August 15, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Author: Ken Guenther

Director of SEND U
Do Not Make Me a Leader!
Leadership, Mission Leadership, Team Leadership

Do Not Make Me a Leader!

A man will seize one of his brothers in his father’s house, and say, “You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!” But in that day he will cry out, “I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people.” – Isaiah 3:6–7 When a nation experiences God’s judgment, no one wants to become leader. Formerly leadership in Israel had been a desirable role because leaders used their positions to enrich themselves (Is 1:23).  But in the future when God’s judgment falls on these disobedient and ungodly people, Isaiah prophesies that no one will want the responsibility.  The need for leadership will be urgent, for all those in leadership roles will be killed in battle or taken away in exile (Is 3:24-26).  In these hard times, the bar set for leadership… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Book Reviews

Figuring Out Which Needs are My Responsibility

In the past few days, I finished reading a book, entitled Who is My Neighbor?  Being a Good Samaritan in a Connected World. Steve Moore, the president of The Mission Exchange, authored the book and has created a couple of excellent websites that significantly increase the learning value of the book. I read the book on my Kindle, but the book is also available for free, one chapter at a time, in PDF format from  http://www.whoismyneighborbook.com.The book explores the meaning of the question  “Who is my neighbor?” in a world where we are constantly bombarded by needs from around the globe.  Missionary newsletters, mission websites, and  mission e-mail blasts present us with a multitude of needs from every corner of the earth, to say nothing of what we see on CNN and read on Google News.  For us as missionaries, because many of us live in countries where we encounter… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Training

Easy Email Newsletters

As more and more of our missionary newsletters are being sent out by email rather than by snail mail, I have been looking at better ways of managing our email list, designing attractive email newsletters, and even tracking who actually reads our newsletters. Recently I have started using Mail Chimp, and see that quite a few other missionaries are doing the same. Mail Chimp is free if you have less than 2000 addresses in your list, and you send less than 12,000 emails a month to your mailing list, which fits both the budget and needs of most missionaries. Mail Chimp helps me design an attractive newsletter with pictures and columns (not just as an attachment). It will send out all of my newsletter in a couple of minutes, without forcing me to break it into batches so that Gmail will accept it. Best of all, it tells me how… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Book Reviews, Learning Attitude

Learning and Servanthood

This past month, I read Duane Elmer’s book, Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility.  Elmer, a former faculty member at Missionary Internship (now MTI) has written a number of helpful books about the process of transitioning into another culture and working effectively as a cross-cultural missionary.   Cross-cultural Servanthood addresses the question of what we need to do so that we are actually perceived as servants by the cultures to which we have come.   As he points out, servanthood is culturally defined, so our efforts to serve others may actually be perceived as superiority and condescension by the host culture and national church. Elmer has heard many host culture people say, “Missionaries could more effectively minister the gospel of Christ if they did not think they were so superior to us.” How do we unconsciously communicate superiority, and how can we avoid this and demonstrate Christlike servanthood? One of… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Spiritual Formation, Pre-field Training

Spiritual Formation Highlights Training for New Missionaries

Bertha and I are on a short home service, and so I am not quite as involved in SEND U activities for the next month or two.  But in July, I was back in Farmington to help lead our 2011 Member Orientation Program.   Twelve participants came from Poland, Austria and the USA.  We were trying a few new things in MOP this year, including visits to Angel House (a Middle Eastern center in the heart of Dearborn), an Iraqi mosque, and an ethnic church.   We will definitely want to repeat these hands-on opportunities for cross-cultural exposure and learning. Again we noticed how the spiritual formation parts of this pre-field training stand out as highlights for the MOP participants.   This year, Carl Kresge led most of the morning sessions on spiritual formation, building up to the “Day Alone With God” which happens the day before MOP ends. Carl emphasized that busyness… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
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