Discerning and pursuing your calling can be a confusing process.
It may be long or short. However our hope is that, by the time you leave, both you and your support team will be prepared to keep you there for the long haul!
Calling
Confirming
Equipping
Resourcing
Commissioning
On-Field
A Sender’s Role
Any fieldworker needs a great team of friends, family and colleagues supporting them. You have a huge part to play in ensuring their success. Check out what you can do to ensure your fieldworkers thrive!
- A church should establish a discernment process for anybody who may feel a call to work cross-culturally.
- The call needs to be tested, and the candidate’s maturity and readiness need to be assessed
- The church’s role is critical – sadly many missionaries who end up leaving prematurely for preventable reasons should never have gone in the first place!
- Give opportunities for the candidate to learn by serving and leading in the church.
- Ensure good mentoring is in place for the candidate. Make use of people with prior cross-cultural or mission experience.
- Consider mentoring for practical skills such as financial management or pastoral care.
- This is a season of practically preparing for the road ahead
- Choices need to be made about an agency or a process for training and equipping. Ideally, the church leaders would walk alongside the candidate through this.
- We strongly recommend the raising of personal support teams by the candidate and the church’s backing in that endeavour would be important.
- If the church endorses, hopefully they will also partner with the pre-field missionary in the matter of financial support.
- Clarify the level of support required with the field worker and consider how the church can support through the process of fundraising beyond providing money.
- Remember it is much easier for others, particularly those in authority in the church, to advocate for their financial support than for the candidate to do that on their own behalf!
- Read Acts 13. You will see that this is more than just a rousing send-off, with a ‘goodbye’, at the end. The sense of still belonging, even when serving at the other end of the world, is so important.
- Maintaining that connection through thick and thin might make all the difference between success and failure.
- Encourage the field worker to maintain the connection to the church – and make sure you do too!
- See our on-field resources for more details on what is next.
Start Your Journey
Here are some useful materials for you
Know Thyself
This course explores the concept of understanding ourselves within the context of our own cultures. Before delving into how we…
Thriving Across Borders
This course covers the major transitions that someone will make when crossing cultures. We delve into the typical transition points…
Building a Strong Support Base
In this course, we examine the different dimensions of support that are needed for a successful cross-cultural experience or lifestyle….
The Antioch Factor
Ross Paterson presents a stark choice that no Christian or church can avoid making – whether we become a Jerusalem…
Developing Leadership for Cross-Cultural Ministry
Mission thrives on cultivating leaders who embody the life and character of Jesus, the most effective figure in history who…
How to Discover your Calling
In this course, we examine the different dimensions of support that are needed for a successful cross-cultural experience or lifestyle….
Calling – Who? What? Why?
In the church, there exists a widespread misconception that only “exceptional Christians” receive a “proper” calling from God. The truth,…
Go and do likewise…
Ross speaks from the story of the Good Samaritan with a powerful call to us all…
Interview with Reuben Inwe
Our interview with Reuben Inwe is a fascinating one. His own story of encountering the Lord on a bus in…
Cultural Pride
In our interview with Christina Winrich, she shared openly about the challenges and joys of serving God in another culture….
Interview with David & Vicki Frazier
After a season of cross-cultural preparation and discernment, David and Vicki worked as missionaries for 20 years in Turkey before…
Interview with Katie Chen
Scroll down for podcast options! < After being baptised at only 5 years old, Katie felt a clear calling…
Interview with Simon Guillebaud
Discover more about Great Lakes Outreach (GLO) and their weekly Zoom prayer meetings, as well as watch Onesphore’s prayer for Europe &…
Resolution Number 3 – Pray For An Unreached People Group
The third of Chuck Lawless’ ten New Year’s Resolutions, all of which relate to cross-cultural mission, says: “I will learn…
Resolution Number 2 – Pray For Missionaries
The second of Chuck Lawless’ ten New Year’s Resolutions, all of which relate to cross-cultural mission, says: “I will pray…
Resolution Number 1
Last Sunday I listed Chuck Lawless’ suggestions for 10 New Year’s resolutions that relate to cross-cultural mission. Lawless wrote: “I’d like…
10 Cross-Cultural Mission New Year’s Resolutions.
Here is a suggestion. If you make New Year’s resolutions, why not make some that are cross-cultural mission related? Chuck…
Maria, The Extraordinary Wife Of Hudson Taylor
Maria Jane Taylor (née Dyer, 1837-1870) was born in Penang, Malaya, the youngest child of pioneer missionary Samuel Dyer and…
My Tribute, and Debt to, George Verwer
George Verwer died on April 14th, as I write only 8 short days ago. John Piper said that George’s “personal…
Hudson Taylor’s Two Burdens
“Hudson Taylor was wracked with doubt: he worried about sending men and women unprotected into the interior; at the same…
C.T. Studd – From Sports Star to China Missionary
C.T. Studd once said: “Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown…
Griffith John, Pioneer Missionary to China
Griffith John (1831-1912) was a remarkable man. “During his long ministry in China, Griffith John helped lay the foundation for…
An Extraordinary Physician: Ida Scudder
Ida Scudder is a fascinating – and challenging – example of the question I looked at in my last post. Does…