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
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….
The Antioch Factor
Cross-cultural marriage
Know Thyself
This course explores the concept of understanding ourselves within the context of our own cultures. Before delving into how we…
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…
Caring for Third Culture Kids
Currently in development, this exciting new course is created by our Dean of Studies, Ben Gilbert. British by birth, raised in India, with time living in Sri Lanka and the Middle East – the TCK experience is familiar to Ben, who is excited to share personal experiences, research and helpful insights for both TCKs, and those caring for them to thrive across cultures. Sign up to be notified when the course is released!
Thriving Across Borders
This course covers the major transitions that someone will make when crossing cultures. We delve into the typical transition points…
Protected: Interview with James Goss
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Serving in Japan with Christina Winrich
In this interview Christina shares openly about the challenges and joys of serving God in another culture. She shares movingly…
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…
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.
Mission Kid to Pioneer with Brad Thurston
Check out Globe Mission here. See our other partners. A fascinating interview with Brad Thurston, one of the early collaborators…
Interview with Christine Paterson
Christine Paterson Interview Co-founder Christine Paterson tells us about her life on the mission field from her childhood in Africa…
Repurposing Your Experience with Geoff & Jackie Bishop
Geoff and Jackie Bishop were missionaries for many years in Burundi, central Africa. In this interview, they share the events…
5 Lessons Joseph Teaches About God and His Plans for Our Lives
Ross Paterson’s message, recorded at Bread of Life International Church. He encourages us with five lessons from one of his…
Miracles and Mission with David and Joyce Lamb
We were privileged to interview two legends in the Kingdom—David and Joyce Lamb. Their stories of divine provision, angelic encounters,…
Zechariah gets a second chance | Luke 1
Ross shares from in Luke 1 about Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and stresses that our God is…
A Lost Missionary Treasure
I have been a missionary for over 50 years, yet I have only just come across an extraordinary document called…
Article 7 – Part 4 of the Serampore Agreement
Wow, How Times Have Changed! William Carey’s first paragraph below, in the original language and then in modern English, is…
J. O. Fraser – Leading, Listening – or Both?
The successful missionary, for example J.O. Fraser, balances a strong personality with an equally strong ability to listen and learn,…
Don Richardson and the “Peace Child”
Don Richardson (1935–2018) was a Canadian missionary who, in 1962, with his wife Carol and their seven-month-old baby, went to…
Jesus Is Taking Over! – Easter Week Pt 10
This is part of our Easter week series from Ross Paterson’s daily devotional Facebook post. Like our page to keep up with…
Resolution #8 – Go Out For Dinner!
This one, the eighth of Chuck Lawless’ mission related New Year resolutions, has to be the easiest to carry out,…
An Unusual Scottish Missionary: William Burns
William Chalmers Burns (宾惠廉) lived from 1815-1868. A fellow missionary said after his death that “all China knows him; he…
Eric Liddell – Olympic Gold Medal Winner in Paris, 1924
Eric Henry Liddell (1902-1945) is one of the heroes of the Oscar winning film “Chariots of Fire”. The film tells…
He Took His Time, But He Made It! – Easter Week Pt 6
This is part of our Easter week series from Ross Paterson’s daily devotional Facebook post. Like our page to keep up with…
Damascus Road Or Gradual Conviction?
In my previous post, I defined cross-cultural mission. It contains two vital elements. Firstly, going. Secondly, the venue, a people whose…