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…
Thriving Across Borders
This course covers the major transitions that someone will make when crossing cultures. We delve into the typical transition points…
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…
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….
Calling – Who? What? Why?
In the church, there exists a widespread misconception that only “exceptional Christians” receive a “proper” calling from God. The truth,…
Cultural Pride
In our interview with Christina Winrich, she shared openly about the challenges and joys of serving God in another culture….
Go and do likewise…
Ross speaks from the story of the Good Samaritan with a powerful call to us all…
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 &…
The Orphan Who Gave to Mission.
Nettie McCormick had a less than ideal start to life. Born Nancy Maria Fowler in 1835, her father, Melzar Fowler,…
Simon of Cyrene – Abuse Leading To Destiny
For this week’s missionary post I want to engage in a little bit of guesswork, but I think I’m right!…
He Is Risen Indeed
Mark 16:1-8 describes the event that changed human history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He is risen…
Saint Patrick’s Amazing Legacy
Last week I wrote about Saint Patrick’s journey from slavery to becoming a missionary who changed Ireland. I drew three…
St Patrick – The Early Missionary
Today, March 17th, is St Patrick’s Day. Patrick was an early missionary with a very unusual life, one that has…
Resolution #10 – Me, A Missionary?
Finally, almost a quarter of the way through 2024, we come to the 10th and last cross-cultural mission related New…
Resolution #9 – Follow Your Pastor…. To The Ends Of The Earth!
We come to the last two of Chuck Lawless’ 10 Mission related New Year’s resolutions. Resolution number 9 states: “I…
Resolution #8 – Go Out For Dinner!
This one, the eighth of Chuck Lawless’ mission related New Year resolutions, has to be the easiest to carry out,…
Resolution #7 – Praying Through Important News Items
This week we look at the seventh of Chuck Lawless’ 10 Cross-Cultural Mission related New Year’s Resolutions. Even if we…
Resolution #6 – Go On A Mission Trip
Chuck Lawless’ 6th New Year’s resolution with a cross-cultural mission flavour says: “I will plan to take a mission trip…