How to host a mission speaker

Who covers the expenses?

Presbyterian World Mission is responsible for expenses related to sending a mission speaker to each participating presbytery.

We ask that each presbytery assume the costs related to hosting the mission speaker. Presbytery representatives are invited to email questions to Ellen Dozier or call (888) 728-7228 x5916.

How to make a schedule for the mission speaker

Normally, the presbytery’s Mission Committee works as a team to find churches that would like to hear the mission speaker’s presentation.

From our experience, the best way to fill up a mission speaker’s schedule is to call all the churches in the presbytery one by one until the schedule is filled up. How you pose the question may have a great impact on how many churches say “yes.” For example, people are more willing to agree to host someone if you ask, “We still have Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights open. Which night would work best for you?”

This may require a small degree of salesmanship. Our experience is that most churches, when they hear the details, would like to host a mission speaker. The hang-up is they’re afraid that attendance would be low. They may say something like, “We could never get people to come to a potluck on a Monday night.”

It’s a rare presbytery where an ad or a notice placed in a presbytery newsletter will generate sufficient interest among churches to fill up a speaker’s schedule for a week. But the more publicity around the mission speaker that you are able to generate, the easier it will be to find churches interested in inviting him or her to speak. Therefore we do recommend, as a supplement to calling each church:

• Putting a notice — or, better, a story — in the presbytery newsletter.
• Sending periodic emails to all the churches about the presbytery’s mission speaker, World Mission Challenge and its goals.
• Making announcements at meetings of the presbytery and talking to people who are interested.

How to fill the speaker’s schedule

In general, we’d like you to try to keep them busy without exhausting them, try to find large groups of people for them to share with, and find a church that will offer them the pulpit on a Sunday.

But it’s not necessary that the whole church gather in order to host the mission speaker. There are many ways to let the mission worker share the whole range of his or her experience besides preaching, teaching Sunday school or holding a potluck. You can arrange a brown bag lunch, for example, or invite the speaker to a small, informal supper with the mission committee. Presbyterian Women are very mission-minded and might jump at the chance to invite the speaker to a meeting. And don’t forget already scheduled events like men’s breakfasts, women’s circles, Bible study groups and so on.

Listening is a ministry

Please remember that mission workers like to share about their experience. They often feel a strong obligation to share something of the richness of their experience — the faith life or courage or generosity of another people. Most will be able to handle two or three presentations in a day.

In other words, giving a mission worker the chance to share his or her witness is a way of ministering to that missionary. They need to feel that the church is listening and that the church cares about the needs of the world and the work of the Body of Christ in the world.

Offer hospitality

Mission speakers appreciate it when they don’t have to spend every night in a different bed. It’s less stressful for them if you can arrange for them to return to the same place to sleep each night.

When this isn’t feasible, try to reduce the number of times they have to pack their bags and move to a new home.

When making the schedule, keep traveling distance in mind.

Most presbyteries arrange for volunteers to drive the speaker from one church to the next. This is fine, but advise the driver that the missionary may be too tired to tell her story again while driving to the next town. In other words, don’t ask the speaker to be “on” all the time.

Make sure they get one full day of rest every week.

Consider coming to the Mission Advocates Gathering

May 7-9, 2009
Louisville, Kentucky

The Presbytery World Mission Advocates Gathering is an encounter of people named by their presbytery to be “World Mission Advocates.” It includes theological reflection, expert- and peer-led conversations on “best practices” and other often requested workshops. Participants will form a network that will connect their presbytery’s mission work with that of other presbyteries, Presbyterian World Mission and PC(USA) global partners. The meeting will include:

• Bible study and global worship
• Training for short-term mission trip leaders
• World Mission Challenge ’09 — How to host a mission worker
• Telling the mission story — best practices in mission interpretation
• World Mission networks — improving mission effectiveness
• Mission leadership in the 21st century — Web-based technologies to shape presbytery mission programs
• Resources for building missional presbyteries — shaping a mission program that mobilizes your presbytery

Dates and place

The Gathering begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 7, 2009, and ends at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 9, 2009. To register for the gathering contact Lis Valle or call (888) 728-7228 x5729. The event will take place at:

Holiday Inn I-64 East
1325 S. Hurstbourne Parkway at I-64
Louisville, Kentucky 40222
(502) 426-2600 or 1-800-HOLIDAY.