I don’t know if I could plant a church in a remote place on earth, but I would like to effectively support missionaries. How can I do this?
Supporting Missions Global Outreach - Cross-Cultural Church Planting
- Support in Preparing
- Support in Training
- Support in Sending
- Support on the Mission Field
- Support in Sending Short-Term Help
- Support in the Sending Country
- Support in Vision
- Support in Adjustments
- Support of TCK
Support in Preparing
Serve overseas?
Where do you find people who will go?
This is the greatest need: people. People groups who have no access to the gospel (UUPG) are asking, even begging for a missionary. Yet God’s people, people who have already been told, are too busy with other things to tell the untold about Jesus.
The solution? Preparation & teaching.
People who do not know God will have no heart for Him or His work.
The foundation for missionary work is preparing people to give their lives for the benefit of other people by teaching them to know God and His mission, beginning at an early age.
John 17:3, Jeremiah 9:24, Matthew 13:45-46, 16:24, Luke 14:33
Intentional discipleship, teaching people to obey all that Jesus commanded us, is the foundation of missionary outreach. Not everyone will go serve overseas, but every believer should be rooted in Christ and know how to engage in what God is doing. This kind of attitude comes from knowing God’s identity and character. Have a personal, deeply rooted relationship with God is what moves people to work in teams to tell others in faraway places of God’s person, purpose, plan, people and processes.
Prepare people to send and be sent.
Support in Training
Taking time to learn from experienced missionaries is one of the best investments a new missionary can make.
The problem with not knowing is that you don’t know what you don’t know and you may be the last one to find out.
Experienced missionaries can expose new candidates to ideas, methods, cultures, and practices that had never crossed their minds. It really is best to learn from the mistakes of others rather than pursue your pain alone.
Training is often a difficult time for missionary candidates because they are extremely busy, have not yet developed a support network, and funding resources are often low.
Having church members asking how to get involved can be very encouraging.
Stay in touch during training.
Support in Sending
After career missionary training new missionaries are developing their partnership teams who will make their ministry overseas possible.
They are traveling a lot, so transportation and housing are frequent needs.
Their expenses are high because of the traveling, literature, government paperwork, and purchasing resources to ship overseas for their years of ministry.
Financial resources are helpful.
Even more helpful are introductions to other people and churches who might be interested in joining their support team long-term. Advocacy from friends can be much more effective than cold-calling.
Your active support can be hugely encouraging during this time of building practical faith in God’s direction and provision.
Ask what you can do to assist.
Support on the Mission Field
Ta-da! The new missionary family has arrived on the mission field to establish a thriving church in a remote location among a people that has had no access to the Gospel.
Where will they sleep tonight?
What will they eat?
Where will they live until the learn the national language well enough to buy their own groceries?
How will they get local currency?
Where can they go to buy groceries?
Are there local security issues of which they need to aware?
Is the water safe to drink?
What is a wise means of travel?
Where is the toilet and how do you use it?
Is there a place to bathe, and how is bathing done?
The new missionary family may be completely on their own to discover these things.
If there is a larger missionary team nearby, then this information and resources may be provided by career missionaries who manage guest house facilities.
We arrived on the mission field and the bathroom had only a hole in the floor and a large open-top cement box six times bigger than a bathtub. After some fellow travelers climbed into the water box to bathe, we were all informed that the box contained all of the drinking water for the team, which was collected from infrequent rain. The hole was the toilet. The quart-size plastic pan was for dipping water out of the water box to flush the toilet, and pour water over your soapy body when bathing.
Missionaries need orientation. Many things on the mission field will be different physically, spiritually, and culturally.
Support missionaries help new missionaries with the transition. Some provide housing. Others supply food. Skilled people are constantly in demand to assist with Information Tech, accounting, administration, construction, maintenance, and transportation. Experienced support workers assist other missionaries with language acquisition, literacy program development, child education, church planting, Bible translation, leadership, and accountability.
Sending personnel to work as career support personnel is a huge part of seeing thriving churches established in remote places.
Send long-term workers.
Sending Short-Term Help
Short-Term teams can have a huge impact on the people who participate to assist missionaries in remote places.
Both the sending churches and the career missionaries can be greatly encouraged through the interaction with a short-term team.
In a few weeks a short-term team can accomplish physical work that the career missionaries have been unable to accomplish for years.
However, there is a balance because bring in a short-term team adds a LOT of extra work to the missionaries whose work load is already extreme.
Food, lodging, funding, activities, ministry engagement, all take time weeks and months in advance for planning logistics, in addition to what the missionaries were doing already.
Missionaries on the field will often invest in short-term teams because of the potential impact on the participants and the relationship with their supporting churches.
Many missionaries started their trajectory in overseas ministry during a short-term trip.
Send short-term teams.
Supporting in the Sending Country
Career missionaries working in the sending country.
The greatest need on the mission field is more missionaries. Missionaries are constantly overwhelmed with the enormity of the work that needs to be done. In addition to the huge workload of Bible translation, Bible lesson preparation, literacy development, teaching, discipleship, and just surviving in a remote location, the people they serve are at their door literally day and night with requests for medical, logistical, and humanitarian services. Add to that the frequent requests from unreached people groups who are asking for missionaries. Missionaries are in way over their heads. There is more to be done than there are people and time to do what must be done. Missionaries need help; not just warm bodies but people who can help carry the load and expand the reach of the Gospel where Christ is not known.
Knowing precedes going. Mobilization Representatives are career missionaries who are constantly visiting churches, universities, and schools in search of those people who are willing to act on God’s word by faith. They present God’s word, the needs of the world, the opportunities to serve, and paths forward as people take steps of faith.
Communications Teams. People need to know what’s going on, where the needs are, what we are doing, where we are going, and why we do what we do so that they can join in the work of Ethnos360 as God leads them.
Can’t teach what you don’t know. A working knowledge of the Scriptures is foundational to what we do. Personnel at Ethnos360 Bible Institute help equip future missionaries with the Bible knowledge they need to engage in life-long ministry of serving people and teaching God’s word; especially in overseas ministry.
Equip the Equippers. Learning from missionaries who have preceded us in ministry is wise and effective in persevering to complete the difficult tasks associated with establishing thriving churches among the least-reached people groups. Experienced career missionaries devote their time, energy, and resources to pass on what they have learned to the next generation of missionaries so they can be more effective from when they first arrive on the mission field.
Serving Senders. A huge part of missionary work is maintaining of bridges finances and administration across international waters to the mission field and domestic supporters. Churches want their gifts to the missionaries they send to arrive in the hands of those missionaries. They want to see what is going on, have avenues for communications, see that there is accountability, know that there is integrity, and be assured that oversight of ministry is occurring. Some Ethnos360 career missionaries devote themselves to accounting, communications, office administration, publications, leadership, HR, and logistics to maintain those bridges between the local churches and the missionaries serving in remote places on earth.
Support of TCK's
Third Culture Kids have grown up with people from many different cultures. In Papua New Guinea we served with missionaries from 27 different countries. TCK’s have been influenced by the culture of their parents, friends, teachers, the countries they have lived in, and the people they have served.
“Normal” may be different, not necessarily bad, just not like your normal.
Culture is what tells you what is right or wrong, what feels good or bad, when to laugh or cry, and what looks good and what doesn’t. Culture tells a person what tastes good and what does not, what appropriate and what is not.
Culture has a lot of unspoken indicators and clues that everyone knows and responds to… except the person who is not familiar with that culture.
That means TCK’s may not have the same influences that you consider normal.
TCK’s do have strong culture. It’s probably different from yours.
TCK’s may not know what clothing is in style, what looks weird, or how to use touch-free plumbing. They might not care, or should.
They may have never used an ATM, driven a car on a highway, or been to a DMV for licensing. They might not know about taxes, W-2’s, checking accounts, or the most popular apps. Rent, utilities, and civil responsibilities, such as shoveling the sidewalk in front of their house, may be completely unknown to them. They may not know what easily offends you or what you expect of them.
The only way to find out how to support TCK’s is to come alongside and develop friendships where they feel free to ask or tell.
TCK’s don’t know what they don’t know. Nor do you. Ask?
Support your TCK’s