Category: Spiritual Formation

What Does Self-Feeding Involve? In my first post on this topic, I asked the question, “Who feeds the missionaries spiritually?” My simple answer to that question:  “We expect our missionaries to feed themselves!”   Then in my second post, I looked at what the Bible has to say about self-feeding. We saw that there was all kinds of Biblical examples and Biblical support for individual believers taking the initiative to nourish their soul outside of what happens in the church meetings. Now I would like to define more clearly what I mean by self-feeding.   I think there are at least five critical elements: 1. Taking Responsibility. Self-feeding means we take personal responsibility for making sure we are regularly nourished on the Word.   If we feel spiritually under-nourished, we don’t assign primary blame to the church we are attending, but to ourselves.  Responsible people are self-disciplined. Paul reminds Titus that those who… Read the whole post

In my last post, I asked the question, “Who feeds the missionaries spiritually?”  My simple answer to that question:  We expect our missionaries to feed themselves!” But can self-feeding be biblically supported?  Some have questioned this concept.   After all Jesus told Peter to “feed my sheep”, not “teach my sheep to feed themselves.”   There are several direct references to self-feeding which are decidedly negative (see Ezekiel 34:2, 8, 10 and Jude 1:12 which all refer to shepherds who feed themselves, preying on the flock to enrich themselves).  Isn’t the concept of self-feeding just following the individualistic worldview and culture so prevalent in the West?  Isn’t the spiritual development of every believer dependent on the Body life of the church (Eph 4:16)?… Read the whole post

The simple answer to that question: for the most part, we expect our missionaries to feed themselves! One of our goals throughout the pre-field preparation process in SEND International is to help our new missionaries become adept at feeding themselves spiritually. We emphasize the importance of a personal daily “Quiet Time.  We encourage them to be like Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus, rather than becoming distracted by a multitude of opportunities to serve Jesus, like her sister Martha (Luke 10:38-42).   We practice various spiritual disciplines right during the training.  We provide structure and some accountability for implementing what they are learning.  In our last Member Orientation Program, we distributed to each new missionary appointee a copy of the Life Journal and practiced the S.O.A.P. method of journaling on several mornings.  Then near the end of the two weeks of training, everyone spends a whole day alone with… Read the whole post