ONGOING TRAINING FOR MISSIONARIES
STATEMENT
Missionaries need ongoing training to safeguard their faithfulness on the field, especially as their needs and ministry context change. Sending churches should value and explore ongoing training needs on the field and facilitate appropriate training in cooperation with other relevant partners. The content and frequency of training should protect and promote rather than hinder work on the field.
Article Written by TJIt may sound simple, but missionaries need ongoing training to ensure their faithfulness on the field and to avoid stagnating or becoming susceptible to pragmatism. Of course, the reality on the ground is more complex.
Some missionaries don’t receive ongoing training; others outright refuse it. Others receive irrelevant, excessive, or questionable training that’s steeped in pragmatism. Many get caught up in parachurch training that downplays membership in a local church. Sending churches are often unaware of such on-field training, or they fail to evaluate it and suggest other options. Many sending churches assume the mission agency is more competent to do the job. Sometimes, sending churches and mission agencies are overbearing and fail to cooperate with missionaries and churches on the field. Sometimes, missionaries lack funds for more training.
In cooperation with other relevant partners, sending churches should ensure their missionaries are well-equipped and funded for their task, especially as their ministry develops over time. Sending churches can do this by regularly asking questions that explore their missionaries' specific needs and concerns as they pursue faithfulness on the field.
Ongoing Training
First, let’s define “ongoing training.” Ongoing training is any focused means of improving character, knowledge, or competency for a specific missionary assignment. By “focused,” we mean formal, time-bound, goal-oriented, need-specific, and outside a local church's ordinary means of growth.
A Christian’s most essential ongoing ministry and character training occurs in the local church (Ephesians 4:11–16). The first question a sending church should ask a missionary is this: “Are you meaningfully joined to and active in a local church?” “If not, how are you moving towards that?”
That said, other training is often necessary. Focused training helps missionaries acquire or sharpen a skill, shore up weaknesses, build on strengths, fill in gaps, clarify vision, provide encouragement, give correction, promote collaboration, and develop character. The Apostle Paul urged churches and ministers of the gospel to train, practice, and make progress. They’re meant to stay on task and be ready and able for Great Commission work (1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 1 Timothy 4:6-16; 2 Timothy 2:1-26).
So, the second question a sending church might regularly ask is this: “What ongoing training might you need to be faithful in your task?”
Ongoing training includes seminars, workshops, internships, conferences, online courses, and academic degrees. Ongoing training could happen in a local church, through an association of churches, or through parachurch and professional organizations.
The third question a sending church might regularly ask a missionary is this: “What kind of training meets your needs?”
Safeguard Faithfulness
The ultimate goal of ongoing training is to ensure a missionary’s faithfulness. Sending churches should not assume that a missionary’s assignment and training needs will remain the same for a lifetime. Changes might include:
Role (e.g., from leading campus ministry to planting a church)
Stage (e.g., from planting a church to raising church leaders)
Setting (e.g., from an urban setting to a rural setting)
Language (e.g., from a trade language to an indigenous language)
Access (e.g., visa issues or closed borders)
Political and socio-economic situation (e.g., regime changes, famine)
Health (e.g., chronic illness, physical persecution, aging)
Family (e.g., getting married, raising kids, adoption, empty-nesting)
This brings us to the fourth question a sending church might ask a missionary: “How are you addressing changes in your ministry context?”
How we address these changes is itself a matter of safeguarding faithfulness. There are countless ways that people and institutions can drift from theScripture and fall into various forms of error. Protestant Liberalism is a modern example of where the proverbial slippery slope ends. In his epistles, the Apostle Paul warned against this kind of drift. That’s why he refused to tamper with God’s Word (2 Corinthians 4:2). To that end, here’s an important fifth question that a sending church can ask: “Are you receiving and pursuing ongoing training in line with the authority and sufficiency of Scripture?”
The changes and challenges of a missionary’s assignment can be disorienting and discouraging. Sending churches may feel overwhelmed or ill-equipped to address the pressures and complexities of the mission field. However, by asking good questions and giving godly counsel, sending churches can help missionaries safeguard faithfulness.
Valuing and Exploring Ongoing Training Needs
A sending church’s responsibility to equip and hold missionaries accountable doesn’t end when their missionaries get to the field. Scripture teaches a pattern of ongoing relationships, accountability, communication, and visiting (Acts 13:1-3; 14:26-27; 15:36; Philippians 2:19-30; 4:10-20). Sending churches should not assume even well-prepared missionaries have what they need for a lifetime of faithfulness.
At a minimum, sending churches should stay in touch with their missionaries and give godly counsel. They can also visit them on the field and spend time with them when they return on furlough. Cultivating relationships, asking good questions, and open communication are key.
Elders in particular should value and explore missionary needs, but they could also benefit from the support of deacons and the wider congregation (Acts 14:26-27; 1 Timothy 3:1-13). The individuals who are assigned to pay special attention to missionary needs should be well-equipped for the task.
Sometimes, godly men and women within a congregation will provide the crucial training a missionary needs (Acts 18:24-28). Sometimes, churches fund and equip missionaries other churches send (3 John 1-8). Sending churches should regularly ask themselves: “How are we valuing and exploring the ongoing training needs of our missionaries?”
Beware of assuming someone else is doing the job.
Cooperation with Other Relevant Partners
Cooperation with other relevant partners is crucial for assessing needs and facilitating training. Besides asking a missionary regular questions, sending churches should ask regular questions of their mission agency and church on the field. They should value the assessment of the field church. As the primary spiritual authority over a missionary, it has the best perspective to assess a missionary's character, competency, and needs.
Mission agencies and other parachurch organizations can also provide sending churches with helpful assessments and ongoing missionary training. Examples include a course in language acquisition or a workshop on expositional preaching. Assessing missionary needs, deciding on appropriate training, and facilitating this training are best done in cooperation with several parties. There is wisdom in many counselors (Proverbs 11:14; 15:22; 20:18; 24:6).
The question of “who gets to decide” on appropriate training can be sticky. The sending church holds a missionary accountable for the assignment for which they were sent. A mission agency might provide additional accountability. The missionary himself will have an opinion on what is appropriate. Who has the final say? There are no easy answers. The right answer will depend on mutual trust, theological alignment, and clarity on how these vested parties delegate authority.
Related to the question of authority is the question of enforcement. Can the sending church or a mission agency enforce training? What happens if a training is required, but a missionary refuses to comply? In general, most ongoing training should be recommended, not required. Yet missionaries should also be humble and willing to submit to wise counsel. If a sending church or mission agency wants to enforce specific training, they should clearly state this in their support policy or employment agreement.
There may be cases when recommended training violates the clear teaching of Scripture, or a missionary veers wildly off course. Local congregations–under the guidance of godly leaders–have the responsibility and authority to correct doctrinal error or discipline a missionary when necessary (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5; Galatians 1:6). This responsibility falls primarily to the field church, though the sending church (and mission agency) should generally be informed and involved at some level. Sending churches, mission agencies, and churches on the field should regularly ask themselves: “How are we cooperating with relevant partners to assess needs and facilitate appropriate training?”
Facilitate Appropriate Training
Ongoing training should fit a missionary’s needs, context, and assignment. It should also be biblically faithful, philosophically aligned, cohesive, and have a clear goal. Sending churches and mission agencies should avoid making short-sighted recommendations (e.g., one-size-fits-all, or this is what the “experts” say). Instead, they should be discerning and guard missionaries from training that wastes time because it is irrelevant or, worse, biblically suspect.
Here’s a typical example from the mission field. For many years, a mission agency required our team leader to attend numerous trainings on evangelism, leadership, and church-planting methodologies and then pass these on to our team. He gained valuable insights, but overall, these trainings took up an excessive amount of time–not only for travel and attendance but also to sort through the truth and error of approaches that elevated anthropology over theology or pragmatism over faithfulness. These trainings weren’t a complete waste of time, but they generated more stress in an already demanding assignment. Less training and more theological alignment would have encouraged rather than burdened us.
Sending churches and other relevant partners can work together to facilitate appropriate training by openly discussing a missionary’s concerns and interests. They can also facilitate training by providing funds (for travel, conferences, etc.), resources (such as books), referrals (to training opportunities), childcare (so that missionary wives receive training as well), or even providing the training itself.
One of the best training opportunities I received on the field was a pastor’s conference with focused teaching and panel discussions on godly character and gospel preaching in an international context. An international church plant hosted the conference on the field, including teachers from sending churches and sister churches. A mission agency helped to fund the conference and book giveaways.
Sending churches and relevant partners can regularly ask themselves: “How are we facilitating appropriate training?”
Content and Frequency
As obvious as this may seem, it bears repeating: ongoing training ought to protect and promote rather than hinder work on the field. Sending churches and relevant partners can help their missionaries weigh the content and frequency of training. Some training is possible on location; others may require travel. Time commitment and cost are important considerations. But the content is probably the most important; it should be biblical, relevant, and significant. Content could include:
Theology, ecclesiology, missiology
Preaching, evangelism, discipleship, counseling
Spiritual growth and character
Marriage and family
Leadership and team
Language and culture
Professional skills (if needed)
Security, money, and other issues
Sending churches and relevant partners can ask: “Is the content and frequency of ongoing training protecting and promoting work on the field?” Listen to your missionaries for feedback on what is useful and needed as well as what is burdensome.
Conclusion
Sending churches often take ongoing training in missions for granted, which can hinder work on the field. Safeguarding faithfulness requires awareness, intentionality, relationships, and regular communication.
Sending churches and relevant partners can regularly ask questions.
To the missionary:
Are you meaningfully joined to and active in a local church?
What ongoing training might you need to be faithful in your task as a missionary?
What kind of training best meets your needs?
How are you addressing changes in your ministry context?
Are you receiving and pursuing ongoing training in line with the authority and sufficiency of Scripture?
To themselves:
How are we valuing and exploring the ongoing needs of the missionaries we send and partner with?
How are we cooperating with relevant partners to assess needs and facilitate appropriate training?
How are we facilitating appropriate training?
Is the content and frequency of ongoing training protecting and promoting work on the field?
Much good will result. By asking intentional questions about a missionary’s marriage, ministry, and team, a sending church can help a missionary family be better equipped for their assignment after several challenging years on the field. Another church sends a short-termer to the field to provide childcare for a struggling mom to give her more time for language learning. Another church funds a missionary’s master’s degree to equip him with credentials for his visa and help him sharpen his skills. A mission agency encourages a missionary to attend a language acquisition course to accelerate language learning. Field churches partner with a parachurch ministry to host workshops that strengthen the preaching competency of pastors and missionaries.
Faithfulness flourishes on the mission field when sending churches and organizations help missionaries keep their hand on the plow and make progress without swerving off course.
