Churches and Pastors Part 1: Contacting A Pastor

How do you actually get in front of a pastor — and what do you do once you're there?

In this episode, Jenn Fortner and Josh Sears walk through the practical how-to's of contacting churches, getting services scheduled, and making presentations that lead to lasting partnership.

They cover the three main methods of outreach — phone calls, pastor's packets, and email — including when to use each one, what to say to a church administrator, and why your home church is always the best place to start.

You'll also learn how to set up an engaging display table, use connect cards effectively, navigate sensitive location assignments, and why every interaction with a pastor should be focused on building relationship — not closing a deal.

Blog post: jennfortner.com/connect-cards-and-qr-codes

https://jennfortner.com/2025/09/10/how-to-engage-pastors-with-email-tips-and-samples/

Giving Instructions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PJ0ZTUV7AnaJxPo9N9urEKR_nPwUsJK4/view?usp=drive_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T53j2mu-FkzQxo634pMaQrhHuDsqhIw_/view?usp=drive_link

Contacting A Pastor: 

https://jennfortner.com/2024/05/06/what-to-say-when-calling-a-church/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome, welcome everybody to the Funded and Sent podcast with Jen and Josh. We are excited to be with you today and talking about churches and pastors. Part one how to contact a pastor. So that is what we're going to be talking about today. Josh, I'm excited. Are you excited?

SPEAKER_01 0:23

I am really excited, especially after our conversation with Brad and Brent. Like this is going to be really good.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Yeah, so we'll probably spend some time referencing the conversation that we had. Um I think it's with Pastor Brad and Pastor Brent in a previous episode. So if you haven't uh listened to that one, go back and listen to that because we'll probably be referencing some of the things that they said as we have this conversation a little bit. But we're super excited today. So yeah, so we we know that we have talked in this podcast before about how so much of our support comes from individuals, but we also want to take a little bit of time and explain the how-to's of how to reach out to a pastor and contact an a pastor. So this is really important. Um, so that's what we're doing here today: how to get services scheduled, how to make presentations that lead to partnership, how to steward those relationships well. So let's dive into it. And Josh, I think you're gonna start us off with the home church.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yeah. So let's talk a bit about our home church, our our or anchor church or whatever you want to call it. That place that you call your spiritual home, you're there, that really should be your first priority. I mean, these are people that already know you, you're already connected and part of the community. Hopefully, you already have a relationship there. Usually you do if you've been there for any length of time. Um, and they want to see their own people succeed. Having pastored in the past, like I would I want to see my own people succeed and grow in ministry. And I would say most pastors would say the same thing. And this can be a place for significant support because you're a homegrown worker, you're somebody that's coming out of their congregation, out of their local community that is going out to work. And so um it's a great place to start. And it's a great thing because as a pastor over somebody inside of my church, like I would not only want to see them flourish, but I want to help them flourish. And so it's a great way to make connections with other churches because you're starting with a place that already knows you and already has a relationship with you.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So so what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 2:25

First start. Whenever you're thinking about how do I start, how do I start contacting churches? It's like, have you reached out to your home church yet? Because that's number one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yeah, you would think that would be you would you would think that would be the starting point, and it should be because that's the place where you already have, you know, we talked about in the previous and in the previous episode, Jim, we talked about those those things that we need to have in relationship as we connect with people. And as you build relationships, the same thing is it happens with churches. We're building a relationship, and you start where you already have those components in place, and that's a place that's natural would be your home church. So, like step one is sit down with your pastor. Um, hopefully, they've already been a part of the process. Like, they likely know that you have this call in your life. You've likely been talking to them, you're talking to some of these spiritual leaders, they've been a part, sharing your calling and your vision, sharing what the God has laid upon your heart to do. Um, and then asking for not only their blessing as you step out, because if you're serving any level of leadership, you probably should talk to your pastor about, hey, a change is coming. Because I'm stepping out to follow this call and asking for their blessing, but also asking for support and finding out what is the church's avenue for support? How does the church go around supporting global workers um and if they would consider bringing you on for support? Don't assume. We don't ever want to assume something's gonna take place.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, that's a good note.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

I think that's something that's important to remember, and that's through the whole process. We never want to come approach it with a city with a mentality of entitlement or I'm assuming this is a this is already a home run and gonna happen. But we want to ask and see if it's possible to be considered. So something to think about. So, what does your church typically give to missionaries? You may have, I know some churches have the missionaries, they give two on a wall and they have the certificates and it has the amounts. Others list it in their annual business meeting, they may list it there. But finding out is there is there a set amount that missionaries are supported at? That's a good place to find out and to know what's the process for adding missionaries? Um, so how do you go through the process? Because don't assume, like I said, don't assume you can jump the process. You got to go through the process with your home church. Um, are there ways that we can serve the church during this season that we're raising our support? That's incredibly important. We should not stop serving our local community just because we're going this. Yes, our primary job is getting our funds together and to get to the next step of our calling, which is the field, but we should still be volunteering and serving and keeping that in balance with this season as we're putting together our support team. And then asking our pastors, hey, is there somebody that you know that you could connect me to? Asking them for that referral of connecting you with somebody else or with other pastors in the area or other pastors they may have a relationship with that who may be interested in what's going on in your calling. Um, are there pastors' meetings you can go and be a part of? And ask if you can tag along with them to pastors' meetings to be able to connect with other pastors. These are all great, easy first steps and a natural place to start with somebody you already know.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Right. Right. Yeah, that's good. What else?

SPEAKER_01 5:21

So, I mean, asking for those referrals, asking for places that they can help connect you because they are obviously have connection with other pastors. Um, but your home church should ideally, ideally, be the one that supports you the greatest in terms of all the way around. We're not just talking about financially, but having that support, those easy connections, the places to have the bridges of relationship to other people. But again, like we've said before, we can't assume for that. We can't assume this is gonna happen. We can't walk with a time.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I'm thinking as you're talking about home church situations too, I've run into this in coaching where a missionary says, Well, you know, my my pastor has said, I can't like uh I can't solicit any individuals inside of our church um except for ask the church for support and they're only gonna support me $200. Um, and that's a side note, but I think what I'm trying to, and that the that could be a whole other podcast episode, so I won't get into the nitty-gritty on that. But I think what I want to say is anytime that you're going to your home church pastor, and maybe you are in different circumstances where it's not so cut and dry, maybe you've only been going for a couple months, or maybe, you know, they say, hey, do not ask any individuals inside of our church for partnership, just us alone. And then that sort of, you know, you feel handicapped by that, or whatever it is, or I've, you know, just a lot of gamut of questions that have come up over the years with home church partnerships. So if that's you, I would just say to you, don't feel a sense of entitlement and always honor, like try to, as best as you can, honor what the pastor is asking of you. I think it's really important to stay communicative and um demonstrate your needs, but also, you know, follow with what like follow what the the pastor is asking of you because there's typically a decent reason for it. And that might not cover every question that might be coming up in the hearts and minds of people that are listening as it pertains to their home church. Because, you know, but I'm just saying, I think in general, um, if we don't carry a sense of entitlement and if we generally like don't we want to honor that pastor, um, I think those are two really great places to sort of stick to.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

So yeah, and I think that's as a is a is a spiritual principle in that too, in that the Lord honors submission to authority. And if we're being asked this by those in leadership over us, this is not something that catches the Lord off guard and suddenly he's like, Oh no, I was gonna use those people to give to you. Like, God's not worried about it. His hands aren't being wrung over the fact that a pastor said, Hey, please don't ask the people inside the church. We're gonna do it as a church body. Okay, great. Honor that, walk in submission to that, and trust that the Lord already had that as part of his plan.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Yeah, yeah, that's good. Good. Okay, so uh talk to us a little bit about building the church list. So we've talked to our home church pastor, and then next step is probably building our church list of churches that we're gonna connect with.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Absolutely. So I'm gonna put a little note in here for those who are part of our organization and the assemblies of God, that for especially those who are classified as missionary associates, um, we have in our organization open and closed districts. So districts that allow workers to openly cold call and those that ask you only to connect with people who are you actually have a relationship with or have connection to. So make sure before you step into any season, whatever your organization's policies are, make sure you know them before just blanket reaching out to churches. We want to make sure we're operating within this side of the policies of our organizations. So follow it, your district, your network, your organization, make sure you're following those policies.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Um you know what it is. Like you do the research and the homework to actually know. If you're in a if you're not an assemblies of God missionary, you might be like, well, there's no stipulations, but they might be. So I think knowing what those guardrails are and those boundaries um of asking for support is really, really helpful as you enter in a conversation.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

So do your and I'll just yeah, ignorance is not bliss, and it's not better to ask forgiveness than permission. Find out beforehand.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Well said. That's a really good way of saying that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

So um make sure you know that beforehand. But the natural place to start is just like we talked about in individuals. The place you want to start is that close proximity of relationship, that group A of people who are close to you or connected to you, your home church, maybe a church that you grew up in that now you're living in a different city, different state, or you went away to college, and you attended the church while you were in college. It's another great place to connect to. Maybe your aunt or your uncle or your grandparents have been long invested in a church. You have family members that have been planted there. That's another great place to connect. So starting with those churches where you have those natural connections with them, where you have those natural relationships, then starting inside of your network outside of that. So, what are your organization? How do they split it up? Inside of the assemblies of God, we have districts and ministry networks. So starting in those geographic areas that are within our city or within the counties around us, inside of our state. Um, maybe churches where you have friends who attend or you've done mission strips to that church or along with that church. These are all ways that we can connect as we start to expand out our relationship process. And then as you connect to pastors, always ask for referrals. This is the same thing as individuals. Like I asked, I sit down with a pastor and I have a really great relationship with my home pastor. Who are some pastors maybe that you know that you can help me connect to? And they open those doors up. And as I build relationship with other pastors, again, this takes time, but as I build relationship with other pastors, I'm asking the same thing. Would you be willing to connect me with a couple other pastors here in the area that I could connect with? And so asking for those things, and then the gold nugget in all of this is pastor events. So inside of our organization, we have district and network events where pastors come together regularly inside of sections, whether it's like a city or a county, they come together regularly inside of the state or the network, the district. Being at those events, like I told missionaries all the time, if there are two pastors in the room, I am the third person there. I want to be there, I want to build relationships, I want to connect with them. If it's a prayer meeting, I'm gonna go and pray. If they're having a lunch meeting, I want to be a part of it just to again not to be pushy. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to be there and thrust my information in their face, but I want to build relationships, I want to get connected to them. I want to get to know who they are and be connected with them in some very, very real ways.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

And so you're going to the party and you want to make friends. That's what you should think about. Exactly. It's not, it's not rocket science, it's not hard. It's uh referencing the conversation that we had um a couple of episodes ago. Yeah, it's not about going in there at guns plays and coming in hot with all of the statistics of how many people you're gonna reach for Christ over in Uzbekistan. It's um, hi, Pastor So and so. My name is Jen Fortner. Well, you know, what what's going on with your church? How long have you been in the district? How long have you been pastoring? You're getting to know people just like you would at a at you know, at any sort of sharing a meal situation or community um situation. So yeah, I think that's important.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Absolutely. Leading with that just hello, my name is. Who are you? Where are you serving? How long have you been there? And there is something that Pastor Brent mentioned about the whole reciprocity in this. When you ask me how I'm doing about my family or about my ministry, about my church, about my city, or any of those kind of things, the natural human thing for me to do is to reciprocate. Well, tell me about yourself. You've showed interest. Now I'm interested, and I want to hear from you.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Yeah, don't go in there with a district or sectional event thinking that you're the expert, you have everything to share, your ministry is more important than these pastors. All of that is the wrong mentality. The mentality of a heart posture that we should embody at district or sectional events or your organizational organizational event is how can I build connection? How can I build relationship? And guess what? Some of the secret sauce to doing that is listening and asking questions. It is not about your thing is not their thing. Lead uh or carry the conversation by not carrying the conversation and listening and asking questions and staying curious. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah. So you've got this list, Jen. You've got connected with churches. Now you're going to start reaching out. So let's talk about how we're connecting with pastors and connecting with them on that first time, reaching out to them. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah. So uh any missionary that's like, okay, they've built their list of churches and they've talked to their home church pastor and now they have to make that first phone call or they have to, you know, talk to the pastor for the first time, or um, you know, follow up. Yeah, just all that whole world of beginning a like conversation with a pastor and you're stepping into it cold. How do you begin that conversation? I think is what we want to talk about here. So, how do we connect with pastors? I think first note to remember is pastors are busy shepherding their flocks, they have their own ministries that they are stewarding and they are doing an absolutely fabulous job of doing that. Just assume that that is true. So they can be very busy people and a little hard to reach. And that, Josh and my friends, is a okay with us. Okay. So I think carrying that heart posture where you are not um coming in with entitlement issues or frustration and leaving that at the door and chucking that and giving it over to Jesus is very important as the first place. And just going back to the conversation that we had with Pastor Brad and Pastor Brent, I think it's important to mention like I sat and learned some things by just listening to them. Absolutely. Their perspective on all of this. So I think just starting off from the gate and realizing, like, hey, we they have a different perspective on the other side of this phone call or email that you're sending. And just be gracious with um the body of Christ and as you go and uh go forth, and staying persistent is also so, so, so key. So it might take 10 to 15 times before you reach a pastor, before you actually sit down and have that coffee connection with that pastor, or you're speaking at the service. And that is okay. That is a part of it. Um, they get contacted by a lot of missionaries. Like I think Pastor Brent said he was getting connected, and he's, you know, the the church size, there's you know, variant degrees of church sizes there, but he's getting calls in southern Missouri, rural Missouri for 10 to 15 missionaries a week. So I think getting into it, realizing that is huge. So they're juggling a million day things, their priority is um, their top priority is not your thing, no offense to that, but it's just true. So the strategy is multiple touch points when you think about it that way. So stay in the multi-channel approach lane, and you will be good. So you don't want to necessarily try one method and just give up, but use a combination. And this is where it runs the gamut. And I tell people there's differences between district for our you know, assemblies of God network and connection, there's district, there's differences in sections and there's differences in pastors. So asking asking a lot of questions and finding out what works best inside of your district and your section is always, always helpful. But some of the methods, okay, uh method one could be email first or mailing first, let's say mail first and then calling the pastor. Okay. So this could look like sending some sort of a pastor's packet in the mail or even using email first and uh sending out a packet of information on you and your ministry prior to making a phone call to a pastor. So this could look so what's in a pastor's packet, that would be including like a professional folder envelope, not just a you know, a standard envelope, but something that might stand out. Um, a case document, and that is essentially a one page or a one and like a front and a back um page, like a pastor's sort of resume. So it's got your picture, your family picture on it. It's got some needs for the country, it's got what you're gonna be doing in ministry, how that came about, a QR code that leads possibly to um, you know, a further website or further way to give or get informate more information on you. Um, and then possibly like some percentages of where you're at with your budget and how much, like maybe even how much you need to raise. So case documents, um, I have those and the show notes are gonna be in the show notes of some examples of those and some places that you can go to get some information on that. Um, also prayer cards are helpful to include in pastor packets. I love Josh to include a pastor recommendation letter. So a pastor recommendation letter from my home church pastor, possibly my seasonal or district ministry director or missions director, or even like my team leader or my area director, particularly if they're well known. And I think something that you can add to this that is helpful is, you know, if you are asking a very busy pastor to write you a recommendation letter, they're gonna look at you like you have a third eyeball in some cases because when they're gonna have time to write you from scratch a recommendation letter. And thank you, thankfully, there's AI to help out with that kind of thing these days if you have some sort of a form or standard thing. And I'm not saying, by the way, to use AI whenever writing your newsletters or anything else, but I'm saying for standardize it, you know, standardizing something. But I would say you could take the um the initiative and even write like a template one and send it to the pastor prior and say, hey, pastor, this is just a template for you to grasp, but would you be interested in giving me a recommendation letter? I would love to include it as I talk to other pastors in our district or whatever. So anyway, there's that. And then um your organization's commitment or pledge form, if there's a paper on anything like that or giving instructions, um, that might be something that you might want to leave off giving instructions or something that like goes even deeper onto giving, because that's more best left to like a conversation. But um, if you want to give, you know, some sort of like a understanding of what that might look like, that might be helpful as well. Um, and then I would say a handwritten, like postcard size, handwritten note that says, Pastor Josh, thank you so much for taking the time to look at this. Um, we'll be in touch soon. I'll call you sometime in the next couple of weeks. Or you say, Pastor, it was so nice to meet you at the district or sectional event, or you know, whatever it is, something that's personalized and it's a little postcard, maybe branded that's on top of your pastor's packet. So, and then after you fill that out and send it out to pastors, then you could wait five to seven days if you're waiting from the mail, or three to four days if you're if you've emailed that, give it a time to arrive and then to read it. And then you could call the church. Okay. So you ask for the pastor or the mission missions director, you reference the packet, which is why I like it, because it gives you some sort of like a landing place to kind of start with the conversation. Hey, I'm calling a packet that I sent to Pastor So-and-so last week about my minist the ministry in um Estonia. And then obviously, as you tackle that phone call for the first time, you are so nice to the church administrator. And whatever the church administrator says that needs to happen next is the thing that needs to happen next. So if the church administrator says, Oh, thank you so much for calling, but he's out right now, but we'll try to get you an appointment. If um, I'll go ahead and, you know, get you hit your um, get you get him your con your contact information and he'll call you back, that's what you do. If the if the administrator says, Okay, uh Jen, yeah, I will uh why don't you go ahead and send him an email with that packet in it again. So he's um reminding of it and tell him a little bit about your misery, that is what you do. Or if they say call back next Tuesday, that is what you do. Okay. So every administrator is different, every church is different. And I would say a couple of things. Yeah, well, I'll get into that in just a minute. But the packet can be helpful because it gives you a little that gives them a little bit of a context. Before you call, and it's not a phone call. It shows a level of professionalism and intentionality, and it gives them something to reference potentially before. But I will say this, Josh. I used to be pretty intent on teaching to send a pastor's packet before making the phone call. But what we just heard from Pastor Brad and Pastor Brent was that a pastor's packet is best done when it's like the second or the third layer of contact, not the first. So the first, one of their preferences would be a phone call, which I'll explain in just a second. But just keep that in mind. I think it's it's if you're trying something and it's not working, perhaps go back and try something different or a different mode of communication. But I think with with pastors' packets in in and of themselves, I think that it could be that a lot of pastors, if they get those on a regular basis, they might get put in the trash or filed pretty quickly. So it may be best to not give the pastor's packet first and then do a phone call first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

I really liked that they said that, to be honest, because I mean, on our last, on our last uh cycle of support raising, I sent out packets regularly. You know, every single week I'm sending out 10 to 15 packets. And to me, that was just part of the business of what we're doing and trying to make those relationships and make connections, trying to stand out, put information in their hands. But after hearing these two pastors, like it makes me rethink how I approach that, not that I don't use them, but saving that for when I'm actually sitting down face to face with somebody. And that's where that first phone call really comes in handy.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

But if you are using it and you see some ad like advantages inside of your district or your network or your culture, where you're seeing that like pastor recommendation letter sort of helping you get your foot in the door, you know, I would say snail mailing it and then maybe even reinforcing it in an email is helpful. And then for in that email, sort of saying, Hey, I'm gonna be calling you, you know, and then call call and follow suit. So, and obviously, you know, do exactly what you say you're gonna do, uh, you know, uh do that. So, okay, so that's method one. That's one method, that's one way to do it. Another method is to just start with the phone call, which I think from our conversation prior and the previous episodes with Pastor Brad and Pastor Brent was saying that that was basically their preference. Um, was hey, just call me up on the phone first and then send me a pastor's packet. But when you do call, if you are calling first, a couple of things like if you this is good to use whenever you have a personal connection with the pastor first. Um, possibly if you've met them at a district or sectional event prior, this is a really good thing to start with. Um, somebody that referred you specifically to this pastor, that could be a good one. Or if you like know that they don't check email or their snail mail, um, or you know that it's typically preferred inside of your district, then I would go straight to the phone call. So, but with the the process of the phone call, I think being persistent is key. Call at different times of the day. Try in early morning, mid-morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, avoid Sundays and obviously Monday, obviously Sundays and Mondays, and probably Wednesdays too, for the most part. I would say start with trying like Tuesday or Thursday mornings, even Fridays, and see where that gets you, and then maybe switch up the times of day. Um, when you reach an administrator, what are you supposed to say? And I think that's one of the questions, Josh. I know I don't know that if you get this one, but that's probably one of the questions that I get quite a bit is hey, what do I say whenever I actually get somebody on the phone? And I would say treating it with respect and kindness, getting their name and using it. So if you say, hey, this is Josh, you know, and you say, okay, Josh, and you start calling that person by name and remembering it. Um, and then I would say, don't come in too hot with all of the details of how you're gonna save the world and how you need missionaries. And, you know, especially if you're getting an administrator for the first time, it really needs to be simple. Like, and I think it's more about building connection and relationship and seeing what the next step is, as opposed to sort of coming in guns blazing, sort of like, this is what I'm doing, and I'm gonna save the world for Jesus, and you know, giving them your expose of everything that you've like gone through in the last couple of months and what you're gonna be doing in ministry and the statistics and all of that. They don't need all of that, they're just the administrator trying to help out their pastor and you know, help him shut him or her shepherd the flock well. So you just say, hey, my name is Jen, and I'm a missionary associate with Assemblies at God World Missions. I'm heading to Estonia. I love to speak to Pastor Smith if he's available, or see how I could build connection with your church and what that process might look like. That's what I do. And whenever I'm talking to an administrator, and you keep it short, you don't need to overshare. So that's the um, and I I'm also gonna reference in the show notes, I actually had a conversation, Josh, with one of um the Midwest's largest um sending churches uh outside in Arkansas. And I talked to the administrator, I think she served for like eight years or something as the administrator to the head pastor of the church. And so she and she was actually going into overseas mission work herself. So she was kind of um doing it from both like you know, lenses. And I I interviewed her, and that's in the show notes. And so I think that might be a helpful conversation to review if this is somewhere where you find yourself stuck. Um, if the pastor isn't available on the phone, hey, no problem. When is a good time for me to call back? Or how would you how would you prefer that I um get in touch with the pastor? Or could you share your email, his email address? I'd love to send him some information if that's something. So, and then I would say to everybody too, just write this stuff down as you're having phone calls for the first time. And if this makes you like want to break out in hives and you get super nervous, just write some things out on the front side of what you hope to accomplish in a phone call, or take that what I just said and organize it and write it out. So as you begin these pastor phone calls, you have a place to start. It gets easier with time and repetition. It's just like reps, you know, if you're doing, if you're lifting weights, the more reps you do, you know, the better you get at it as time goes on. So give yourself some grace and know too that pastors for the most part are going to host the conversation. They're really good at knowing, they know what how their church does missions giving. They know what comes next. So I think that's important. Um, so when you do reach a pastor, you know, write those things down, intercellu yourself quickly, the give the who, what, when, where, why. Ask how you could possibly serve the congregation and how you can connect more with the congregation, then if there's any opportunities to share, or if they would like to sit down and have coffee. And I think one of the things that, you know, was highlighted to me as we had a previous podcast episode on this is, you know, stay open to because every church is different, every pastor is different, Josh. So it's like you need to stay open to what the pastor wants to happen next, because some pastors are going to say, number one, it could be a coffee appointment that they're wanting. It could be that they want to schedule you for a service. It could be that, you know, they want more information. So I think staying open and having your ducks in a row of what you want to share briefly and concisely, and then letting that pastor sort of host the conversation and tell you what comes next and being ready, if need be, to step in and say, you know, give some options, I think is helpful. So yeah, so staying positive and courteous, even if you get a little bit of a runaround, pastors deal with a lot. So don't add to their stress, I think. Um, and then I also have in the show notes, and this one's heavy with show notes, but hey, what to say when calling a church? I've got some show notes on that too. So, okay, then I'll break down the last one, uh, method three. So that's method two, just calling first. Okay. So method three, Josh, is email. Okay. So when to use email is if you've tried multiple times uh on the phone without success, maybe the church website says contact us via email. Maybe the pastor says to you, contact me. Here's my email address. Um, if you don't have their direct phone number, if all you have is an email address. So some best practices with email, subject line matters. Don't use missionary support requests as your subject. I'm not gonna read that. Josh, you're gonna read that. Yeah, say something like, you know, um, request to connect, or would really love to hear like connect with you, or something like that. So uh, but keeping it brief, three to four paragraphs is the maps. Okay. Introduce yourself quickly, share your vision in one to two to three sentences, make your asks clear. Um, I'd love to find a time to connect with you about sharing with your congregation, or potentially just getting to connect with your congregation more. Um, so kind of keeping it open-ended. I would like, I think it's important or helpful to include attachments. So case document as a PDF, maybe a video introduction if you have one, a prayer card image, possibly a pastor's packet attachment, or like a website that will lead to information of you further. And then include some sort of a call to action. So, would you be available for a brief call this week? I'd be happy to work around your schedule, give your phone number an email, possibly could we connect over coffee, something along those lines. So, some sort of call up to action and then a follow-up. Um, if you don't have, so this is the another thing going back to that gold conversation that we had with Pastor Brad and Pastor Brent, they said, I think Pastor Brent said 10% of the missionaries that he talks to actually follows up after the conversation and actually goes after the support. So follow-up here is key. If you don't get an email back, or if you don't get a phone call back from a pastor, I think it's so helpful to follow up with the email. And if you don't get something back in like 10 days, a week, maybe just follow up with the email and say, hey, Pastor, um, Pastor Josh would let I didn't know if you got a chance to see this email that I just sent you. Uh, let me know if you got it, or I'll try to call you back sometime in the next couple of weeks. Just something to warm it back up again and see if they respond. So okay, that's methods of contacting a pastor that we could think of. Um, Josh, do you want to talk about like what happens when we meet pastors at district or sectional events really quick?

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Yeah, let's just hit this really quickly because this is really a bread and butter thing for for global workers, is being at those events where you can connect with pastors because face-to-face connection is always your best. And we talked about that before with individuals, that face-to-face, eyeball to eyeball connection is always going to be the best method of connection. And I have noticed this in my own support raising and being at these events, that there are three things that are really valuable. It's about recognition, um, visibility, and um I can't think of my last one now. But right, recognition, repetition, and visibility. So the more often they see you, the more often they hear your name, and the more the more you're around, the more comfortable they'd be getting with you. So it's not just a one event and done, but try to be there on a regular basis because that's as you're building a relationship. You're able to connect with them, and it's easier to follow up because you've already met somebody. And so what I want to say with this is that these events is first and foremost, don't be pushy. Um, don't be the vulture circling around outside of the auditorium after the business meeting is done, waiting to descend upon the poor, unwitting pastor. Please don't do that. It's just not like uh that's it's just not it's not the right way to go through about this. We're not trying to monopolize time, we're not trying to attack them after the meeting is done, we're not trying to be the first one. We always want to lead with relationship. That's the bottom line. And we heard Pastor Bad or Pastor Brent say that over and over and over again. And that is key to these events. It's about relationship, it's about being interested in somebody else versus being interesting. I'm trying to find out about them, who they are, what's going on. Hey, my name is Josh, missionary to the Amazon. Um, what's your name? Great. Where do you serve? Like where are you where are you on staff? Where are you serving in in the area? Awesome. How long have you been there? So getting to know somebody and asking questions because as we ask questions of them, how long have you been at that church? How long have you been serving? How are things going? Um, if it's right after an Easter weekend or after a holiday weekend, hey, did you guys have something going on this last weekend? And if so, how did it go? So using those moments to ask how the life of the church is, the life of their body um is going on and showing genuine interest, not just asking the questions so I can check the boxes. This is not fake interest, this is like real relationship stuff here.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

Because yeah, so many times we listen and we're always thinking about okay, now I have my chance, now I'm gonna say this thing. And as we're listening, and it's human nature, but you can train yourself to or put tie something around your finger, do something like I am going in as a listener. I am just stay interested. That is all you need to do in a district or sectional event. Stay curious, stay interested, ask questions, listen, lead, like you know, that let that lead you and guide you. And I think, you know, that will get you so much farther than being the person that knows everything, and you can see through that. As soon as somebody walks in the door that thinks, I'm Mr. Missionary, I've got it all figured out, my thing's better than your thing, let me tell you all about it. That's not gonna, these guys are here to connect with each other, connect with them as well, ask them questions. I think that just is so much better of a heart posture than coming in, you know, I don't know, yeah, as I need to tell everybody about my thing. So right.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

You're not there to be a walking billboard about everything going on, you're there to build relationship and connection. That's really what it is. And if they ask, so tell me about yourself. That's when you have your two to three sentence little vision statement able to pop it in there and drop and say, Hey, this is what I'm doing rapidly, not like a 30-minute conversation. We're not giving a whole presentation here. If that's what we're doing, I'm gonna give them a little snippet. If they want more information, they're gonna ask. Or you lead it up with, hey, you know, if you have time, I'd love to get together for coffee and and share some more if you're up for it. And so using those moments to build relationship and connection and then follow up. Once you meet somebody at one of these events, you can follow up with that. You can send them a handwritten little note, say, hey, it was so great to meet you. I'd love to get for coffee. Shoot them an email call after these events and say, hey, it was so good to meet you over at Applebee's where we had the pastor's lunch. I'm glad I got a chance to meet you. I wanted to know if you could together for coffee and we could chat some more about what's going on with you guys, what's going on in the Amazon and our neck of the woods. Follow up. These are this is just like sending a letter. You don't just send a letter and then never follow up. You don't want to meet somebody and not follow up. That's so important that we're following up in this on these opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

I would say too, at a district or sectional event, one thing I want to throw in there is anytime a pastor says, Hey, yeah, give give me a or I'll schedule you for a service, get in touch with me. If they're not specifically saying how to get in touch with them, my next response is always going to be, Pastor, what's the best way to connect with you? What's the best way to do? Because they're all a little different. One pastor is not going to check their email, and another pastor is going to be on email all the time, and the other one is not going to answer their phone, and the other one, you know, uses it as a secret or uh an administrator. You know, just all of those things are so different. So being specific before you walk away is helpful.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Yeah. And so just a couple of things that um how we're connecting with them, just to recap here. So don't be pushy when we come to these events. Don't immediately launch into your presentation and try to get all your information out there. Don't be the poor little sad puppy dog following. You made a good connection with somebody, don't follow them around for the rest of the event. Get to meet other people, expand out and get to meet other people. You can always follow up with the connection. And please, please don't just immediately ask for support on the spot. Hey, my name's Josh. You want to support me for 50 bucks a month? Like, that is not the moment to do that. We want to wait till we actually have a conversation. We want to be warm, we want to be authentic, we want to be real, we want to be humble, we want to leave the relationship. Those are the things that are that are most important when it comes to these events because we're laying a foundation. We're not sealing the deal at the at that meeting. We're laying the foundation for relationship. We're building upon a foundation for relationship. And I think that's the reminder as we talk about all of this when it comes to churches, is we're going back to that one word again, and we keep saying it, and I know it's going to get old hearing it, but relationship, relationship, relationship. It's the same with individuals as it is with pastors and churches. We cannot skip that important factor. And so being authentic, being real, being connected to people, that's what we're aiming for, not for the bottom line.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

So it's good. Um, guys, thank you so much for being a part today and for joining us here with the Funded Inscent podcast. On the next episode, we're going to talk some more about churches and pastors and about okay, you got the open door. So now what do we do about getting that service or a five minute window or something scheduled? So make sure you tune into the next one. Appreciate you guys so much for listening. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Thank you guys.