August 15, 2026

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Spiritual Formation

Hardship, Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Leadership Training

Crucibles

When God prepares a person to serve him in a leadership or other significant ministry role, he often chooses to use crucibles. Crucibles are small pots used in chemistry labs in which metals or other substances are heated to a very high temperature. In the middle ages, alchemists used crucibles in their various attempts to forge gold out of base metals and various strange ingredients. But Webster also defines a crucible as a difficult test or challenge or a place or situation that forces people to change or make difficult decisions. The Scriptures speak of the crucible as an instrument for purifying silver, but always in the context of some type of testing for the purpose of refining.  … Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Spiritual Formation, Self-Feeding, Spiritual Disciplines

Puritan Meditation: The Centerpiece of Spiritual Formation

In our pre-field training and on-field coaching of missionaries, we emphasize the critical importance of feeding yourself spiritually, or in other words, taking the initiative to regularly nurture your soul in a context where the busyness of ministry and stress of cross-cultural living can make it difficult to keep our hearts and minds set on things above (Col 3:1-2).   Feedback from our missionaries in training suggests that this emphasis is greatly appreciated and desperately needed.    One of those ways that we can feed ourselves spiritually is by learning the spiritual discipline of meditation.   In this area, we have few better teachers than the Puritans.… Read the whole post
Gary Ridley1 min read
Spiritual Formation, Training

Accountability – Asking the Hard Questions

Do you have anyone in your life who asks the hard questions? You know, the ones like “How are you doing in using your time wisely?” Or “How are you doing as a wife/ husband/ parent/ leader/ follower?” Or just the simple yet profound “How are you doing spiritually?” For some reason, we have such a hard time asking those questions, and yet I think a lot of us need and even long for that kind of interaction. Let me get personal and real here. I haven’t REALLY felt spiritually healthy for many years now. I’ve had a few bright spots over the years, and am confident God hasn’t given up on me. Yet I would have to say that “listless,” “wilting on the vine” and even “helpless and hopeless” describe how I have felt about my walk with God over the past decade.… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Spiritual Formation, Book Reviews

Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People So That You Experience “The Life You’ve Always Wanted”

As a SEND missionary, do you ever feel lagging in spiritual power or genuine transformation? How about those you have the privilege of leading to Christ or discipling – do you observe them experiencing consistent growth into Christ-likeness? If you’re feeling discouraged in either of these areas, I encourage you to read John Ortberg’s book The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. It provides a fresh, practical, and biblical challenge towards growing in Christ-likeness through the practice of spiritual disciplines. A sad commentary on the state of today’s church is that “by and large we do not expect people to experience ongoing transformation.” Ortberg however believes that genuine transformation — being changed into Christ-likeness — should be the norm for Christian life. A problem often occurs, though, in that believers who desire transformation try harder and harder until they are exhausted but still not experiencing the transformation… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Spiritual Formation, Training, Self-Feeding

How Do You Train Others to Feed Themselves?

This blog series has been sidelined as we have been out of town for most of the past 4 weeks. But I do not want to leave this topic of self-feeding without addressing the question of how we can equip others to become self-feeders. In my first post on this topic, I asked the question, “Who feeds the missionaries spiritually?” Despite the value of various member care initiatives, we cannot avoid the simple conclusion that our missionaries must learn to feed themselves. The second post looked at Biblical examples and Biblical support for the concept of self-feeding. It is not just an outgrowth of Western individualism. In the third post, we clarified what self-feeding actually entails, and talked about taking responsibility for one’s own spiritual nourishment, planning ahead and developing rhythms. Now as a missionary trainer, I realize that just writing about these concepts or even explaining them clearly in… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
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