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
If you feel any kind of calling to work cross-culturally, we suggest seeking early endorsement from the leadership in your local church. Our calling mini-course will help you!
Confirming
Take time to process and test the calling. Don’t do this alone! Look to your church, loved ones, and other trusted voices.
Equipping
Practically prepare for the road ahead. We strongly advise taking cross-cultural training. Our own Crossing Cultures 101 courses will give you key foundations.
Resourcing
Commissioning
Leaving is a process, not a single event. How are you preparing for a smooth transition? We’d advise building a RAFT and ensuring everything practical is ticked off.
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…
Calling – Who? What? Why?
In the church, there exists a widespread misconception that only “exceptional Christians” receive a “proper” calling from God. The truth,…
Caring for Third Culture Kids
Currently in development, this exciting new course is created by our Dean of Studies, Ben Gilbert. British by birth, raised in India, with time living in Sri Lanka and the Middle East – the TCK experience is familiar to Ben, who is excited to share personal experiences, research and helpful insights for both TCKs, and those caring for them to thrive across cultures. Sign up to be notified when the course is released!
The Antioch Factor
Thriving Across Borders
This course covers the major transitions that someone will make when crossing cultures. We delve into the typical transition points…
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…
Building a Support Ecosystem
In this course, we examine the different dimensions of support that are needed for a successful cross-cultural experience or lifestyle….
Growing in Cultural Intelligence
The 4 Questions
Transcript (Summarized) The 4 Questions English Today, I am going to share from John’s Gospel chapters 5 to 7, and…
Prayer and Fasting – Choice or Mandate?
Ross discusses a difficult question – is fasting (as a part of prayer) an option or a necessity today?
Zechariah gets a second chance | Luke 1
Ross shares from in Luke 1 about Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and stresses that our God is…
Joseph #7: Blessing or Obedience or Both?
The final in this 7-part series on Joesph, Ross looks at the important balance between God’s sovereign grace and empowerment…
Joseph #5: Joseph and the Goodness of God
Ross shares in this 5th episode, Ross talks about how Joseph laid hold of the promises of God and saw…
Interview with Ross & Christine Paterson
Enjoy the wisdom and inspiration of over a century combined missions experience, as we sit down with our founders, Ross…
Mission Kid to Pioneer with Brad Thurston
Check out Globe Mission here. See our other partners. A fascinating interview with Brad Thurston, one of the early collaborators…
Equipping the Church for Explosive Growth!
We are excited to share that FieldPartner co-founder Ross Paterson was recently interviewed on the hit podcast ‘Inspired… with Simon Guillebaud’. Ross…
Unwrapping the TCK Experience
It was fantastic to welcome a good crowd from around the globe to launch our latest course, Caring for TCKs….
Get Ready to be Shaken
Ross looks at what the Bible says about the end of the world, and how the Bible tells us to…
Resolution #4 – Make Friends with Those From Other Places And Cultures
Today we come to the fourth of Chuck Lawless’ ten New Year’s Resolutions that are intended to help us grow…
Eric Liddell: A Scotsman Surrendered To God
Eric Henry Liddell (1902-1945) is best known as one of the heroes of the Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire”. The…
Article 7 – Part 3 of the Serampore Agreement
Carey and the others wrote:As we consider it our duty to honour the civil magistrate, and in every state and…
Timothy And “The P/T Test”
Having written about Demas, John Mark and Silas over the past three weeks, there has to be one more missionary…
Vision of FieldPartner International
The vision of FieldPartner International is a simple one. It is to serve the church and individual believers in matters…
Who Is In Charge Here? – Easter Week Pt 1
This is part of our Easter week series from Ross Paterson’s daily devotional Facebook post. Like our page to keep up with…
Damascus Road Or Gradual Conviction?
In my previous post, I defined cross-cultural mission. It contains two vital elements. Firstly, going. Secondly, the venue, a people whose…
James Adam – Missionary to China’s Miao People
James Adam was a Scottish missionary who arrived in China in 1887 aged 23 and served there for the next…
John Mark – A Missionary Failure Who Later Succeeded.
John Mark is a missionary whose story, unlike most of those I write about each Sunday, is told in the…
Article 7 – Part 6 of the Serampore Agreement
Carey’s original important summary of article 7: A real missionary becomes in a sense a father to his people. If…
