Missions Catalyst has published an interesting first-person “letter” from a/an (unmobilized) pastor.
In summary, here’s how to be sure we never mobilize our pastors for missions:
- Present all your requests as though they were crises
- Use jargon that I should probably know, but don’t
- By all means, go to my wife if you’re disappointed in how I’m responding to your requests
- Give me books I don’t ask for, the context for which I lack, and the content I’m not interested in
- Leave me out of the process
- Don’t pray for me, just give me more work to do
- Inundate me with information, but don’t ask me questions
- Don’t serve what we’re currently doing; just tell me how our church isn’t doing all it could
- Ask me if your missionary friend can speak to whole church
- Ask me to go with you on a 3-week-trip to the craziest parts of the world
- When you email me about the cool thing you’d like us to invest in, be sure to bad-mouth 8 other similar things
- Tell me missions is what’s really on the heart of God
