In this Episode:

• Matthew has a lot of rich material to share which is both theoretical and practical. Today he begins sharing some lessons on how churches can build healthy relationships with mission workers.

1. Engaging the Spiritual Life of a Missions Worker

• A first lesson is about the health of the missionary.
• Matthew’s church has learned to pay special attention to the spiritual vitality of mission workers.
• The spiritual vitality of the sending community of a local church helps greatly in the spiritual vitality of the missionaries. When people are being authentically transformed it aids missionaries in their transformation.
• Practical elements for the sending church include ensuring consistent care of the whole person of the missionary. Trinity Church’s advocacy team has specific questions that help open interaction with the missionary on a personal level. Discussion face-to-face (before and on the field) is ideal. When they can’t meet face-to-face, they use tools like Skype to connect. The questions are focussed on Missio Dei – looking at what God is doing in their lives and how He is leading them.
• Workers respond well when the church is interested in their personhood and their walk with the Lord and are very appreciative that there is no performance metric as part of the conversation.
• Authenticity is key and will increase as advocacy team members share with workers about their own journey of transformation – it builds an open relational bond which is on-going.
• Churches need to remember that workers can move from very healthy communities to very dry areas overseas and need the churches investment to help off-set the lack of community and fellowship.
• When churches visit the missionary on the field, it is important that the missionary knows that the team is caring for them and investing in the missionary’s well-being.

2. Engaging with the Team of a Mission Worker

• Matthew recommends that when teams from the sending church visit the missionary on the field that they invest in the entire team on the field – not just their own missionaries.
• Investing in the team that’s on the field is important. It is important to help missionaries understand how the missionary fits in with the team on the field.
• Conflict on the field can happen between team members. The church’s interaction needs to include caring for everyone who is part of these teams. Caring about the members personally (knowing their names, families, bringing gifts) builds trust and opens opportunities to have conversations in difficult circumstances.

3. Clarifying the Role and Specific Value a Mission Worker Brings to the Field

• During the selection process it’s important that churches help candidates identify the specific value they will bring to the team they will serve with.
• Trinity Church has a 2 year on-ramp process to help candidates discern their sense of calling, giftedness, and value-added to the team. Trinity Church makes sure there is enough evidence here at “home” that the missionaries will thrive on the missions field.
• Trinity Church clearly outlines the sending process to candidates including timelines. The church expresses commitment to the candidate to walk with them through the entire process. Steps and benchmarks are made clear. This communication shows the commitment of the church to engage in building friendships with the candidates. The church is committed to helping candidates grow in spiritual formation, cross-cultural intelligence, on-going discipleship, self-awareness, and other areas.
• The church should also help with the missionary’s relationship with their team. Help provide any resources such as Patrick Lencioni’s book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” or Giant Worldwide’s “5 Voices” to help missionaries communicate with their team and grow in self-awareness.
• All teams, especially multicultural ones, have challenges, but there is also great richness as teams recognize the gifts that each member brings to the group. It’s important for the sending church to be concerned about the mission workers’ relationship with national partners. Missions teams need to build healthy interactions with the national partners. Engaging with the missions agency helps in finding trusted mutually agreeable partners in the region.
• There is richness of relationship as the sending churches engage in genuine relationship with their missionaries, mission teams, agencies, and national leaders. This makes the entire enterprise of engaging in missions much healthier and reduces risk of failure.

Last Word:

• Be a learner – this is a dynamic process!

Preview of Next Episode:

• Development of written plans to support global workers. How local churches can build teams to help and support their missions workers.

Resources:

• Talk to other mission committees!
• Talk to mission/partner agencies!
• Ask your global partners/workers how you can improve!
• Catalyst Services
• Global Missions Podcast