'm just, I'm thinking through like, I'm, I'm hearing you guys talk and I'm thinking through, okay, church is out.

I gotta go get my four kids. 'cause they say get your kids before you do anything else. Mm-hmm. So I've got my kids we're milling about and I'm trying to have some kind of cohesive conversation at this table. And honestly, I just wanna like, jot something down. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Heather: And then grab a picture, maybe a piece of candy and then 

Andy: Yeah.

For your kids too. 

Heather: That's what I mean, like Yeah. But yeah, there's, there's a lot of dynamics to consider in catching people Yeah. After a service. 

Andy: But, and don't be offended if, if people don't have time to stop by. Right. Too, don't take it personally. So maybe there's, there's also something in there to advocate for posting something in next week's bulletin or in some kind of e-news that says, Hey, if you didn't have a chance to sign up or you wanted to talk with Corey.[00:38:00] 

Here's how you do that. 

Heather: Yeah. On one hand, don't be offended if people don't stop by. On the other hand, be prepared to graciously kind of give the hint that you don't have a lot of time to talk in that moment. Yes. Because maybe people come up to the table, they wanna have an in-depth conversation, so just be prepared with a way to graciously invite that conversation into a different time and space.

Andy: Yeah. 

Heather: Yeah. 

Andy: Did you experience that? 

Corrie: Yes. Well that happened to me a lot 

Andy: and I was 

Corrie: gonna give a, a practical suggestion on that. 

Andy: Yeah, good. Um, 

Corrie: so one of the things you can do if someone comes along and they like really wanna go deep and have. Conversations, ask a lot of questions. You can, with your body language, you can move that conversation over to the side of the table so that you're not blocking the table.

Andy: Mm. That 

Corrie: way when people are walking by, they see that the table is still open and they can come. So like I'm over here having a conversation with someone, but multiple [00:39:00] people are still at my table looking at stuff and getting stuff. 

Andy: Hmm. So 

Corrie: that's one way I've done it. Another way is, um, as I'm in that conversation with that person, I'll steer the conversation towards like, Hey, I'm so glad that you are so interested and have so many questions.

I'd love to talk with you more. Could you sign up on my sheet here and I'll get in touch with you and we can, we can have a, a more, uh, in depth conversation without, you know, being interested. 

Heather: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I think that's really important. And you might even consider. You know, you can print business cards pretty cheaply on like Canva and stuff, so you might even consider having a little card.

You can give people that, um, so that you guys can stay in contact or something. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Heather: And as you were talking, you know about how you can. Take the conversation to the side of your table, it, it actually would probably be a great thing to just always invite somebody from your core team to join you at the table.

Andy: I was thinking the same thing. 

Heather: Right? [00:40:00] So that you've got more than one person that can Your advocate. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 

Andy: yeah. 

Heather: So true. 

Andy: That can just kind of encourage people to sign up. That can be passing out your prayer cards. Um, yeah. That'd be helpful. Teamwork? 

Heather: Yes. Yeah. Alright, so now we're moving into module four since we're combining three and four today.

So looking at module four of the curriculum, it kind of starts to talk about securing financial support. So let's get into that. What are different ways churches typically support missionaries financially?

Corrie: There are a lot of ways, even within the financial aspect, there are many ways. And then in the non-financial aspect, there are many ways. Mm-hmm. So we'll start, start with financial. So there is the love offering, which is pretty common in small churches. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: Each time you come to speak, they [00:41:00] just ask, the pastor will ask for, uh, anyone to just give randomly in the moment.

Yeah. And so that's pretty common. Um, that was pretty common for me. And then quarterly, some churches like to give, you know, once a quarter, uh, some give monthly and some give annually. They may give a large amount annually, or they may split it up, you know. So those are just some examples. What have you all seen in being supported?

What has happened? Like what, how have churches supported you? 

Andy: Yeah. We had, we had a, just a couple and they were decent sized churches. Um, and for whatever reason yeah, they wanted to give monthly to us. Mm-hmm. So that was great. 

Heather: Yeah. My experience was also monthly. 

Andy: Yeah. 

Andy: Yeah, 

Andy: convenience. 

Corrie: Most of mine, most of mine were monthly.

Even in some of my monthly churches, they would give love [00:42:00] offerings when I would come and speak. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then I had some churches that, um, did annual 

Andy: it. It feels like if you have, you know, four plus churches, the likelihood of you getting love offerings increases because. It's not your sending church, it's not your home church.

You haven't really spent a lot of time getting to know them. So it seems like maybe their budget is a little more, um, preset and you're kind of coming in out of the blue maybe. And so maybe a love offering makes a little more sense in that situation. 

Heather: Yeah. What? What about when you're actually sitting down, you know, you've given presentations, you've been cultivating relationship.

Now you are kind of coming to a point of inviting a church leader or a mission committee to kind of take a formal step in giving. How should people approach that? 

Corrie: Yeah, so in that conversation, you [00:43:00] will want to. Find out how that church typically supports their missionaries. So have your list of questions for them.

Andy: Hmm. Um, 

Corrie: what are their budget priorities? How many missionaries do they support? Um, what is the typical gift per missionary? Um, so we talked. A couple weeks ago about expectations. So understanding these things will help, uh, set your expectations. Um, and I think that if you are talking to your home church, you will want to ask for a larger gift than you would from churches that are not, not your home church.

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: Um. 

Andy: How would you Some 

Corrie: churches, oh, go ahead. 

Andy: Sorry, Cory, how would you phrase that? If, because you know, like in your head, like, oh, this is a big number that I'm asking for. Did you, did you say like, how do, how do we get past that sense of [00:44:00] anxiety? Or, or maybe even give, give us a line that we could say to help take the edge off that.

Corrie: Yeah. Yeah. Actually I have, I have that here. Like, what do you say in the moment? You know, I think the exact word wording depends on. Your personality and how well you know the community. 

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: Um, but I would say something like, you know, after you cast the vision of your five Ws, your h and maybe a story 

Andy: mm-hmm.

Corrie: Then I would be honored to help expand the gospel impact of such and such church and serve as your representative in such and such country or ministry. Mm-hmm. So then I would have some. Charts, which we can talk about later. 

Andy: Yeah. Okay. 

Corrie: Here are some, here's some charts that concisely explain my ministry expenses and how they might be covered.

Um, would blank church be willing to [00:45:00] join my support team at blank per month? Or like, based on these charts, what, what level of giving do you think that. This church would be able to partner with me yet. Yeah. 

Heather: Yeah. I'm curious because in my experience, I was told what I, I didn't request a specific amount.

I was told what the church was ready, able to do and excited to do. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I'm curious if you guys were in a position where you asked for a specific amount, or whether you were in a position where you were told, this is how we are going to come alongside you. 

Andy: I think we were also told, so the, I think that's interesting.

That's an interesting pattern that we've just uncovered. So that could be the situation that you encounter and that's good. That's okay. That means they've, they've thought about it and they probably more than an individual, do need to be aware of their budget. How much they're able to give. They've probably a mission team that has talked about that ahead of time.

So I think that's, that's reasonable [00:46:00] to expect that. But it's also good to be prepared in case they haven't done that. 

Heather: Yeah, because in my scenario, they were actually really proactive in getting a lot of information from me. How much total are you going to be needing? Like, so they actually had a lot of questions for me that then.

Positioned them to make their decision. 

Andy: Yeah. I think you could also approach them as like, Hey, I, and this is something that I picked up from, from one of my clients that I worked with. He was very transparent and he'd said something along the lines of, I. I'm not great at maintaining relationships and communicating with a large amount of people, so I'm really trying to, to keep the number of donors that I have to, that I'm, that I'm maintaining relationship with to a minimum.

Therefore, I'm wondering if you would be willing to be one of my anchor donors as I head into the season of fundraising. So I'm asking you to think about 10%. And as for a [00:47:00] percentage of your, of your total amount. 

Corrie: Hmm. That's good. I mean, Steve Shadrach suggests asking your home church for 20 to 50%. 

Andy: Oh, even better.

Yeah. Even better. Mm-hmm. Go big. Yeah. 

Corrie: I mean, the story that he tells this is in the God Ask Book, but this missionary was told before he even presented that all missionaries get $200 a month. And so then when he gave his presentation, he was a pretty bold guy, but he asked for 50% of his monthly budget and you know, they had to debate it.

Yeah. But they ended up giving it to him. Mm. Mm-hmm. 

Andy: Sometimes you're there to help them challenge the rules. 

Heather: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think it, it just really makes sense that your, that your body, this group of people you're already deeply in relationship with, I mean. That can look very different. I'm not trying to over realize this, but this body you're already committed to in part that you're already affiliated with, it would make sense that [00:48:00] there would be, that the investment would be commiserate with that significant.

Yeah. 

Andy: Yeah. Right. 

Heather: Yes.

What about if you, you know, if you have the experience of maybe instead of that monthly support, like we've talked about, more like a one-time gift, are there any strategies or considerations for maybe trying to move that into more long-term financial partnership? I.

Corrie: I think a lot of that will depend on if you can visit that church and share updates mm-hmm. In person. Um, because it's really important to get the, the whole congregation on board with knowing who you are, um, and remembering your work. And as that happens. It will be more like a grassroots experience.

Heather: Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: So I [00:49:00] think just being able to visit that church is important because then you'll be able to get secure that regular gift later. 

Heather: Yeah. What about managing just kind of the. Your own time and the expectations for presentations, but then also follow ups with individual church members. I can imagine that with your home church, that might be a bit easier because it's probably in your local community and things like that, you know them 

Andy: better, 

Heather: right?

You know them better. Maybe there's already some level of relationship, but it, it strikes me that with other churches where there's individuals within those churches that would desire, you know, one-on-one conversation, like, what do you do with that? 

Corrie: I think that's where the advocate comes in. Hmm. And you should really have someone that you would consider to be your advocate at each church.

Yeah. Where you are raising support. So even if you go in and build that relationship from the ground up by yourself, still be looking for an advocate. 'cause you'll need them later. 

Heather: Right. Yeah. [00:50:00] And 

Corrie: that is the type of person. You say, Hey, I'm gonna be in town in a couple months. Could you get, uh, some people together from your small group or from the missions committee and we can all like meet in a home and I'll give a presentation and they can learn how to pray for our ministry, et cetera.

Andy: Yeah, 

Corrie: so you're depending on other people to help you get the word out and connect with people. 

Heather: That's great. This reminds me of a conversation I had within the past year with some missionaries who had presented at a church that was not their own, and then they had had people, you know, sign up to get newsletters and things like that, but then they started noticing people that they've never spoken with pop up in their giving.

Andy: Mm-hmm. 

Heather: And so they were just talking about how that's kind of hard to handle too, because your first interaction with someone is actually the thank you for giving. Yeah. And how, how to cultivate that partnership and Yeah. You don't even 

Andy: know what they look like maybe. 

Heather: [00:51:00] Right. I'm curious if 

Corrie: you've ever had that experience That's happened to me.

It's actually been more common for that to happen with, um, signups for my updates. 

Heather: Oh, okay. Sure. 

Corrie: I have all kinds of random people that I don't even know who they are. It's like, well, I met them at a church, you know? And so in that. Going back to that signup sheet you can have for yourself, just have a note that says which church it is that you're speaking at that day.

Andy: Right? Church number nine, you're speaking 

Corrie: at multiple churches in one week. You can divide that signup sheet by this church, the state, the city, you know? Yeah. And, um, if, especially if people are not giving their mailing addresses and you're not gonna know Right. How you know them. Um, but you know, one of the things that, that I did when I would have a random person that I, I hadn't got to talk to at my table, I would just reach out to them and say, Hey, thanks for your interest in my [00:52:00] ministry.

Um, can you tell me a little bit more about yourself? Or Can we get together on the phone? Et cetera. And then, then I would know a little bit more of who they are. 

Andy: Yeah. Good. 

Heather: Yeah. So Corey, a bit earlier in our conversation you mentioned, you know, that there are financial ways to support missionaries, but then also non-financial ways.

I'd love to just kind of briefly touch on those non-financial ways. 

Corrie: Yes, for sure. So I think that there's some out of the box ways that churches can support. So whether they support you financially already or not, um, they can invest in your ministry by, um, allowing you to use their space or. Distribute, distributing, printing, your newsletter, um, et cetera.

So if you are a stateside missionary, like for example, if you're in college ministry, this could be really important for the churches in your city near your university that support you. [00:53:00] Um, maybe they could provide office space while you're in town, et cetera. Hmm. Um. And if you are overseas, then one of the ways that they could support you is by providing housing.

When you come in for furlough. Maybe they have, um, a, an extra house near their church campus mm-hmm. Um, that they keep for missionaries. So, so that, those are just some examples. We can put more examples in the curriculum, but, um, yeah, churches can really support without giving a financial gift. Mm-hmm. 

Corrie: They have to be creative.

Andy: Yeah. That's great to have in your mind in case somebody says, Hey, we'd like to help you, but our, our budget's already finished for this year, 

Corrie: right? Yeah, yeah. And I even. Go ahead. I was just gonna say one church, um, like paid for my laptop one year that I used for my ministry. 

Andy: Cool. Nice. That feels good too.

I think a lot of people and organizations like to give to something specific. [00:54:00] Yeah. Not just a big like finance bucket of financial need. 

Heather: Right. 

Andy: So, hey, can you buy me my laptop? Can you get me a car? Can you let me borrow a car? Can you pay for my extra luggage? What? Whatever it is. Yeah. 

Heather: Yeah.

And I think that this next question, which will kind of wrap us up for today, it kind of centers on probably the key posture in whatever ask you have or whatever you're receiving. And that's just around gratitude. Hmm. So why is gratitude paired with consistent communication critical. To maintaining strong church partnerships?

Corrie: Well, people want to know that they are valued. 

Andy: Mm. 

Corrie: And I mean, that's like the key in any relationship. Yeah. Any human, any human connection. You, you gotta feel like you're, you are valued in that relationship. So, um, and it, it really helps [00:55:00] build the long-term partnership, um, with consistent communication.

And gratitude. Mm-hmm. So you wanna give them updates about your work, um, but you also wanna send the thank you notes. Um, I think that, um, like for me, I, since I had so many smaller churches, I saw that they loved those thank you notes. They had bulletin boards in their hallways and they would put missionary thank you notes on their bulletin board and just.

Display them for months at a time, and people could by and read them and know who that worker was, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, so it's, it's a way to build relationship and, and long-term connection. 

Andy: Most churches don't wanna just write a check. 

Corrie: Most people don't wanna write a check. Right? 

Andy: Yeah. Yeah. 

Corrie: They want, they wanna know that they're truly partnering with you.

Andy: Yeah. 

Corrie: And that their gift is making a difference. So [00:56:00] like. For example, in your thank you note, instead of just saying Thank you for giving to this ministry in, in general, you can say, thank you for giving to this ministry today. I got to meet with a student who has questions about what it looks like to follow Jesus.

And I was able to buy them coffee because of generous donors like you. 

Andy: Mm. I love that. 

Corrie: Or like tonight I'm planning to go to a Bible study and I'm bringing a case of Bibles to distribute in different languages. You know, thanks to donors like you, I can do things like this. You know? So like give him a little one to two sentence taste of what your daily life looks like and how their gift plays into that.

Andy: Yeah. 

Heather: Well, and that invites your own gratitude. It reminds me of an episode earlier this season with Kenton where he was talking about how, you know, he had [00:57:00] a woman that would give $10 a month. And it just, he was aware that taking a student coffee or playing a game of pool or whatever was made possible because of her.

Yeah. And that $10, 

Andy: yeah. Yeah. That's so good. I. And it, it, it makes me think of, again, that video that we read referenced earlier about body language. Um, one of the, one of the kind of tangential points that the, that guess was making was how to be authentically, genuinely, um. In relationship and, and how to foster relationship.

And one of the things she brought up was when you're out and about and you see something that reminds you of Heather or reminds you of Corey, shoot him a little note and say, Hey, I just saw this thought of you. That's it. There's no, there's no strings attached. There's no, also thank you for giving. Or Hey, I got another, another month coming [00:58:00] up.

You know, it's just. A nice social touch. 

Heather: Yeah. And it's, and and what I love about that is it's not actually, you are cultivating your attention towards relationship. You're not just trying to cultivate the relationship. It's not like you are, you are scheming about how can I strengthen this relationship?

You are for the, for the purpose of 

Andy: money. 

Heather: Right. You're directing your own heart and genuine attention towards the relationship. Yeah. Yeah. 

Corrie: Because of that person. Yeah. You're gonna care for that person. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 

Andy: Well, like I said, this was a robust episode and it had a lot of very practical tips, so I help listener.

You found it helpful. I. 

Heather: Yep. 

Andy: Now go out there and do it. 

Heather: All right. Woo.

Andy: It's not about the money. It's presented by Pro Proviso fundraising Solutions. Pro Proviso equips support based workers with flexible [00:59:00] training, practical resources, and one-on-one coaching. Find out more@provisofundraising.com.