• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Web
  • Creative
  • Mobile
  • IT
  • Code
  • CMS
  • Podcast
  • Resources
  • About

ChurchMag

The #1 Resource for Church Technology and Creativity

ChurchMag / Web / Communication / How Skype Is Improving Missionary Communications

How Skype Is Improving Missionary Communications

How Skype Is Improving Missionary Communications

November 17, 2011
by Jeremy Smith

In the age of of high speed Internet, many overseas and local missionaries are closer to their sending Church and donors that support them. This has provided significant improvements in communication for them as they are serving God in new and sometimes distant mission fields.

I myself am serving as a missionary a couple thousand miles from my home and want to share my experience with Skype.

Here are three ways missionaries are using Skype:

Connecting With Donors Regularly

It is vital that missionaries communicate with donors regularly to show how their money is being used and that it is helping the Gospel to reach all people groups. Many organizations write letters or make phone calls, but it is well-known in the missions field that face-to-face is the best way to share what is happening. But with plane tickets sometimes costing thousands of dollars, those visits may not happen more than once every seven years. Skype provides a similar alternative with just the cost of home internet or a cup of coffee at an Internet cafe.

This is a new concept that took a little while for my own donors to do and do well. It started with a single donor that I Skyped with monthly for fifteen minutes at a time. Soon, other donors would join them as well as begin making their own appointments and I have begun to dedicate a single day a month to simply chatting with everyone and my financial support has never been better.

Share Updates With The Whole Congregation

While I do serve along side a Church where I currently am at, my sending Church is where I will always fellowship when I am home. They support me with a regular giving as well as their constant prayers and so I want to share back. I began with just recorded videos of my progress that they showed before their pastoral prayer, but with time, this has moved to a live Skype time. In the last several meetings, I have not been the only one chatting with the church. I have included teens that come to the youth group, volunteers who help serve these students, and chaplains that I serve under that have thanked them for their help. The response has been amazing, with so many people saying that they love hearing from actual people that are being impacted so far away.

Encourage Members To Join The Mission Field

Maybe the best use of Skype in the mission field is the ability to encourage others to better understand missions work and inspire them to serve as missionaries themselves. Those stories to donors and congregations are great, but when you get invited by youth groups, small groups, and adult Bible fellowships from your own sending Church as well as other Churches to talk about missions, it is quite humbling and encouraging. For those that are missionaries, petition if you can talk to these groups. For those that are a member of one of these groups, dial up a local missionary and invite their unique perspective into the discussion. Isn’t that the whole purpose of our calling? “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19a)

How could your Church better utilize Skype to encourage and support your missionaries?

Share1
Tweet
+12
Pin
Share5
Shares 8

Enjoy some more ChurchMag:

Jeremy Smith

I am a blogger, clinical counselor, gamer, and someone who loves to pushback so you can create the very best thing possible. I blog exclusively about church technology as a senior staff writer at ChurchMag as well as about life in general on my personal site JeremyGrantSmith.com. You can also find my eBooks on ChurchMag Press.

Category: Communication, IT, Web

Finding Faith Inside the Big Blue Box: A Whovian’s 30 Day Devotional

Level up your inbox.

Free resources, top posts, and more!

Reader Interactions

There are 5 comments already... Come join us!

  1. April says

    November 26, 2013

    We are trying to figure out if we can use Skype to do a live call with one of our missionaries at a church service, but we can’t get the Skype account to recognize the external camera? Have you dealt with this before and if so, do you know what I can do to fix this?

    Reply
    • Eric Dye says

      November 26, 2013

      The Skype app isn’t recognizing the computer’s camera at all?

      Reply
    • Jeremy Smith says

      November 26, 2013

      Is the issue only exclusive to Skype? If not, then it is a hardware or operating system issue. If it is, try Google+ Hangouts?

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How Skype Is Improving Missionary Communications | seventy8 Productions says:
    November 18, 2011 at 6:02 am

    […] 18, 2011 by Jeremy Smith printWe did a guest post over at Churchm.ag you should check out. Here is a link to the full post and below is a snippet: In the age of of high speed Internet, many overseas and […]

    Reply
  2. 211 – Digital Thanks says:
    November 23, 2011 at 5:01 am

    […] How Skype is Improving Missionary Communications […]

    Reply

Speak your mind... Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar



Online Giving

‹ Previous

Fathoming Amazon: 9 Things to Know [Infographic]

Next ›

5 Easy Ways to Spice Up Your Blog

Footer

Web Hosting

About

About
Contact
Advertise
Write for Us!
ChurchMag Minecraft Server

We #HEART

Powered by

Member of the ChurchMag Family

ChurchMag Podcast

Christian Video Game Cheese [Podcast #207]

Christian Video Game Cheese [Podcast #207]

Pick your favorite ways to connect.

Comment Policy / Privacy Policy / Archive / Log in

© 2018 ChurchMag