Pre-field Training Archives

Hardship, Training, Book Reviews, Pre-field Training

Book Review: Practicing Hope: Missions and Global Crises

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). 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… Read the whole post

November 30, 2020November 11, 2021

Gary Ridley1 min read

Training, Coaching, Pre-field Training

I don’t really know if the training went well

How can we know if it is effective? I have spent the last 10 years of my life in training missionaries. Training events have taken me to more than a dozen countries. Through online courses, workers from at least twice that number have participated in training that I have led. Furthermore, I head up our organization’s training department and so have the privilege of leading a great team of trainers and facilitators. But despite my experience and travels, the question does not go away. How can we know if our training is effective? Recently I saw that the parable of the sower sheds some light on this question. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they… Read the whole post

May 19, 2020May 19, 2020

Ken Guenther2 mins read

Books, Resources, Training, Book Reviews, Pre-field Training, Church

Book Review: Well Sent

I have frequently been asked about resources for local church missions programs. In 2015, Steve Beirn, Global Ministries Pastor at Calvary Church in Lancaster, PA, published Well Sent: Reimaging the Church’s Missionary-Sending Process. Steve served at our sending church in Holland, Michigan before going to Calvary so I know him well. He writes with passion and experience. In the introduction he writes: This book seeks to elevate the role of the local church in the sending effort. The trend in missions today is to place the individual at the center of the sending process. Sometimes the agency is placed at the center. This book places the local church at the center of the sending process. – Well Sent, p. 17.… Read the whole post

June 12, 2018July 3, 2023

Gary Ridley1 min read

Character, Cross-Cultural Living, Hardship, Pre-field Training

Culture shock: God’s crucible?

A few years ago, I wrote several posts on the value of crucible experiences, particularly concerning leadership development. Crucible experiences are difficult, often painful events or losses in our lives that have the potential to refine us. But as I repeatedly said in those previous posts, 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. Marriage is a crucible Crucible experiences often come in every-day life experiences. I just finished reading (listening to) Gary Thomas’s great book, Sacred Marriage: What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy? Repeatedly Thomas helps the reader see that marriage is in itself a crucible that has the potential to burn away some of the most basic weaknesses of our human nature. Here are a couple of quotes from the book:… Read the whole post

May 7, 2018June 4, 2022

Ken Guenther1 min read

Books, Disciple-making, Book Reviews, Pre-field Training, Church

The Vine Project: A review

Jesus told us to go and disciple all nations. That means that those of us who have been called and sent are to be disciplemakers who equip others to be disciplemakers as well. The question that I have been asking myself recently is, “Are the sending and training structures that we have established to help get people to the nations effective in equipping them to be disciplemakers?” We train people to raise their support, learn and adjust to a new culture, learn to speak a new language, prepare for various security risks, educate their children, and get along with their teammates – but are they learning to become disciplemakers? I read The Trellis and the Vine a number of years ago. This short book differentiated between the work of actually discipling people from the work of creating and maintaining the structures and programs that support this disciplemaking. The… Read the whole post

March 20, 2018January 2, 2025

Ken Guenther2 mins read