Discerning and pursuing your calling can be a confusing process.
It may be long or short. However our hope is that, by the time you leave, both you and your support team will be prepared to keep you there for the long haul!
Calling
If you feel any kind of calling to work cross-culturally, we suggest seeking early endorsement from the leadership in your local church. Our calling mini-course will help you!
Confirming
Take time to process and test the calling. Don’t do this alone! Look to your church, loved ones, and other trusted voices.
Equipping
Practically prepare for the road ahead. We strongly advise taking cross-cultural training. Our own Crossing Cultures 101 courses will give you key foundations.
Resourcing
Commissioning
Leaving is a process, not a single event. How are you preparing for a smooth transition? We’d advise building a RAFT and ensuring everything practical is ticked off.
On-Field
A Sender’s Role
Any fieldworker needs a great team of friends, family and colleagues supporting them. You have a huge part to play in ensuring their success. Check out what you can do to ensure your fieldworkers thrive!
- A church should establish a discernment process for anybody who may feel a call to work cross-culturally.
- The call needs to be tested, and the candidate’s maturity and readiness need to be assessed
- The church’s role is critical – sadly many missionaries who end up leaving prematurely for preventable reasons should never have gone in the first place!
- Give opportunities for the candidate to learn by serving and leading in the church.
- Ensure good mentoring is in place for the candidate. Make use of people with prior cross-cultural or mission experience.
- Consider mentoring for practical skills such as financial management or pastoral care.
- This is a season of practically preparing for the road ahead
- Choices need to be made about an agency or a process for training and equipping. Ideally, the church leaders would walk alongside the candidate through this.
- We strongly recommend the raising of personal support teams by the candidate and the church’s backing in that endeavour would be important.
- If the church endorses, hopefully they will also partner with the pre-field missionary in the matter of financial support.
- Clarify the level of support required with the field worker and consider how the church can support through the process of fundraising beyond providing money.
- Remember it is much easier for others, particularly those in authority in the church, to advocate for their financial support than for the candidate to do that on their own behalf!
- Read Acts 13. You will see that this is more than just a rousing send-off, with a ‘goodbye’, at the end. The sense of still belonging, even when serving at the other end of the world, is so important.
- Maintaining that connection through thick and thin might make all the difference between success and failure.
- Encourage the field worker to maintain the connection to the church – and make sure you do too!
- See our on-field resources for more details on what is next.
Start Your Journey
Here are some useful materials for you
The Antioch Factor
Cross-cultural marriage
Calling – Who? What? Why?
In the church, there exists a widespread misconception that only “exceptional Christians” receive a “proper” calling from God. The truth,…
The Antioch Factor
Ross Paterson presents a stark choice that no Christian or church can avoid making – whether we become a Jerusalem…
Know Thyself
This course explores the concept of understanding ourselves within the context of our own cultures. Before delving into how we…
Building a Support Ecosystem
In this course, we examine the different dimensions of support that are needed for a successful cross-cultural experience or lifestyle….
Developing Leadership for Cross-Cultural Ministry
Mission thrives on cultivating leaders who embody the life and character of Jesus, the most effective figure in history who…
Growing in Cultural Intelligence
Nations on the Doorstep with Peter Askew
Peter Askew serves cross-culturally in the north of England! His title is “Operations Manager for the Antioch Network Manchester”, an…
Serving Anywhere with Lydia David
Lydia David is a missionary who has worked in China & Turkey. She worked as an occupational therapist before she…
Hope in a Warzone with Simon Guillebaud
Discover more about Great Lakes Outreach (GLO) and their weekly Zoom prayer meetings, as well as watch Onesphore’s prayer for Europe &…
Obedience & Family on the Field with Grant & Jean
Grant and Jean are missionaries from South Africa. In this interview, they share their journey leading to mission work in…
What do you want Jesus to do for you? | Mark 10:46-52
After many months away from Taiwan, Ross Paterson returns to The Hope Church in Taiwan to preach on the topic of ‘What…
Podcast: Cross Cultural Mission Experiences That We Can Learn From Abraham
Abraham, the father of our faith and of cross cultural mission! Hi, this is Ross Paterson, I’d like to take…
Finding Treasure in all the Bible – 2 Kings 15
Loren Cunningham (1935-2023) became the first missionary to go to every nation in the world with the last country visited…
Missionary to the UK: Reuben Inwe
Our interview with Reuben Inwe is a fascinating one. His own story of encountering the Lord on a bus in…
The Missionary Time Forgot?
In our interview with our former co-worker in China, Bev Gigney, she shared a poignant story about losing a close friend…
Hebrews 11: Are we walking in faith?
Ross looks at 4 keys to faith taken from the heroes of the faith described in Hebrews 11.
Anne van der Bijl (Brother Andrew, God’s Smuggler)
Anne van der Bijl (Brother Andrew, 1928-2022) was a Dutch Christian known for smuggling Bibles and other Christian literature into…
J. O. Fraser – The Loneliness Of The Cross-Cultural Missionary
In this article, I want simply to share a short paragraph from J.O. Fraser’s biography, which in a few…
J. O. Fraser – Fraser Was A Spy?
At this point accusations spread that Fraser was a spy working for the British government. The accusations hindered his…
Frank Laubach- A Man Turned To Prayer In His Time Of Trouble.
Frank Charles Laubach (1884-1970) was born in Benton, Pennsylvania. He was a missionary who worked for thirty years among Muslims…
George Patterson – Not Your Normal Missionary!
George Patterson (1920-2012) went out as a missionary to Tibet with Geoffrey Bull in 1947. Though they began together, they…
William Milne – Five Keys For A Pioneer Missionary.
William Milne (1785-1822) was the second Protestant missionary sent by the London Missionary Society to China, joining the first missionary,…
Roland Allen – The Missionary Who Got It Right!
Roland Allen (1868-1947) had a short and not very effective missionary career in China. It was his writings after that…
J.O. Fraser – Embarrassing Excuses?
Below are four items that I referred to in the clip on our Facebook page. The first two are from…
A Hidden Gem: Margery Sykes
Margery Sykes was no ordinary missionary. Yet I cannot find her photo on the internet! I am not even sure…
Preparing for Cross Cultural Missions
1. How is your walk with the Lord? how are you doing with the Lord? Often I think of a…