Send a Global Mission Worker

For church leaders, the process of sending a Global Mission Worker is no small task. One of your own people is voluntarily leaving their current life and lifestyle for something entirely different, for God’s glory. They are asking you to commit to supporting and encouraging them – providing spiritual support for possibly decades. Consequently, the significant commitment they are making requires a significant commitment from you also. MSC can help you as you navigate the process of sending a Global Mission Worker – as you think through the finances, logistics, training, communications, and commendation.

Step 1: Assess

When a member of your local church comes to you and says “I think that the Lord is calling me overseas” or “God is calling me to take the Gospel to tribal islanders”, it’s important to know who you’re working with. What sense of calling do they have for the mission? How financially and practically prepared are they to go? Do they possess the language and life skills to be effective in their destination? How actively and energetically are they presently serving the Lord? How enthusiastic is their participation in the local church now? It’s so important to answer as many of these questions as possible before you SEND them. Involve MSC as early as possible – we can help ask the questions that are only asked by those who have done this before.

How can you determine the answers? ASSESS the candidate. Get the church leaders together and have an interview – ask them the tough questions, get real answers. This isn’t a grill session, it’s an opportunity to hear their heart, to join them in celebrating what God is doing, to band together to seek the Lord’s guidance. Pray with them, love them, encourage them… and at the same time, protect them, guide them, shepherd them. Help them to get clarity on “Where?” and “When?” and “How long?”. As you assess, cheerlead and exhort. Make plans. Then pray some more.

Notifying MSC

If after this initial assessment you will be continuing the process toward sending the worker, this is the time to notify MSC with a brief email or letter introducing the prospective worker and giving contact information. This is not a letter of commendation, but allows us to be a part of the process at early stages.

Helpful Downloads

Step 2: Prepare

Once the questions are answered, it’s time for the church to PREPARE to send this worker out. Involve others in the preparation process. Plan out how you will commend them for the Lord’s service. Help the candidate evaluate training options, navigate the logistics, and so on. Let MSC help you to develop connections with the believers at the worker’s destination, sort out international travel and customs, set up the financial support lines from home to the field.

Support your worker as they receive their practical and/or language training, as they get ready to cross cultural chasms. Whenever possible, find ways to ensure that the worker gets the practical training they need. Click here to discover some recommended training options.

We also have a list of books to work through as you think about sending mission workers:

Step 3: Commend

Commendation is an event, a milestone, a date marked in the memory of the mission worker being sent and also the local church that is sending them. Commendation should be meaningful, memorable, and should convey some of the weight of what is happening. What is happening? As the Scriptures say, “the believers had put them into God’s care and had sent them out to do this work.” (Acts 14:26 NCV) Someone is dedicating some or all of their time on this earth to radically crossing cultures for God’s glory, bringing the Gospel message to men and women who are lost and without hope!

Commendation is vital and it says some profound things. Commendation communicates to the worker that they have a team of supporters rallied behind them, ready to meet their needs as they give of themselves. It communicates to the local church that this person being sent is an extension of our body – one who represents our God and represents us. It reminds us that those who stay share in the same calling as those who go – to fulfill the Great Commission wherever we are, wherever God has placed us. Commendation says to the worker “we’re behind you”, it demonstrates to the worker that the local church affirms the Lord’s call.

So, church leader, COMMEND your workers. Send them off in a way that is equal parts celebration and charge, gravity and grace. Workers need to know that God’s people are behind them, that they’re not in this alone, that it is a serious and Godward thing they have begun.

The Commendation Process

In order for a commendation to be meaningful, it is generally expected that prospective workers have been in fellowship at the sending local church for at least several years, and fully engaged in the life and ministry of that local church, playing an active role and serving the Lord in various ways. The ideal mission worker will leave a big hole to fill and be sorely missed in the sending local church.

1. The process of a local church commending a worker through MSC begins with the letter of commendation.

MSC encourages local church elders to commend a worker to the Lord for the work to which he/she has been called and to communicate this in a carefully written letter. This letter should be a page or less, and briefly cover the following points in a sentence or two each:

Who: describe the worker, their spiritual life, their history / involvement in the sending local church, their family, children etc

Where: the field to which they are going. If the intention is to join a work or workers already on the field, please specify.

What: the nature of the work they will be engaged in

Signed: by at least three elders , with one person specified as the primary contact for MSC with full contact details including email address.

When: date of departure and, if not longterm or indefinite, the length of time the commendation is in effect.

2. Once MSC receives this letter, which may be scanned and emailed or posted, we get in touch to arrange a time to meet the worker(s) and the leadership of the sending local church.

The format of these meetings is flexible and arranged according to needs and scheduling of the local church and the workers. A sample which works well is to meet with the worker(s) in the late afternoon or over supper, then meet around 6:30 with the leadership of the sending local church for about a half an hour alone, and then have a half hour together with the worker(s) and leadership. This may be followed by an open meeting at which any interested people may hear a presentation about how MSC works in partnership with the local church, and a presentation by the worker, and from the leadership of the sending local church.

3. Agreements are signed by MSC, the sending local church , and the worker which form the legal framework allowing us to send charitable funds abroad, and to treat the worker as a legal agent of MSC Canada.

4. The worker completes and returns worker profile forms, biographical information which will be used in Missions magazine, and privacy forms indicating what level of exposure they are comfortable with through various media.

Step 4: Support

Once the flight has been caught and your candidate is now a worker on the field, what are the responsibilities of the sending church and its leaders? How can you effectively SUPPORT your mission workers?

As one of their church leaders, you have the even more specific role of providing them with spiritual care and direction as well as accountability for their work. You have the uncommon opportunity to encourage them with news of what is happening back here – sharing stories of God’s grace and goodness at work in his people to encourage them as they see God working where they have been sent.

Mission workers go out in faith that God will provide their needs through his people. As a worker’s sending church, you share in the responsibility of being the means through which God provides for this worker. Whether the needs are financial or practical, this sent-out-one is a part of your church body and you have the privilege and joy of sharing in their work in many helpful ways.

The Commendation Process

Here are a few practical ideas for ways to support your mission worker(s):

  • Give them a phone call. Make sure that you take into account the time difference where they are as well as customary bedtimes at their location.
  • Have a video conversation with them during one of your leadership meetings to catch up and pray – all you need is a computer with an internet connection and a webcam. You can use free options such as Skype and Google Hangouts to do this at no cost.
  • Have a video conversation with them during a Sunday morning or special event.
  • Draw up a schedule assigning a family to pray for them for a week or month depending on the length of their stay, and to communicate back and forth with prayer requests.
  • Arrange beforehand for a support person outside the church with missions experience to be available for the worker to refer to when sensitive or personal difficulties arise.
  • Send a “Care Package” including items not available on the field. This should involve some research. In some countries, the recipient may be charged exorbitant customs and other fees to get the package. Make yourselves aware of what items are cheaply available there and avoid those – stick to things that are unavailable there or are expensive there and inexpensive here.
  • On a Long Term Mission, you could provide funds for a few days holiday where possible.
  • Email pictures of events that take place in the local church… Sunday School events, wedding showers, baptisms, etc.
  • Consider sending a representative from the local church every year or two to the field to see the worker and the work.

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