What Pastors Really Want from Missionaries: Interview with Pastors Brent and Brad Part 1

What do pastors actually wish missionaries knew before reaching out?

In this episode, Jenn Fortner and Josh Sears flip the script and invite two pastors — Pastor Brad McAtee from Peace Chapel and Pastor Brent Hurt from Brighton Assembly – to share what it's really like on the receiving end of missionary outreach.

They walk through what pastors want to hear in that first phone call, why a face-to-face coffee meeting is almost always the preferred first step, and how passion and genuine connection matter far more than polished packets or a rehearsed speech.

You'll also hear practical advice for navigating unique situations — like long-distance connections and how to be ready for every church's different process.

Transcript

0:01

Hello, everybody. This is Jen and Josh. Say hi, Josh. Hey, Josh. With the Fun and Insent podcast. Hey, welcome you guys to a very, very special episode. Um, today, we are gonna give you all of the practical strategies for connecting with churches and pastors. So our topic today is on churches and pastors, but we are sort of flipping the script today. And instead of hearing just from the two of us, you get to hear directly from two pastors who receive requests from missionaries all of the time. So we are so excited to talk to you guys today, and I want to go ahead and introduce you all. So this is Pastor Brad from MATE from uh Peace Chapel is joining us today. And why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself? Well, my name's Brad McAtee, and I've been at Peace Chapel for the last 20 years. Uh married, got two kids, 24-year-old and a 22-year-old daughter, and um just happy to be here. We got a great church and uh happy to be part of this. And how long have you been pastoring, Brad? We've been there for 20 years. Uh, spent 10 years in youth ministry, and um so cool. Don't you serve uh on the southern Missouri district as well in capacity? I've served as the presbyter for the Springfield North area for the last uh almost 12 years. Okay, I'm excited that that piece as well in this conversation. And Pastor Brent from Brightness and Lee, why don't you go ahead and mute yourself? Yeah, hi. I'm excited to be here with Pastor Brent uh Hurt from Brighton, Missouri. It's about 15 miles south uh north of Springfield. Uh we've been lead pastors there for nine years now. I am a recovering uh U.S. missionary. So I'm loving what I get to do now. And when did you serve? How did you serve uh U.S. missions? We were with uh rural compassion, Calvoyville, part of that. And uh we've served our rural pastors in rural America and had an absolute blast. That's amazing. So that's that's really interesting. So, Brent, you have some experience then when it comes to the area of fundraising as well, right? Raising support. You guys, this uh episode is gonna be gold. I'm super excited. So grab a piece of paper and a pen. You're gonna want to take notes. Let's dive in. So I want to ask you both, just to kind of give you both the lay of the land, I want to ask you both the same questions, and we want to hear from both of you if you have something to say. If not, that's fine too. Um, your answers might be the same, they might be different. Uh, that's exactly what we want our listeners to hear. So, and we all know, and we've done several episodes now on church partnership, and we all know that every pastor is different. So speak from your unique lens and what you think. Um, that's really what we want. Uh, but we also want to to give a note too like, hey, every pastor is different in the way that they think. But I think these are common threads that are going to help missionaries navigate uh sparing well. So that's what we want to do. Okay, so you ready for question one? We're ready. Okay, awesome. Um, so let's start with this. If you could tell a missionary one thing when it comes to connecting with a pastor, what would you say? And I don't know who wants to go first. Yeah, my first thought is relax. Okay. You know, relax. Um, you know, some of them they they just they say hello and they instantly jump into hi, my name is. I represent the five billion people of this part of the world. And it's just like, let's just start with hi. Let's just start with with hello. Um being in the Springfield area, we see so many missionaries that come through and they come to our our sectional meetings or our area meetings, and they all just want, you know, they'll they'll come to me as the presbyter and say, Hey, can I share? And usually the answer is no. Uh-huh. And I said, But you're welcome to come and and meet our pastors. And uh they look at you with such disappointment, like, really, you're not gonna stop your world for me. And I said, No, I'm not. And uh, but you know, you're welcome to meet our pastors. And so, you know, I think the biggest thing that I would say on the front end as a you're gonna walk into a room full of pastors, is just walk in and be yourself. God's calls you, God will help you. Just walk in and sit down next to somebody and share a meal, listen to the meeting, and start the process of uh of just introducing yourself, you know, one by one, but don't start with a hard sell of, you know, because they walk in, I've got to raise all these dollars. Just walk in and say hi. Yeah. So, and you're seeing from a perspective of somebody that's a missionary that's coming into a district or section a little bit for the first time, don't come in so hot with all of the I've got all of this on my shoulder. Oh, they walked in with their missionary cars, they got their pamphlets, they got their packets, they got their books, and you know, everybody's showing up with a different I mean pastor's coming for a different mindset most of the time. And you know, they're just kind of lined up, and you can see them poised and weight like sharks. It's like I'm guarding the door, you're not getting out until uh-huh. And um it shows. Yeah, and um yeah, it it shows. And it was a faster you're like, okay, yeah. Just just relax. Just I I'm I'm so-and-so got called me. Yeah, start with that. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Yeah, and when I teach our new missionary associates, so you've got imagine like a a 22-year-old fresh out of one of our assemblies at God schools, going to a desk the uh district or sexual event for the first time, and they're going like what I'm terrified to speak to all of these pastors that are twice as old as me. I have no idea what I'm doing. So, what I do, and Josh, you probably do this too, but I teach our missionary associates, particularly the ones that are going the first time ever, have no experience. Um, I say, just go in as a learner. Like go in with your learning hat on and say, Hey, Pastor Brad, thank you. So I'm so excited to be here. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm brand new. Do you have any like tips or thoughts or anything that I should know to do? Like, I teach them to even ask that question to pastors. What do you think about that? I think it's great. Okay. Um, you know, because too many people, those just show up and it's just like, you know, we're going to a meeting, there's already an agenda, there's already a focus, there's already a whatever. And, you know, too many times they're just trying to take the inform their information and how can I find that moment of the conversation and flip it. And I know that's that's part of their job. Yeah. And part of their job is to how do I make a connection? How do I raise dollars? How do I raise how how do I, you know, they're there. God's called me to go to this country to be a part of these group people group. And I know that that's their focus, but when they show up to a meeting like that, that's not the only focus. It is a focus, but not the only focus. And so, you know, just kind of to jump right back where I was a moment ago, just hi, my name is, and you know, you're having, you know, it's it's it's barbecue day at the sectional meeting. Just sit and eat your barbecue and start by listening. If I if I could ever say something, it is what I would have wanted somebody to have said to me as a as a younger pastor, just start by listening, not start by look at me. Yeah. Yeah. That makes any sense. Uh I think for me it's uh the it comes out of the question connecting, and that should be the goal. And like Pastor Brad is saying, like I want to connect with a person because I don't know that person. And when they start running through their stats, I'm not connecting with that. I don't when they start running through the stats, I immediately shut down and I'm looking for the exit. But if we could just talk about let's let's build friendship. Like the goal is for me to know your name. And if I don't get that, then you've lost. And so it's just we'll have that bracket today, we'll have a meeting where 10 of them stacked up in line with their cars and a packets and one minute. And I'm not the um the goal right then is they're not connecting, they're just creating information. And now for that. Yeah, that's really good. Josh, anything with that? No, that's that's excellent. I love that you guys are both kind of on the same page there because it's one of the things we really focus heavily on in working with our our our workers, our global workers, is man lead with relationships. This is about building relationship and partnership, it's not primarily about funds. And so what you guys are sharing is absolute goal. Connect with people, show actual interest in who they are, where they are, what they're doing, what they're serving in before you ever leave with your own information. Like that's just that's solving goal. Yeah. Yeah, I think too, it reminds me, it's like it's kind of a no-brainer when you go into the room, you you don't you don't come in hot with all of your information. And I think everybody gets so nervous that they're doing that. But it's also the try and true principle of like you build connection by listening and by asking questions. Yes, not about by talking about yourself, but your thing is not their thing. Connect first, always lead with connection in relationship, but like seek to understand, not be understood. Like, and that is just such a key when you're going into a district or sexual event for the first time. Stay curious, listen, ask questions, stop thinking about yourself and what you're doing, and go in and try to build those connections. Very good. I I think that makes a huge difference. Listen, and we need to teach a class on we need to do an episode just on listening. Probably, probably. I mean, because seriously, I think there's more material that needs to be said on just like what what how to listen, how to become a better listener. You even asked the question. You ask me a question, I'm gonna ask the question back. Like you asked me about my church, tell them about your church, what's going on there? What's gonna do it? Well, I'm gonna respond, okay. I'll tell you that, but then I'll say, well, all right, tell them about yourself. How'd you get here? And so they asked me a question, I'm gonna be engaged to ask them a question back and get to know them, take a little bit deeper on that connection part. That's good. Yeah, love it. Okay, question two, you guys ready? That was fun. I'm excited. We're warming up and I'm already like okay. So when a missionary reaches out to you andor your church for the first time, whether that's email, phone call, back in the mail, um, what are you wanting to hear from them initially? What makes you want to keep listening versus what makes you want it to know? It's a great question. You know, it's it's one of those questions like you know, how do I how do I answer this without being offensive? How do I answer this without just being Yeah? You know, it's just you know, I I think one of the things to r to remember is if you if you call remember that some pastors have you know gates of the call's gonna go to an admin or the the the call's gonna go through a filter or the call, but a lot of our churches that's not the case. Uh a lot of our churches, it's the the pastor answers the phone. And he's wanting to answer the phone first and foremost because he's hoping with every phone call that rings, you're hoping it's someone who just moved into your community and they want to connect and he wants to grow his own church. I know I don't I don't think I thought of it like that. You know, I had a call the other day and I wanted to answer the phone, and I'm in the middle of a project, and and we had volunteers working in our project, and not everything always goes right. And so I'm at a stressful moment of trying to find something without unbuilding what we'd spent weeks building, and he's like, hey. And I'm just like, I need I I recognize who it is after saying hello, Peace Chapel. This is Brad, and you recognize who it is, you like the person because this is a great person. Yeah, they're doing a great job, they are missionaries, they are funded, they're they're doing great things. But in that moment, I I I know because my wife would say, Brad, let the phone go to voicemail. But then the part of me that I want to answer the phone because when the phone rang growing up, when it rang, you answered it. Yeah. And uh you know, that's the world that I grew up. And it's like, you know, the little kid you're running the answer, hey, and uh yeah, but I know that if I'm busy, I've got to work on not answering the phone because I just finally just said, thanks for calling. We love you. I need to find what I'm working on because I'm on my cell phone, I'm on a ladder, I've got a camera running through the ceiling, and I've got three people looking at me. And the truth is, I should have never answered the phone. Uh-huh. But I guess the overall point I'm trying to make is I think sometimes our missionaries need to realize pastors were too. Yeah. And pastors need to make time for missionaries because missionaries are important, but at the same time, I think pastors like myself sometimes need to not answer the phone when they're not ready to talk. Yeah. But at the other time, I think missionaries need to understand that oh, they're running a ministry also. Yeah. And, you know, as much as what they're about to do wherever is super important, what God's called me to do is super important also. So anyway, just a thought. Yeah, they're you're busy shepherding your flock. You're not, you know, you're doing your job too. So exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna say like if the first time they're reaching out is a packet, maybe to save their money and not send a packet. Because let's be honest, like if the first thing I get is a packet, I'm probably not gonna put a lot high. But if I know the missionary, if I build if they can look me, then I'm gonna open it and engage in it. The first thing I want to hear is I want to hear passion for what they're doing. I uh we have I have a lot of missionary meetings, and um I say probably over half of them, I don't see any passion for what they're yeah, I'm writing that down. I'd like to echo that. Yeah, it's just like they it's it's it'd be it's very robotic. It's very just they'll they'll begin to talk to you, and it's just this is my script. This is what I was uh this is what I I've I was taught to say, or this is what I'm most comfortable trying to say this. And I I just think that the first thing I just want to know, hey, tell me about a guy calling on your life. You know, the idea of picking up your family and moving to another country, you know, I mean you're talking about living in the Amazon, Josh. I'm sitting there, you know, if if you're not passionate about that, I mean your mom, wherever your mom lives, and your your grandpa just thing my kids and my grandkids away, you know, you'd better be able to communicate. I felt something so Yeah, that's good. Because if not, it's like I'm called to this group of people, the you know, it's uh it's always an unreached people group, but it's always to the millions of people, and it's just like it just it turns into wah wah wah wah. And you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna echo what Pastor Brent said about the packet. Maybe 15 seconds, and it's filed. It's in the trash. Yeah. Yeah, I was trying to say that. First, you see a packet and you just met them at a meeting, or you just had coffee at them, it's like that packet is that next step. Yeah. That's good. Not okay, so packets are more a second step, not a first step. That's really good. Uh or a third. Packet is not the first step. I like that. Yeah, I just look at this packet, I'm like postage, the mailing, the the material, the money goes up. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You want the dollars to go further. Yep. So to follow to follow up on that, then if if you're saying that a packet isn't the the the first thing, um, is what it sounded like, say that for a step two or step three after we've established a contact. What do you want that first contact to look like? Are you looking for an email? Are you looking for a phone call? What's the best first step? I know everybody's different. For me, it's they call the office. In every mission that calls the office, I'll set up a time to have coffee. And I'll tell them up front, listen, we may not be able to take you on, but if we meet, we like what you're doing, we'll put you in a queue and we'll we'll try to pick you up when we can. But my first deal, I want to face to face. I want to sit down because I want to see if I can see the passion, I can see the call of God on our life, if if this is if this is something that's gonna go somewhere. Or I'll I can tell you I've left a lot of meetings not being able to explain what the missionary's doing. Gotcha. So I don't come to face-to-face because they can hide that in a pack or they can hide that in email, but a face-to-face visit, they can with their passion or calling, and they've got to explain it, and to me that's very important. I want to echo what Pastor Brent said. That to me has to be one of the number one things that they communicate. This is what God's called me and my family to go do. Um, you know, we have lots of missionaries in different parts of the world, and they're all called to do, you know, we're all called to to reach people, but we all they all do it differently. How is God calling you? And you know, if you sit down to have coffee to hear that face-to-face, you should be able to, I should be able to get in my car and walk away and go, that missionary is going to this place for this reason to be either the support or be on the front lines, and it should be crystal clear, not yeah, I don't really know. And that does happen more than we would like to think it does. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I've heard a lot of pastors say that their their favorite way to start like before you consider a missionary for support, you do want to meet with them face to face. I do think that varies across our districts to a certain degree. But I know I know Texas is like that, um, southern and uh north Texas is like that. And Josh, I think that's pretty prevalent with most a lot of our districts is a coffee, a coffee appointment, a face-to-face appointment at first, just like within an individual, you know, we're the pastor is wanting that as well before they put them in front of their congregation. Yeah, the last thing I want to do is just invite somebody to church and say, here's a microphone. An initial phone call. It's like, I uh, you know, because they just fall like I would like to schedule a service, and and the answer's no. Yeah, yeah. And you know, and we're not a large church, but still the answer's no, because these are our people. Right. Yeah, as much as we want to think, our job is these are our people to lead in a certain direction and be very mindful of that. So when you have that coffee appointment, it's passion, it's clearly articulating your vision and your ministry and the why behind what you're doing, the need behind what you're doing. Right. You're also asking yourself, would I want this person to come and do a window? So it's not just coffee to present, it's it's looking at them and looking at their body language. Do they have good eye contact? When they connect with our people. Um because you have a stewardship responsibility, just like everybody does, but you take it to the congregational level. My dad Yeah, yeah. My dad said this and it haunts me. We just grew up as a regular family going to church. My dad worked a regular job, nobody was a pastor, we're just regular people. And my dad goes to our church now, and I'm thrilled, but he looked at me years ago and he looked, I mean, it just looked at me with such directness, and he said, It's your responsibility to make sure that we're planting our mission dollars in the Ryan soil. And it's just like, thanks, dad. Why don't you take that and walk? You know, it's like I hear that. I mean, as a pastor, I hear that, and it's because when I go to the Lord and say, I would like to add this missionary, I hear my dad's voice inside of this is like, you better be doing the right things because I'm giving every month and I want my dollars to count. That's such a powerful, I mean, it's a reminder to missionaries, though, as well, that like we have a stewardship responsibility on our side to make sure that what's being invested in the kingdom of God is being utilized in the way that we say we're gonna utilize it. Like, if I say I'm gonna do something, we we better be doing it because there are people who are praying, investing, and sacrificing. And that's a that's a very poignant reminder for me. I mean, to be be on my game as well of hey, listen, I better be doing something that is worthy in of the investment and sacrifice of others and investing my time and resources appropriately and being a good steward of that. Yeah, but also like on the flip side of that too, is every missionary we bring in, it's either gonna grow my missions buzzard or not. Yeah, that's really good. As still as still can get, it's gonna be hard to get people to rally to give to missions. If I bring a society, dynamic person that's gonna share their art, the passion, and fire for what God's calling do, that's gonna help me raise missions funds within my congregation. Right. So it's uh it's a two-way street. That's really good. No, I love that. And I love that um I found I found that it's such a great opportunity to sit down with pastors. I love having those coffee meetings before. There's a lot less pressure when the first contact is me and the pastor over coffee over a meal just chatting, instead of me the first time I'm there is me in front of their entire congregation and nobody's ever met me before. So it's it's wonderful that. But let's get a little bit practical here with our next question. So a missionary is about to call you for the first time. All right, so walk us through that conversation. What are some of the do's and don'ts of that first phone call? Um, how can they best approach you on that phone call? I I I you know it's been said the face-to-face is the most important. You see the body language, you see the tone, you see their eyes. You just really watch how they communicate. And so, you know, you talk about the first phone call. If if we've not had the face-to-face, I would want that phone call to lead to a face-to-face. You know, sometimes they ask me, when's the next sectional meeting? When's the next area meeting? Where when when when's this gonna happen? When can I meet you? And so I would want that phone call to be less about I'm called to this and this and this and you know, all the the stump speech that goes along with that. I would want the phone call to sit around when we can get together. And really not a lot more than that, because that's good. That's a good idea. That's really good. Yeah, yeah. Because it goes back to this very simple thing. I don't know you. And as weird as that is, you know, it's you know, you know, my kids are in this dating phase and it's like blind date and you know, it's that's like, well, tell me what they tell me what's what's this gonna be like, and you know, it's like really when you meet a missionary for the first time, it's like a lot of things can be hidden over a phone call. Yeah, that's true. Lots of things, presentation, lots of, lots of things. And so it's like, really, I just want the phone call to how do we get to the coffee? How do I get to when is your next area meeting? When can I meet you? I'll be there early or I'll stay late. And really just thank you very much. Bring the phone call to it. Yeah, I agree 100%. It should be about making an appointment. The way it works at our church is I do have a uh an admin assistant that fills all calls. Um, and so I never get a phone call unless they somehow get my personal cell phone number, which happens more often than not. But I normally I don't get a phone call, and so it works through the admin, and her goal is just to accept an appointment to where I can meet with them face to face. So that I go out past Brad said that should be the first step is just hey, this is so-and-so, love to meet with you. When's the best time I could sit down? So I met one missionary, it was great. I we'd always coffee appointments. I love coffee. We sit down and have coffee, he orders a hot chocolate. Like, what are you doing, dude? Is that a red flag for you, Brent? But yeah, he's like, well, I don't like coffee. I'm like, well, good for you to sit down in a coffee place with me when you don't like coffee. So I'm pretty proud of him for that. Let me ask you this, Pastor Brian. I know I'm not supposed to ask the question, but you show me the coffee. You show me the coffee meeting. It's supposed to start at 9 a.m. Come on. They're not there. Come on. What's the appropriate amount of time before you can just leave? I recently had that happen. I had a scheduled appointment for a guy. I waited 15 minutes, and then I busted open and got a lot of work done. And at 30-minute mark, I was like, okay, I'm I'm out of here. He just never showed up. No 30 minutes for me and probably 15 minutes, and I could say I could safely say I'm I'm leaving, but uh yeah, that's uh it happened. Set at a coffee shop one day, and I was waiting, and uh the person didn't show it didn't show, and so I called one of my pastor friends and said, Hey, tell me, tell me what your number is. How long do you wait? He goes, 10 minutes, 10 minutes and I'm out. He goes, they they knew when the meeting was, 10 minutes and I'm out. Yeah, and I just talked and um I mean that person, you know, they called me later that day and said, I completely forgot and, you know, and he was very kind and told me whatever, but uh anyway. I like that because we'll we teach teach our missionaries mostly like in whenever Josh and I are teaching live or or whatever in small groups or however we do it in this podcast. I think we teach like the approach of hey, get into the phone call, introduce yourself, and then typically a couple things are gonna happen. One is the pastor is going to host the conversation for the most part. So you just need to go with doubts in a row of the like what you're going after and who you are, and not come in too hot, but try to build a connection. And then most of the time the pastor is going to say, Well, we do it this way, you know, like we would like to meet with you first in our coffee. So there's a myriad of of different legs it can take because some pastors are gonna say, sure, we'll schedule you for a service, or maybe it's the missionary's already met the pastor before in a district session or a sectional event. So there's a little bit of a relationship there, and then they're scheduling the service. Or then you're coming in completely cold and the pastor wants to get coffee first and then so the missionary lens is like I need to be prepared for multiple things to happen at the same time, but I also need to be prepared for the pastor to host the conversation a little bit. So, you know, you gotta again, your 22-year-old that's starting this all out for the first time and making a phone call to a pastor is terrifying terrifying to call you off because they're like, never done this before. Also, I'm a Gen Zer and I hate phone calls and all I do is text messages. So this is even a millennial. Like they're they're sitting like shaking their boots, going, you know, I barely I barely wear a pizza over the phone anymore. So like, you know, so it just is uh it's a nerve-wracking experience for them, but they're th but what we teach is essentially be ready for like the the kind of the fall of what twine of whatever could happen in the moment and how that church does their missions giving, and then sort of be prepared with what you know you want to articulate and then don't come in too hot, let the pastor host the conversation. Do you how do you guys find that to be helpful information for missionaries? Anything you would say differently? I'd I like how you just said, hey, just be ready for anything. Yeah. Be flow with how it's going. Everybody, everybody, you know, some people to become a missionary church, it's a year process. Hey, I want to meet you, I want to do this, I want to meet you again, I want to do this, I need to take it to the missions board, I need to take, you know, there's so many steps, and every church has a different process. And so I just think what you just said, that was really good. Just tell them to be ready for lots of different scenarios. Yeah. Josh M. I have a final question for you guys on this. So, you know, being a 45-year-old man, like for me, it's easy to pick up a phone, talk to a pastor, sit down for coffee, those kind of things. But a very sensitive question that we get a lot from our global workers is as you guys are well aware, missions as a whole has been run and built on the work of single women out in the field. And so, how do you as pastors handle that phone call for a coffee meeting when it's a single 20-something-year-old lady who's saying, Hey, I've got a budget to raise and I want to sit down and chat too. How do you handle that situation? It's it's great because I uh I actually have a full-time uh kids pastor, and so anytime I meet with a single female, I bring a kids pastor. If he's not available, I've brought my daughter along with me um before, and now we've got a youth pastor, so I've got him to come along. And so I never meet alone. I usually at least have one, if not both of them, come along to the meeting with me. And uh, I feel that makes a little more comfortable setting uh to single ladies. That's good. So you take that upon yourself to kind of have somebody else in the room. Yeah, 100%. I won't have a meeting alone with uh with a single female missionary or lady, so Brad, what about you? You know, I like what Pastor Brent said. I probably shouldn't do what Pastor Brent said, but uh I I've I've met with many of them, but it's always in a public place. You know, I've met with lots of people at a coffee shop and it's I met uh echelon. Right. Yeah I've met with lots of people, it's a very crowded coffee shop and lots of people very close to each other. And so um, you know, I like Pastor Brent's method better than mine. And uh, but the truth is, do I do that? Yes. But and not every pastor has the ability to invite their children's pastor or their youth pastors, I would say I felt I mean I feel really comfortable going into crowded echelon poverty on the north side of town where there's a lot of people, and we were doing credentialing stuff whenever I met you um for Southern Missouri District. But uh, you know, any I think those are pretty appropriate situations too. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I wanted to ask that I wanted to ask that question because I know that they become uh kind of uh that wasn't necessarily on the questions that we we talked about ahead of time, but it's such a such an important thing because we get that a lot from our global workers, especially our single ladies of I don't know how to approach this. And what's the best way to go about that? And so that's great that you guys have that process. What about the side, the situation of I've coached single ladies to, hey, what about bringing somebody with you? You know, bringing a friend, bringing a parent, bringing a sibling, or say, hey, can we partner up with another another single lady in the district and get two for one and have a chance to talk as over coffee with two of us so that there's more people in the conversation? What do you guys think about something like that? Yeah, I mean, I'd I'd be okay with that. As long as they're comfortable. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's I'm I'm with Messer Brand. There was when the reality is here's two people trying to sell something, you know, you want to make sure that you're partnered with it. One, you don't overshadow them, but then at the same time, you don't want them to overshadow, you know, it's just like you'd have to be the right situation for it to be profitable. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I want to brag on the single lady missionaries out there out the last six months. I've had two single female missionaries, they've knocked it out of the park and the meetings follow up, everything. They've been the best ones I've had in the last six months. Wow. It was great meeting. Wow. That's awesome. So, how do you guys do this when you have a missionary who say, let's I mean, you guys are in southern Missouri, right? Let's say that they're from the St. Louis area on the southern Missouri side of the river, right? What do you do when you have a missionary calling from three, four hours away? How do you handle that process for coffee if that's your first go-to? Everybody comes to Springfield. We're in Allen, you know, just everybody, you know like the missionary called me one day, hey, I'm gonna be in your area, and I just stopped them and I said, Everybody's in our area. And they said, Oh, I guess that's right. Everybody comes to Springfield, so that's just that's the that's the world we live in. Everybody's coming this way at some point. Okay. And I have done a Zoom before, a Zoom meeting recently, because they they were in a situation where they were wanting to leave at a certain period of time, and we just could not work it out where we could meet face to face. And so we sat down on Zoom and that worked fine. Perfect. Okay, yeah, because I was gonna we were gonna ask you guys about that first step. Is it a coffee meeting? Is it a five-minute window? Is it preaching? But you guys kind of both seems like you're on that that train of listen, when you call, we want to sit down for coffee first and chat. And so these are some of those dynamics that really affect missionaries, you know, they're if they're a single female, if they're coming from far away, because some people call from hours away to be able to do that. Um, have you ever supported somebody without sitting down with them first? I have not. Once. I I was telling Pastor Brennan earlier, I said I was in a meeting um probably almost 18 years ago, and a missionary walked in the room, and I just felt like the Lord said you need to support that missionary. And I just walked to him at the end of the meeting and uh I said, I just feel like the Lord told me we're supposed to support you. Uh, we had some uh room in our budget, and we just instantly started supporting him. Um, but that's the only time. So the exception, not the norm. True. So relationship is incredibly important to this process, right? Yeah, it is. And I and I understand we're our churches are different levels, and we got larger churches, they do things very differently than we would do things, and so that's just for us, that's what works at our locations. I think I'm gonna go ahead and I think this is a good place to pause, and then we will do another episode. So we'll do a part two just because this kind of conversation feels very dynamic, and I'm excited about asking you guys a few more questions while we still haven't even thrown. Um, but yeah, just for our listeners here, I want to just say really quick before you go to listen to the next episode. Here's a couple things Josh and I want to challenge you guys to do. So listen possibly to this episode again, take some notes on what Brent, Pastor Brent, Brent, and Pastor Brad said, and then maybe identify one thing from this conversation that you need to change in how you approach churches and pastors and start doing that thing as of this week. Okay. So take your take your process through a fine-tooth home, listen to some of the things that were said today, and maybe adjust some of uh what you're doing to listen, to learn, and to to move forward. So let this conversation change how you approach church partnership a little bit. And we are going to be back with part two. You guys, thank you so much for being with us today. We're so honored to have you with us guys. This was a lot of fun. Thank you. Yeah. All right, let's see you for every next episode. Thanks, guys. Ciao, guys.