How to Become a Missionary Without Raising Support: Start a Missionary Business
If you ask a missionary what their least favorite part of mission work is they would probably say “raising support.” We have yet to meet one missionary who enjoys asking and convincing others (mainly their friends and family) to support their ministry.
But what if we told you there was an alternative to fundraising? That you could live your life on mission and be completely financially independent?
If you are wondering how to become a missionary without fundraising, this post is all about starting a missionary business – keep reading to the end.
How to Become a Missionary Step #1: Answer the call to adventure that God is calling you on
One of my favorite moments in books, tv shows, and movies is when the “hero” of the story accepts “the call to adventure.” The hero is often living their everyday life when suddenly they are presented with a situation and must make a choice: continue living in an ordinary world or accept the call and step into an unknown world full of adventure and challenges.
Moses’ Call to Adventure came while he was on the mountain tending sheep, and God spoke to him from a burning bush.
Mary was preparing to be married when an angel appeared to her. Joan of Arc was in her father’s garden. Harriet Tubman was working in her master’s field.
They were leading their ordinary lives when they were suddenly called on an adventure to change and challenge everything they had known. “Put down your nets and follow me, and I will make you fish for people!”
But sometimes, God calls you on an adventure, and the invitation it isn’t as obvious. Sometimes it’s a whisper inside of you, a feeling like there is more to the Christian life than you are currently experiencing.
Sometimes it’s an opportunity presented to you that you don’t think twice about turning down…but then it nags at you, a thought you can’t get out of your mind.
You aren’t sure you want to leave your life, friends, or family to step into an unknown world. You aren’t sure you want to answer God’s call to adventure, but you know if you do…
You will be changed.
Not everyone is called to cross-culture missions, but everyone is called to make disciples of all nations.
Our heart is to give you the tools you need to be able to answer the call when it comes. To go and move where the Lord leads you — whether in the missions field overseas or around you.
Will you answer the call?
How to Become a Missionary Step #2: Learn online job skills
Below are just a few skills you could learn that businesses are desperately hiring for. These skills for online jobs can be learned in a short amount of time and perfected with hands-on experience. You don’t have to learn all these skills to get your missionary business up and going. Pick a skill set that interests you and fits well with your unique personality.
1. Brand strategy & Graphic Design (Because every business needs a strong message & a unique identity)
2. All Things Email Marketing (Because it’s where online businesses make their most sales)
3. How to Create a Strategic and Targeted Content Strategy for Social Media (That gets the audience to convert)
4. How to Build Sales Funnels (Landing page, sales page tech, strategy, analytics, you name it, they need help with it)
5. The ins and outs of Instagram for Business (Because it’s a great platform to sell from)
6. How to Build a High Converting Website (WITHOUT writing a single line of code)
7. How to Launch, Edit, and Promote a Podcast Show (As a lead generator, because businesses always need leads!)
8. Learn the Basics of Copywriting (Copy is EVERYWHERE, sales pages, landing pages, emails, social media, etc.)
9. Content Writing (Blogs, SEO, Captions, You name it, businesses want to outsource it)
10. Audience research (Because you can’t sell to an audience you don’t know anything about)
How to Become a Missionary Step #3: Start Freelancing
Getting started with your missionary business (aka freelance business) may be the most challenging part for some. You’ve learned some online skills and added projects to your portfolio. You’ve got a remote resume and media kit ready to go, but as you scroll through job postings and ideal clients’ Instagram profiles, you suddenly start feeling inadequate. Don’t worry; this feeling is common – so common that everyone in the freelance world refers to it as “imposter syndrome.”
So how do you overcome imposter syndrome? Do the thing anyway. Apply for the job posting, connect with your ideal client on Instagram, send a LinkedIn message, and post the content promoting your missionary business on your social media. Put effort into landing your first client because once you’ve got that first client, you will 1) increase your skillset and confidence, and 2) it’s a lot easier to land your second and third clients once you have experience.
The hardest part of starting a missionary business is getting started and landing your first client. Don’t give up because working remotely from the mission field is not a pipeline dream but a reality you can be living right now.
Step #4: Establish a work/life/ministry balance
Working remotely from the mission field is not only possible, it’s a model that the Apostle Paul himself followed. Paul worked as a tentmaker in the cities that he traveled to while carrying out his church planting ministry and sharing the gospel.
Working remotely online while working as a missionary has never been easier than now. The number of online jobs has skyrocketed as more and more companies offer remote positions and entrepreneurs launch online businesses.
As you gain experience in the freelance world and your missionary business starts to grow, you’ll need to establish your set work hours or project turnaround times early on with clients. I
t’s easy in the beginning to constantly be checking your email and responding to messages on your phone, but pretty soon, you’ll start to feel like you’re always working –and the time it takes you to respond and do all that is hard to track and bill.
I recommend setting healthy work boundaries with your clients; that way, you can fully disconnect to either be present in your daily life or while you are doing ministry.
Step #5: Scale your missionary business
As a business owner, you can determine how much you work and how often you raise your rates. Not usually, with each new client you take on, you increase your rates, but even with older clients, you can do this quarterly or yearly.
Maybe you started your missionary business freelancing hourly, but as you’ve gained more experience, you decide to go to monthly containers or charge per project.
Whatever your payment structure, it’s important to continually grow your skill set, gain experience, take another course or class to get to the next level, and raise your rates.
Don’t stay stuck at your beginning rate; know your worth and that your time and skill level are valuable to other business owners.
Step #6: Outsource tasks and build a remote team for your missionary business to free up more time for ministry
As you start to scale your freelance missionary business, you’ll begin to see the tasks that are repetitive and can easily be outsourced.
This may be a great time to hire a Virtual Assistant to help free up your time to focus more on the technical side of your client projects. You can also bring on team members to help finish the projects while concentrating more on landing new high-paying clients.
Ideally, the goal is to get to a place where your business is automated, your charging more per project, and you outsource time-consuming and repetitive tasks.
Running your missionary business this way will allow you greater flexibility in your day so you can maintain a healthy work-life-ministry balance without sacrificing income.
If you’ve made it to the end of this blog, you are probably thinking, “This sounds great! How can I get started? Where can I learn these online skills?”
We are so glad you asked. We started Virtual Tentmakers with the vision of equipping men and women with freelance job skills and the support for their freelance businesses.
That’s why we create the Virtual Tentmakers Course – a self-paced course with over 100+ videos teaching you the most in-demand online job skills that businesses are hiring for. We also have an entire module that walks you through how to set up and start your freelance business.
Take the first step and watch our FREE class: Intro to Virtual Tentmaking.
