Like a big, virtual hug!

A few years ago, our church sent out a young family to plant churches in Glasgow, Scotland. Their departure left a void in the gatherings, but sending people out has been a natural part of who we are. Since then, they’ve kept up with emails, newsletters, and on our church’s online forum. Nevertheless, it can be hard to keep up. They get busy with their life, we get busy with ours. New people have since joined us that have never met our missionaries. Last Sunday, this couple joined us for worship- without ever leaving their apartment in Glasgow. We spoke to them via Skype video call.

Most of you are already familiar with Skype, the free software that allows you to chat, talk, and make video calls for free over the internet. All you need is a computer with internet access, a projector, and something to amplify the audio. Why not incorporate a video call with a missionary into your worship time?

First, be sure both parties (you and the missionary) have Skype installed. Next, insure that both locations have a relatively stable internet connection. Don’t forget to arrange the call beforehand. 11:00 Sunday morning your time could be 4:00 in the morning in Eastern Europe!

We recommend that you set parameters for the conversation. How long do you want to chat?(Missionaries are notoriously long-winded.) What do you want your church to learn? Do you want the missionary to share needs (and maybe ask for financial support?) It would be helpful to establish these things in advance.

Some churches use these calls to keep up with missionaries they’ve sent out. Others have enjoyed using video calls to connect with new missionaries and people groups around the world. Either way, be sure your church hears about what God is doing in another part of the world, and spend some time in Skype-prayer for those involved in the work and for the unreached. This can be a great way to encourage missionaries, educate and involve your church members, and speak into strategy on the mission field.

Here are some variations on the idea:

• Find a national believer online. Ask them to allow you to interview them in front of your church.
• If timing is difficult, connections are unreliable, or you’ve got multiple worship services, you can pre-record the Skype call using a  free recorder plugin for Skype.
• For a more personal and interactive experience, allow participants to ask questions. One at a time, though!
• You may want to include several different missionaries from multiple regions of the world in a sort of missions conference call. This would be a great way to compare and contrast the different approaches to missions.
• Rather than just hanging up after the call, offer missionaries the option of staying on the line throughout the worship time. For many overseas workers this can be a refreshing experience.
• If your church (or any of its members) is planning an international trip, Skype calls can be a great way for your team to prepare. Missionaries on the ground can be excellent sources of travel tips, cultural insight, and spiritual orientation.
• Don’t forget to follow through- most missionaries return to the States every once in a while; why not have them visit you in person to help make the relationship personal?

If you’re a church looking for a missionary to Skype into your worship service, please post what you’d be looking for in the comment stream. If your a missionary or believer overseas and you’d be interested in a Skype call to a church, feel free to post your contact info/place of service below.If your church has done something like this, we’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, ideas on how to make the most of a Skype video call.

We’re tired of the church being relegated to “pray, give, or go” when it comes to participation in missions. For too long, missions has been reduced to either the family that moves to another country, a trip the youth take in the summer, or money sent to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what. We think there are more (better?) ways for the church to do missions.

Enter: The Upstream Collective Idea List. We’re beginning a series of posts offering creative ideas for mission. We’ll explore everything from raising awareness to engaging unreached populations in your town and around the world.

The first three posts of the series are already up- The Reverse Mission Trip, pt.1 introduces the idea of bringing the nations to you by hosting nationals in your own home.  The Reverse Mission Trip, pt.2 proposes an on-site mission trip that puts us into a learning role instead of the traditional “we’re here to help these poor people” sort of thing. Missions 2.0 outlines an accessible (and cheap!) way to engage people in redemptive relationships over the internet.

You’ll notice that these ideas come from a range of sources. We believe that everyone from pastors and church planters to missionaries on the field and national believers has something to add to this conversation. If you have any ideas for mission- whether they’ve been tested or not- we’d love for you to share them in the comments thread.

One more thing- we’re organizing the Idea List using keywords. If your church is exploring options for involvement but you’re pretty sure you need to rule out an international trip at this time, look for the ideas labeled “Stay-at-home.” If money is tight, check out the ideas under the “Low-cost” category. If you feel compelled to impact real lostness in the virtual world, explore our “Online” ideas category.

We look forward to sharing ideas with you. We hope you find them useful, intriguing, or at least mildly entertaining. If you have questions, comments, or concerns about a particular idea, please post them in that idea’s comment section.

Thanks for reading. Blessings on your journey!

I’d like to invite you to a fourth way to participate in what God is doing around the world. You may not be aware of this, but there is a way for you to build a personal relationship with an unbelieving person from an unreached people group that is free, requires no training or time off work, and doesn’t require you to learn another language.

You can be a pen pal.

Thankfully, the internet has taken the old idea of corresponding with a complete stranger on another continent and made it, well, faster, cheaper, and more fun. Here’s how you can get started:

1. Visit an international classifieds website like kijiji.com, craigslist.org, or tribe.net
or a social networking site like facebook.com, myspace.com, or any of the hundreds of similar sites listed here.
Classified sites tend to be a bit easier to manage (London’s gumtree.com, for example, actually has a section titled “pen pals.”) and are especially good if you already have an idea of what people group or city you’d like to connect with. For now, let’s assume you’re using kijiji.com.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the site, and select the local site of your desired country. Many countries have classified ad sites, but it people in Western Europe are so web-connected, these countries are a great place to find someone who is likely to correspond with you.

3. Register a username and password, if necessary.

4. Search through the classified ads to find someone with whom you have something in common. Amateur authors in Wales? A guitar player in Spain? How about moms in Dublin?

5. Post a response to an ad. Or, post an ad of your own. Maybe you’d like to swap recipes with someone in Basel or find a pen pal in Berlin who likes NASCAR. (Good luck with that one). Just be yourself! Remember: for you, this may be a strange and frightening way to make friends, but for them, meeting people online is a pretty normal thing to do.

6. Wait for someone to answer your ad. Many of theses sites will email you when you receive a response. Be sure to keep security in mind as you introduce yourself and get to know the person. Don’t make promises you won’t be able to keep.

7. Share life with your new friend. Don’t treat this as a confrontational evangelism tool- let the person get to know you. For many Western Europeans, you may be the only practicing believer with whom they’ve had contact. Even those who know about Jesus are unlikely to have seen life in Christ lived out before them. They need to hear what a follower of Jesus thinks about all sorts of things. Tell your stories. Listen to theirs. Send photos. Have a voice conversation on Skype. You may eventually get to meet your pen pal in person some day.

Now, this isn’t for everyone. If you’re the type who can’t stand to talk with someone with whom you disagree, please don’t bother. If you’re not willing or able to personally invest in a “virtual friend,” this isn’t for you.

I think there are a lot of believers out there who didn’t even know this is an option. I imagine many of you that don’t have the time or money or desire to go on a mission trip may be intrigued my the idea of meeting someone online for the sake of sharing life intentionally.

Who knows? God may use you to start an online church planting movement.

From Missions Misunderstood, with permission