December 6, 2024

The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Teaming

The Basketball Team on the Mission Field
Teaming, Team Leadership

The Basketball Team on the Mission Field

This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series "Types of mission teams".In our last post, we talked about the three main types of teams found in our mission organization. Now I would like to discuss each of these three types in more detail. Basketball teams work closely together and interact frequently with each other about their various ministries. Planning must be done as a team because most of the key ministries involve more than one person on the team, and each ministry role is interconnected with what other team members are doing. Biblical examples of this type of a team would be Jesus with his disciples and Paul with his missionary band of Silas, Timothy, Luke, and others at various times.   These ministry teams did ministry and life together, side-by-side experiencing both the joys and hardships of proclaiming the good news. .… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Teaming

Three Different Types of Mission Teams

This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series "Types of mission teams". Part two of a series on teaming.   Part one looked at the question of whether every group of missionaries can be called a team.   This post was written a few years ago by one of our senior missionaries. In missions, everyone wants to know if they will work on a team. SEND believes strongly that teams are a highly effective way to engage unreached people, but just as in sports, not all mission teams are alike. .… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Are We a Team?
Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash
Teaming, Team Leadership

Are We a Team?

This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series "Types of mission teams". Our mission organization and many other agencies are committed to teaming. Our mission’s policy manual says that we seek to place our personnel in areas where they can meet and minister with other Christian workers (missionaries and/or national workers) who are committed to a common purpose, goal and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. A desire to serve on a team The majority of our new missionaries want to serve on teams. Yes, many of them are assigned to isolated locations, but nevertheless they want to be working together with other missionaries. So it should come as no surprise that almost all missionaries talk about their “team”. Our staff meetings are called “team meetings” and our supervisors are called “team leaders”. Commonly, whenever more than one missionary family are located in the same city,… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
Teaming, Training

Training to Increase Capacity

Earlier in the year, we featured a number of posts by Philip Jackson, a colleague of mine from Macedonia, on the parallels between running a marathon and the Christian life.   In that same vein, I would like to reflect on my own recent experience of training for a half marathon. This has been a huge learning experience for me. I have never been an athlete or competed in any individual athletic competitions since I was required to participate in kids races at Sunday school picnics in my childhood. I jogged in college and in the first years in the Philippines but never ran a single kilometer all those years in Far East Russia. Then about the time that we began serving with SEND U, I started again, simply for the sake of getting some exercise, running 5 km three times a week. That was hard enough, and even last summer,… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther2 mins read
Teaming, Training

Two are Better than One

Another post from Philip Jackson, a colleague and friend of mine from Macedonia. Phil serves as the field leader and church planting team leader in the city of Skopje.   Phil also runs marathons, and his first full marathon was the Athens Classic Marathon.    No truth of Scripture was illustrated to me more powerfully by participating in a marathon than this simple expression by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10…. “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”… Read the whole post
Ken Guenther1 min read
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