Category: Pre-field Training Page 1 of 4
Missio Nexus gathers mission leaders across North America. In September, they hosted a session on training for missionary retention. This topic matters because it touches the core of what sustains us in long-term cross-cultural work. Moreover, the discussion challenged me to think deeply about how we prepare and support workers for the long haul.
Three Predictors of Long-Term Sustainability
During the session, facilitator Elliot Stephens shared research that highlights three key predictors of sustainability for cross-cultural workers. First, spiritual vitality. Second, relational maturity. Third, ministry effectiveness.
1. Spiritual Vitality
This area involves dependence on God, love for Scripture and prayer, healthy humility, a deep grasp of grace, and a theology of suffering.
2. Relational Maturity
It includes genuine love in close friendships and marriages, healthy teams with redemptive conflict resolution, and the ability to form local friendships and feel at home in host communities.
3. Ministry Effectiveness
This area focuses… Read the whole post
A legitimate question
When I first began leading our Member Orientation Program more than 10 years ago, I seldom, if ever, had to defend its legitimacy. All new missionaries assumed that they would need to go through the pre-field training program before leaving for their place of assignment. In fact, one of our greatest struggles was to convince new missionaries and their coaches that they should wait to enroll in Member Orientation until they had raised more of their support. The primary question was “When?”. When do I get to go to MOP? As we began conducting the training in the Philippines as well as in Michigan, a secondary question then became “Where?”. Where will I complete this training?
But in more recent years, the questions have been different. Now we are dealing with the question of “Why?”. Why do I need to go through this particular pre-field training program? It is a legitimate question.
A desire for customization
On the one hand, it reflects a desire for greater flexibility and customization of the pre-field training process. We live in a world where we can customize our sandwich and coffee. Amazon allows us to choose not only the type but the color of our earbuds. People naturally resist the assumption that one size fits all. Why do I need to travel to Michigan (or the Philippines) when my church or another organization I know also offers training for missionaries? Do I need to go through the entire pre-field training program? Could you allow me to choose the modules I think are most important for me. Maybe I don’t even need to go through a pre-field training program. Maybe I could just learn what I need to know along the way, from other missionaries, and online through Google searches.
A desire to avoid duplication
On the other hand, the “Why?” question reflects the desire to avoid duplication of previous training. Some of our new missionaries have earned academic degrees or at least credits in missiological studies. Others have had extensive experience in various types of short-term or long-term cross-cultural ministry. Those who are coming to our mission organization from one of our partner mission agencies have often gone through a significant period of training with the partner mission prior to joining SEND. Why do these people still need additional training from SEND?
Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash
We have been discussing the need for resilience among cross-cultural workers. In the last post, we talked about how God develops resilience through suffering. But what is the mission organization’s responsibility in supporting their workers in these times of crisis and stress? How does the organization determine its level of involvement in caring for its missionaries?
These questions are not easily answered. Cross-cultural workers vary widely in their desire for and expectations of organizational involvement. Some only want their organization to provide receipts to their donors and make sure the missionary receives the support on a regular basis. Others want a full range of services, including health insurance, training, pastoral care, leadership, and supervision, conferences and retreats, risk assessments and security training, and IT support.
SEND International is one mission that has sought to better determine what level of organizational involvement it should provide for its members’ well-being. Here is the story of what one region in SEND has done to find answers to these questions.
A survey of field missionaries
In 2019 SEND International established a workgroup to study the feasibility of designing and implementing a regional “hub” structure for the Eurasia region. SEND had already worked in this part of the world for a couple of decades, but we wanted to strengthen the services we provided to our missionaries serving there. One of the mandates of the workgroup was to protect what works well in Eurasia (strengths) while improving what is not working well (gaps). To learn more about the strengths and gaps of our organization in this region, the workgroup created a questionnaire and a list of possible interviewees.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
What is missional resilience? In a nutshell, it’s grace not grit. We must receive Jesus’ resilience to join him in his mission as we turn toward the triune God, others, and ourselves for loving support.
Geoff Whiteman, Resilient Global Worker Study: Persevering with Joy, March 2021.
In my previous blog post, I talked about the need for resilience in cross-cultural work and particularly now in the pandemic. I mentioned Geoff Whiteman’s research. He surveyed more than 1000 missionaries to find out what contributes to making global workers more resilient. What was his overall conclusion? It can be found in the quote above – resilience in mission work is rooted in God’s grace.
In a workshop at the 2021 Missio Nexus Mission Leaders Conference, Whiteman presented various recommendations for mission organizations to support missional resilience. Based on his research, he talked about the type of training, leadership, and caring that would help global workers become and stay resilient. Whiteman’s research demonstrated that mission organizations have much to learn and many ways in which they can improve. Nevertheless, Whiteman still concludes that resilience is first and foremost a gift of God’s grace.
The witness of Scripture
This echoes the witness of the Scriptures. Repeatedly we find that the Word of God promises the grace of resilience to those who cannot endure in their own strength. Here are a couple of examples.
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Online education and training have been around for a long time. But over this past year, many of us have had the opportunity and necessity to experience online training like never before. This is also true for the training of missionaries getting ready to head to the field. Facilitating an online training session is inherently different from facilitating a training module face-to-face. Since online instruction is likely here to stay, those of us involved in training missionaries should continue to sharpen our skills for facilitating online. Here are some things we have learned in the past year that help promote an effective online learning environment.
Use a variety of methods
A good principle of education is to use a variety of different teaching methods. Doing so connects with the various learning styles of your learners. This principle also holds true online. Asynchronous courses with forum discussions have existed in online learning for over 10 years. Some learners will thrive in this kind of setting, particularly if they like to carefully think through their answers before responding. In an asynchronous environment, they can read books, blog posts, and watch videos, reflect on them, and then respond when they are ready in writing through forum posts.
More recently, video conference platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams have become popular ways to facilitate. In this setting, other types of learners will thrive. They have a set time to connect and a more immediate response in the discussion.
So, when you design an online curriculum, seek to cater to as many personalities and learning styles as possible. Maybe your training course can include both asynchronous forum discussions and some live video conference sessions as well.
Break the ice
It may feel natural to introduce yourself to a fellow learner or a facilitator in a physical classroom setting when you first walk into the room or during a class break. But this can feel much more awkward in a virtual setting when you enter a virtual “room” that is already “full” of people, and no one is in closer physical proximity to you than anyone else.