The SEND U Blog

Reflections and Resources for Lifelong Learning for Missionaries

Category: Training Page 18 of 27

Processing Crucibles with the Help of Others

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On July 2, 2015

In Spiritual Formation, Coaching

In three previous blog posts, I have been talking about crucible experiences (trials, or in other words, painful and stressful life or work circumstances) and the role they have in transforming us. But as I have noted, difficult life experiences in themselves do not refine us. Our response to the crucible experiences of life and ministry is what allows the crucible to become transformative.

Ananias restoring the sight of Saint Paul
Pietro da Cortona, 1631

Crucible experiences are often endured alone, or at least without the company of other human beings who truly understand the pain and stress you are experiencing. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days alone with the wild animals. Elijah ran away from Queen Jezebel to Mt. Horeb, leaving his only companion in Beersheba to travel 40 days into the wilderness alone. Abraham went to Mt. Moriah to offer up his only son as God had commanded, and although Isaac with him, Abraham bore his test in silence, without explaining all that was going on in his mind to his son.

But although the crucible may often be experienced alone, I believe that crucibles are best processed with the help of others. If crucibles are designed by God to transform us, and we are to fully mine the wealth of all that God wants us to learn from them, we need the Body of Christ to learn from them. God sent Ananias to Paul in Damascus to help him make sense of what had happened to him on the road when his whole world was turned upside down. Jesus debriefed Peter on a long walk along the beach up in Galilee after Peter denied him 3 times. Even Jesus was attended by angels after the devil had tested him in the wilderness (Matt 4:11).

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The Missional Helix

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On May 14, 2015

In Training

 

It is not uncommon to hear comments that theologians are ivory tower theorists or that missionary practitioners are rabid pragmatists. Such mudslinging is unproductive.

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Apps to Schedule Meetings Revisited

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On April 22, 2015

In Training

Today, I want to highlight a few useful apps that I use regularly in my leadership and ministry, coaching and training missionaries in 20+ different countries and multiple time zones.   The two teams I lead are both virtual teams, and the members of those teams are located in 6 different time zones.  Currently I am coaching five different individuals, and they are located in 4 different time zones.   Skype and GoToMeeting make connecting across time zones relatively easy, but before you can make the call, you have to arrange a time. Setting up one-on-one meetings across time zones can be a real challenge, both because of the complexity of trying to remember how many hours difference there is between our respective time zones, and because of the hassle of trying to find a time slot that fits both of our schedules.

A few years ago, I recommended Tungle.me for online scheduling of meetings.  Tungle figured out all the time zones, and made it relatively easy to find a time slot that would suit everyone.   But Tungle.me was acquired by Blackberry and no longer became available for users outside of the Blackberry ecosystem.   I then switched to Doodle, which is still an OK alternative for scheduling group meetings.   But Doodle decided to remove the Google calendar integration from its free version, and too many of my contacts were confused by its interface, so I stopped using it.   I went back to playing email tag to try to set up my Skype meeting.

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The Value of Coaching

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On March 30, 2015

In New Missionaries, Coaching

Training in coaching – by coaching others

In our mission organization, we provide a coach for all of our new missionaries at the mid-point of their first term.   This coach meets with the new missionary for a total of 6 times over a 3-month period to help them walk through the process of doing a self-assessment of their spiritual, physical, emotional and relational health.  This 3-month coaching period is called MOP-up (Member Orientation Program under pressure).   SEND’s pre-field training is called MOP or Member Orientation Program, and MOP-up is a follow-up event a few years later.  The whole program seeks to 1) reinforce the pre-field learning, 2) identify what has been learned experientially since arriving on the field, and 3) plan future learning goals for the rest of the first term.  You can read more about this training for first-term missionaries at this link.

At the end of the MOP-up experience, we ask the coachees to give us an evaluation of the experience.  Thus far with almost 30 responses tabulated, 64% have indicated that the coaching was very valuable and that they definitely want to be coached in the future.    This greatly encourages me, for one of my hopes was that in exposing first-term missionaries to coaching, they would see its value throughout their missionary career.

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Leading a Team Takes Time

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On January 28, 2015

In Team Leadership, Training

Over the past few weeks, I have had a number of conversations with both new missionaries and team leaders in a few different countries.   An observation that I have made in the past has been reinforced: leading a team takes time and more time that the team leader expected.  In these conversations, I have noticed a common theme among new missionaries – leaders don’t have time for them.   Leaders are so busy with their own ministry that they directly say or inadvertently give the impression that helping a younger, less experienced team mate is a distraction from their “real ministry”.   A few months ago, we featured in this blog the testimony of one of our area directors who had learned the importance of mentoring new missionaries.  But unfortunately, for many of us, we learn this lesson slowly.

As team leaders, we often make two simple assumptions when we invite and accept new team members.

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