Training Archives - SEND U blog

Do I need a mentor or a coach?

On April 19, 2021

In Coaching, Leadership Training, Lifelong Learning

In the last while, I have been thinking about how to strengthen our mentoring within SEND. In a recent analysis of leadership development within our organization, I noted that we needed more intentional mentoring of developing leaders by our current leaders. This is a gap in our current leadership development. Thinking about how to fill that gap has naturally led me to try to define mentoring. How is mentoring different from coaching? SEND U has already sought to create a coaching culture within the mission. More than 200 people in SEND have received some type of training in coaching. So, do we need both mentors and coaches?

Defining coaching and mentoring

A significant difficulty in answering this question is that the definition of coaching varies so much. For example, Lois Zachary and Lory Fischler in their mentoring fable, “Starting Strong” say,

Coaching is more instructive, but mentoring is more of a relationship. It’s not about me telling you what to do and you doing it.
Lois Zachary & Lory Fischler, Starting Strong: A Mentoring FAble, p.21.

Preparing to Preach as a Missionary

By Gary Ridley

On March 29, 2021

In Church, Church Planting, Preaching, Self-Feeding, Training

“Missionaries need to be ready to preach, pray, or die at a moment’s notice.” Or so I’ve heard all my life. Though this is often said jokingly, there is a ring of truth to it. In this new blog series, I am focusing on how to prepare a sermon. Missionaries often have opportunity to preach both in their home country and in their host country. Yet, many missionaries do not have formal training in preaching. In this post and four additional posts, I will share my perspective on preparing expository sermons gleaned from teaching homiletics (the art of preaching) at Alaska Bible College for 35 years. In this introductory post, I will define expository preaching, and focus on the preacher’s relationship with the Word and the audience. I will also list the topics for the next four posts.

Expository Preaching

Expository preaching is also known as expositional preaching. It is a form of preaching that focuses its attention on the meaning of a particular passage of Scripture.¹See Wikipedia article.

Book Review: Relational Missionary Training

By Gary Ridley

On March 15, 2021

In Book Reviews, Pre-field Training, Training

In 2006 Enoch Wan introduced his paradigm of “Relational Realism” in an article in the Occasional Bulletin of the Evangelical Missiological Society. This paradigm sees reality as defined by the vertical relationship with the Triune God and the horizontal relationships between created beings. In 2017, together with Mark Hedinger, he published the book, Relational Missionary Training: Theology, Theory, and Practice. Essentially, the book applies the relational realism model to the task of training missionaries.

The book aims to provide a foundation for this paradigm. Therefore, the authors look at theological, educational and practical aspects of the model. Their purpose is to describe the paradigm and show how a training program could be developed along these lines.

The authors also note that the book is written with missionary trainers in mind.¹p.15 So, that makes me part of the target audience.

The book contains four parts:

Theology (Chapters 1-3)
Theory (Chapters 4-5)
Practice (Chapters 6-8)
Summary and Conclusions (Chapters 9-10).

A Virtual Home Service

By Jenny Baker

On January 11, 2021

In Training

2020 pushed many of us to engage with technology in ways that felt uncomfortable. Video calls became the standard for meetings and schooling, and people connected in new and creative ways. Home service¹Some mission organizations might call this “home assignment” or “furlough.” was on our family’s horizon and we wondered, could we do a home service virtually as well?

The challenge

The Bakers serve in northern Canada.

Home service is about connecting with our current donors and ministry partners and making others aware of what God is doing in our field and in our world. Connecting online with 100 individual supporters and 20 churches seemed daunting. Furthermore, we started our home service needing $2000 in additional monthly faith promises. After trimming off some expenses, we brought it down to $1600. But this was still a huge amount, particularly if we would not be able to meet potential donors face-to-face.

For full disclosure, we are sent from North America and we serve on a field in North America. This meant that the time zone difference from our supporters was only 3 hours. We also do not work in a location where we have security concerns, so we could make use of public social media platforms.

What happens in a coaching session?

By Ken Guenther

On December 21, 2020

In Coaching, Leadership, Learning Attitude

Do I need a coach?

This month, I will be thinking hard about my ministry and learning goals for 2021. My mission organization asks me to put together an annual ministry plan (AMP) and a personal growth plan (IGP) for the new year.¹For further information, see the AMP/IGP guide that our training department has created. As part of that planning process, I am going to consider whether I will need a coach to help me with my ministry and learning goals. Setting up a few coaching calls might very well make the difference between reaching our 2021 goals and not doing so.

But what does a coach actually do? I have written about coaching in this blog. See “What is coaching?” and “The value of coaching” as two examples. But our blog posts have never really explained what a coach actually does. About 10 years ago, I addressed this question in a series of newsletters to our mission membership, entitled “Comments about coaching.” You can find these on the SEND U wiki. But given how long ago that was, I thought it would be helpful to revisit some of those “comments” and update them as well.

Book Review: Practicing Hope: Missions and Global Crises

By Gary Ridley

On November 30, 2020

In Book Reviews, Hardship, Pre-field Training, Training

Every year the Evangelical Missiological Society publishes a monograph containing papers from the previous year’s annual meeting. This year’s title is Practicing Hope: Missions and Global Crises, edited by Jerry Ireland and Michelle Raven. Yet before we assume the book is talking about COVID-19, we need to remember that when these papers were presented, no one knew a pandemic was coming. Jerry Ireland notes:

In September 2019 almost 300 missionaries, missiologists, sociologists, theologians, anthropologists, and students gathered near Dallas for the annual meeting of the Evangelical Missiological Society. The theme was “Missions Amid Global Crises.” I do not think that any of us would have dreamed that eight months later the world would be engulfed in a global pandemic because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).¹Jerry Ireland and Michelle Raven, eds. Practicing Hope: Missions and Global Crises. Evangelical Missiological Society, 2020, xiii.

Overview of book

Though none of the twelve chapters address the current pandemic crisis, these papers give us much to learn and apply. The chapter titles are:

What limits our disciple’s progress?

By Ken Guenther

On November 23, 2020

In Disciple-making, Growth Plans, Lifelong Learning, Training

Over the years, I have recognized that many of those I have taught, coached or mentored have become better communicators and more effective leaders than me. I may have been their teacher, but their gifting and competency have surpassed my own. This has been a cause for celebration. I have even seen it as an indication of God’s blessing on my life.

Upon first reading, Jesus’ words in John 14:12 might seem to suggest that he had the same sentiments.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. – John 14:12

However, I think D. A. Carson is right in saying that Jesus is talking about the greater impact the disciples will have once the resurrection has made it clear who Jesus is. The works of the disciples are greater than those that Jesus did, because in the light of his death and resurrection, these works will more clearly glorify him for who he really is.¹D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, p. 496.

Like your teacher

In Luke 6, Jesus gives a more realistic evaluation of the potential of his disciples. But it is still a pretty lofty perspective!

The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. – Luke 6:40

Reflections and resources for lifelong learning for missionaries

Category: Training Page 1 of 15