October 7, 2024

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Mission Leadership

Making better decisions
Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash
Mission Leadership, Book Reviews

Making better decisions

At the end of January earlier this year, my wife and I as well as my colleagues in Ukraine had to make some important decisions. Were we going to stay in Ukraine? Our embassies were warning us about an impending invasion from Russia and encouraging us to leave. If we stayed, what would be sufficient reason to leave in the future? If we left, where would we travel to? Bertha and I had tickets to leave Ukraine on February 20 for some training we had planned many months ago. Should we wait until then or change our travel plans so as to leave earlier? Missionaries make life-altering decisions Cross-cultural workers like ourselves have made many life-changing decisions over the course of our missionary career. Our initial decision to join a mission organization had significant and long-lasting consequences for ourselves, our families and our sending church. The decision we made to… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Resilience: What part does the organization play?
Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash
Missiological Issues, Resilience, Mission Leadership, Pre-field Training

Resilience: What part does the organization play?

This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series "Missionary resilience". We have been discussing the need for resilience among cross-cultural workers. In the last post, we talked about how God develops resilience through suffering. But what is the mission organization’s responsibility in supporting their workers in these times of crisis and stress? How does the organization determine its level of involvement in caring for its missionaries? These questions are not easily answered. Cross-cultural workers vary widely in their desire for and expectations of organizational involvement. Some only want their organization to provide receipts to their donors and make sure the missionary receives the support on a regular basis. Others want a full range of services, including health insurance, training, pastoral care, leadership, and supervision, conferences and retreats, risk assessments and security training, and IT support. SEND International is one mission that has sought to better determine what level… Read the whole post
Alfie Mosse2 mins read
Both invitation and challenge needed
Disciple-making, Mission Leadership, Teaming

Both invitation and challenge needed

A disciple-making culture? In the past few years, we have talked a lot about changing our organizational culture. Back when SEND U (our training department) was being launched, we wanted to establish a coaching culture in our organization, meaning coaching will become a pervasive method of supervision, leadership development, and membership development. I think we have made a lot of progress in establishing that culture. In more recent years, we have talked about creating a culture of collaboration, intentionality, and accountability. Many missionaries long to break away from a highly individualistic orientation and work on stronger teams. But we are an organization that describes itself as a global movement of Jesus followers making disciples among the unreached.. If this is to be true, then we need to have a disciple-making culture within the organization. What does it take to create a disciple-making culture?… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Disciple-making, Mission Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Training, Book Reviews

Book Review: Discipling in a Multicultural World

Ajith Fernando is the kind of person I want to listen to concerning Discipling in a Multicultural World. He is a thoughtful practitioner. The back cover describes the book: Rooted in over four decades of multicultural discipleship experience, Ajith Fernando offers biblical principles for discipling and presents examples showing how they apply to daily life and ministry. He addresses key cultural challenges, such as the value of honor and shame, honoring family commitments, and dealing with persecution, and helps us think realistically about the cost and commitment required for productive cross-cultural ministry. This practical guide to discipleship will help us help others grow into mature and godly followers of Christ.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Books, Leadership, Mission Leadership, Book Reviews

Book Review: Women in God’s Mission: Accepting the Invitation to Serve and Lead

Women in God’s Mission: Accepting the Invitation to Serve and Lead by Mary  T. Leiderleitner. Downer’s Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2018. This book is a summary of Dr. Mary Leiderleitner’s research into how women are serving and leading in God’s mission around the world. Her research was framed by two questions: 1) “What are diverse women experiencing as they lead in God’s mission? and 2) “What do they believe they need in order to do their best work as leaders in God’s mission?”  These questions were answered by 95 women from 28 countries through interviews, written surveys, and focus groups. She includes a lengthy explanation in the appendix of her research methodology.… Read the whole post
Beth Eckstein1 min read
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