Deputation, Finances, Start here, Tools

Deputation and Support Raising Pt. 1

July 18, 2021

I’ll never forget how the first two days went.

In the beginning I was literally spending 6-8 hours a day in phone calls. It was very discouraging . We were on our survey trip with 1.5 weeks left before headed back to start deputation. In the first two days of phone calls, l “struck out”. I got very few answers on the phone and those that I did were not able to have us in (we started deputation near the end of April, after the typical missions conference time which certainly did not help). On day three of phone calls, I was about midway through the day (still striking out) and the Lord impressed on me to pray. In all transparency, I went back and forth with the Lord, because I had already spent some time in prayer that morning and was feeling the pressure of making calls within the window of office hours. So I kept calling. The Lord kept prodding me, “Ask.”

This process, of the Lord prompting me, me resisting, and then ultimately praying, went on a handful of times (unfortunately). I say unfortunately because not long after i would pray, i would either get an email returned, or a call back, or someone at the church to actually pick up the phone.

And there were a couple days were i got whole months filled on my calendar; some days (about 8 hours of phone calls ) just 1 or 2 meetings. Still a couple times-nothing.

What really helped me was holding onto the reality that God has already raised the support we need, we just have to go out and find it.

The process i came to use, may not be the one for everyone, or even the best, but it certainly helped me and I will share it here:

Mass email a region using pointofmail.com

Wait at least 5 days (Most churches ask – “Have you emailed your stuff yet?”)

During those 5 days, I categorized open rates such as, 5+ opens = green; 2-5 opens = orange, 1 open = yellow, 0 opens = left blank (white)

Sorted the green and orange by zip code

Found a church I either knew or had heard of the pastor before, called them first.

Then, began calling the green/orange churches by zip code.

In my experience of calling, there is a big trust hurdle to overcome. Pastors just don’t know you, your board, your sending church etc,

There were two things that seemed to help with overcoming this-

1. Establish a “king-pin” pastor in the region
2. Book and stay in that region for at least a month.

I’m not advocating “name-dropping”. I think name-dropping, as I’ve heard it talked about, is not a good idea. But what i feel is a good idea, is once you have a meeting, such as a missions conference, with a pastor who has had a long-standing in the state, that is public knowledge, so use that to your advantage. I would say, “We will be in the area for 30 days and currently will be with Bro. ________ over at Bible Baptist Church on Sunday the 23rd. But there are a number of days yet open, that I’d love to email you for consideration.

I lost count at the number of times, i wouldn’t even finish that sentence, because as soon as i mentioned a pastor who had ALREADY BOOKED US, (again, public knowledge) right after i mentioned their name, the secretary, assistant or pastor would say something to the effect, “Oh, yeah that Brother is a great guy!” or “We really love that church, I’m sure if they are having you, it would be worth looking into. Send me an email.”

One of the reasons that there is no written standard on how long it should take is because there are so many different factors that have to be accounted for to get an accurate number. Here are a few:
•Support Levels—Every missionary is raising a different amount of support. Therefore, it should take a guy raising $7,000 more time than a guy raising $5,000. When two missionaries say they are at 50%, it can mean two different things.
• Large Supporters—Some missionaries have home churches that back them up in a significant way. If one missionary starts with 20% support from his home church, he has a head start in the system.
• “Well Known”—If a missionary starting on deputation is already well known, or he has been a pastor and/or his church is well known among other churches, he might also be able to raise his money quicker than someone who isn’t well connected.
• Personality—If you have a charismatic personality and/or you are a friendly/people type person, you will also have an easier time on deputation.

I think he is 100% correct. Some of those you do not have influence over, but the next one, you most certainly do-the number of meetings every month.

There are between 12-14 potential meetings every month. You have Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday. You may be able to do more than that, such as finding a Thursday service, or less, due to conferences, etc. For the sake of illustration, let’s say you get 10 every month. That means every month you have the potential for 10 meetings. If you only averaged a 40% take-on rate, that gives you four supporters. Let’s say the MEDIAN rate is $70. That means every month you COULD raise $280.

• $5,000 / $280 = 18 months OR 180 scheduled meetings

• $6,000 / $280 = 22 months OR 220 scheduled meetings

• $7,000 / $280 = 25 months OR 250 scheduled meetings

• $8,000 / $280 = 29 months OR 290 scheduled meetings

• $9,000 / $280 = 33 months OR 330 scheduled meetings

• $10,000 / $280 = 36 months OR 360 scheduled meetings and so on.

Here is this idea worked out in two different missionary examples: Missionary #1 raised $5,000 by scheduling 180 churches in 18 months. Missionary #2 raised $5,000 by scheduling 180 churches in 29 months. Missionary #2 raised the same amount of support and was in the same amount of meetings but it took him 11 months longer because he didn’t average 10 meetings a month. Why didn’t he book more meetings per month? Maybe he called 12 hours everyday and just couldn’t find churches to book him or maybe the system is broken. More likely, it would be my guess that he wasn’t working hard or lack to the training to know what to do. Missionary #1 raised the money quicker because he worked harder.

In conclusion, “the formula” isn’t the secret to deputation. Neither is hard work. No I am not contradicting myself. We are in charge of the process and God is in charge of the product. “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

A missionary will need to put 8-12 hours of calling (or communication) in everyday to be able to book the above amount of meetings. He doesn’t stop calling (or communicating) until he is booked. This is hard work. This is boring. But this is what it takes.

This formula is based on the idea, that it is generally true, the more churches you are in during a shorter amount of time, the quicker you finish deputation. The fewer number of churches you are in over a longer amount of time, the slower you finish deputation.

Could there be a better way than a family traveling 1.5-4 years on the road in terms of cost or time? Could there be a better way than spending hours on the phone, driving thousands of hours, sending thousands of emails, etc.? Could there be a more cost-effective way? I read that you can plan it to cost around $90,000 a year for a family of four to be on the road. Suppose you do some quick math: Food, lodging, vehicle expenditures, love offerings, monthly support, tickets, and visas. About a quarter of a million dollars goes into a missionary just touching foot on a foreign field! For the sake of illustration, @ 6k per month, that’s 41 missionaries supported per year as opposed to just ONE getting to the field per year. Perhaps. Talking about this will not change the fact that you will more than likely have to go through this process.

In Part 2, I will share how my first official week of deputation went, what I learned from it and how it could help save you tons of time trying to garner meetings.