Mobilizing New Missionaries

by Richard and Evelyn Hibbert & Tim Silberman

IDEAS ABOUT AND METHODS FOR mobilizing missionaries abound, but Western culture is changing rapidly, and these ideas and methods need to be re-evaluated and modified periodically. Paula Harris, acting director for the Urbana Missions Conference in the early 2000s, wrote, “United States culture is changing fast, and we need new missionary recruitment methods” (2002, 44). 

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IDEAS ABOUT AND METHODS FOR mobilizing missionaries abound, but Western culture is changing rapidly, and these ideas and methods need to be re-evaluated and modified periodically. Paula Harris, acting director for the Urbana Missions Conference in the early 2000s, wrote, “United States culture is changing fast, and we need new missionary recruitment methods” (2002, 44). 

Whenever recruitment was discussed in our mission agency, people would point out that they joined the agency because they had met our missionaries or sending base personnel. Personal relationships were the key to stimulating others to consider becoming missionaries themselves. Although relationships were considered vital, it did not stop our agency from creating a plethora of recruitment materials, events, and experiences to try to get people to consider becoming long-term missionaries. 

The work of mobilizing people into missions can be seen as nurturing the call of God on people’s lives (Stebbins 2010). Recent reflection on the missionary call has helpfully portrayed it as a person’s growing sense of conviction leading to a point of decision to serve God as a missionary (e.g., Austin 2000, 645-646; McConnell 2007, 213-215). 

In order to work out what methods of mobilization might be most effective in this generation, it is helpful to find out how God is bringing this sense of conviction so that we can work alongside him. We therefore set out to find out how God guided people who had recently been sent to the field for long-term missionary service. We focused on new missionaries sent out from Australia over the past ten years. Below, we report our findings and point out key implications. 

Two members of Sydney Missionary and Bible College’s mission faculty conducted face-to-face interviews with forty-two missionaries between February and November 2013. Because we wanted to focus on missionaries who had recently been sent out, interviews were limited to missionaries who had first left (or who were about to leave) for their country of missionary service after 2002. Interviewees were between ages 24 and 49. There were twenty-three men and eighteen women, and three-quarters were married. Each was a member of one of ten interdenominational, evangelical mission agencies (Pioneers, WEC International, European Christian Mission, OMF International, Interserve, Wycliffe, Operation Mobilization, New Tribes Mission, SIM International, and the Church Missionary Society). 

Four-fifths of the interviewees were already serving in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and the other one-fifth had been accepted by their mission agency and were about to go to the field. The primary ministry roles of those who had already started their missionary work were evangelism and church planting, Bible college teaching, and mission team leadership. 

We asked each missionary five questions:

1. Can you tell me your story of how you became interested in missions and eventually decided to become a missionary?

2. As you look back at your story, are there any particular people, events, or experiences that you felt God use or that helped you in making this decision or in becoming clearer about missions?

3. Before finally deciding to become a missionary, did you experience any times in which you doubted God was guiding you to become a missionary or felt discouraged from becoming a missionary? Can you describe these?

4. Was there anyone or anything that helped you get through that time of doubt or discouragement?

5. How did you come to choose the mission agency you finally signed up with?

The Importance of Meeting Missionaries

Every person we interviewed spoke about the influence a missionary had on their decision to become missionaries. They had met missionaries in their churches, at Bible college, or on the field during a short-term trip. Approximately half of the interviewees first became interested in missions because a missionary visited their church. Hearing missionaries talk inspired them to get involved and challenged them to consider missions. Seeing a missionary seemed to make the possibility of their becoming missionaries a concrete option. This was further reinforced when they had the opportunity to speak to the missionary and receive personal advice and encouragement. 

It was the character of the missionary rather than an inspiring talk that seemed to speak most powerfully to our interviewees. When missionaries revealed their weaknesses, the interviewees began to understand that missionaries are ordinary people just like themselves. One interviewee explained it in this way,

This guy came and he spoke and he was very ordinary. He was the worst orator on the planet. He was an ordinary guy. He really encouraged me because I didn’t think I had to attain a standard that was beyond me. I could relate to this guy, I could identify. I thought, “If God can use that guy, he can use me.” I thought, “Perhaps God can use me in this.”

The Role of Missions-minded Leaders and Friends

Apart from missionaries, other people who influenced the interviewees were missions-minded parents and pastors, friends, and mission agency representatives. Interviewees’ stories reveal that it took them several years to work through what becoming a missionary involved. They appreciated having church leaders and mission agency representatives who would invest the time talking through the many questions they had and issues that arose along the path to becoming missionaries. All of our interviewees had been trained in a missions-oriented Bible college, and they particularly appreciated fellow students who encouraged and challenged them, and walked with them on the path to missionary service. 

These Australian missionaries were most responsive to mission agency representatives who invested significant time talking with them. They appreciated regular follow up in which the representative would meet them face to face, work through their questions and issues, and challenge them when they seemed to be dragging their heels. It was important to them that the mission agency representative did not push their own agency’s agenda, but instead focused on the aspiring missionaries’ questions and what was best for them. 

Prospective missionaries were particularly appreciative of agency representatives who appeared committed to getting them to where they should be rather than simply recruiting them for the representative’s particular agency. The distinctive role of the mission agency representative seemed to be to help potential missionaries find a fit between their gifts, skills and circumstances, and a specific role on the mission field.

Exposure to the World’s Needs through Short-term Trips and Events

Just under half of the interviewees mentioned the importance of short-term mission trips in their journey into long-term missions. There were two distinctive types of trips. One occurred earlier in their journey and raised the prospective missionary’s awareness of the needs of the world and what missionary work entailed. It also gave them a sense that they could personally contribute to meeting some of those needs. For this trip, the place visited did not have to be related to where the interviewee was eventually interested in going long term. 

Many interviewees also went on a second type of trip after they had become more strongly committed to becoming missionaries. This kind of trip involved a visit to missionaries they had already met, or with whom a direct connection had been made by an agency representative.  They went on this kind of trip to understand how they would fit into a particular part of the world, into a particular kind of ministry, or on a specific team. 

To use their words, the purpose of these trips was “to get an idea of what life would be like for families,” to get a “clearer idea of what kind of thing we would be getting into,” and to “get our heads around practically what we would need to do.” 

In order for them to feel they wanted to return as long-term missionaries, it was important that they felt welcomed by the missionaries on the field, and also that what they saw there was a role they believed they could fulfill. In a similar way as happened in encounters with missionaries in their home country, interviewees appreciated the opportunity to visualize the missionary role in a concrete way. One interviewee described the impact of their trip in the following way:

It had the effect of showing us what it was like for real flesh-and-blood missionaries to live there…and thinking, “We could put ourselves in their shoes. We can do this.” We could picture through them something of what it would be like to live there long term.

About a quarter of interviewees became aware of the world and its needs through a Perspectives course, missions conferences, missions literature, and missions prayer groups. The aspect of need that was most compelling for interviewees was the unequal access to the gospel and other resources that people had across the world. 

How Interviewees Chose Mission Agencies

Interviewees deeply valued the emotional bond they developed with mission agency personnel and missionaries they spent time with on the field. Their connection or bond with agency personnel was as much a matter of the heart as it was of logic. One interviewee explained:

There was this connection of heart and mind that while we believed and were on board with everything that we’d spoken with [agency] … It really felt like a God connection because it was more than cognitive. There was something in the heart that was really driving it.

They appreciated mission agency personnel who spent time talking with them, visiting them in their homes, consistently following up with them, helping them work through things that were confusing, and challenging them if they seemed to be losing focus. 

A second factor in choosing an agency was a sense of fit between the person’s own gifts and interests and a role on the field. Interviewees were looking for agencies that offered opportunities for them to serve in ways that they, the interviewees, felt they were suited or qualified for. They wanted to feel as if they had a contribution to make and a skill or an ability to do something that would make a difference. 

Implications for Mobilization

Below are four key points to remember as this relates to mobilization.

#1. Missionaries need to visit churches and Bible colleges. In order to become missionaries, people need to meet missionaries. Compared with the past, many missionaries today have shorter home assignments and strong relationships with just one or two home churches. As a result, there has been a decrease in missionary deputation to multiple churches. The findings of our study suggest that missionaries should be encouraged to visit a larger number of churches in order for more people to meet them. 

There seems to be no substitute for the impact of meeting with missionaries. Speaking in churches and Bible colleges introduces the missionary’s role, but talking with people is particularly important. Meeting missionaries face-to-face helps to make the idea of becoming a missionary a concrete possibility. This is further reinforced by the opportunity to meet the missionary team on the field. This puts the onus on existing missionaries to recruit new missionaries by going to churches and meeting as many people as possible. Once people have expressed interest in their area of work, missionaries need to be willing to welcome them onto the field and help them to see in more detail what missionary work entails. 

#2. Mission agencies must invest in personal relationships. When choosing which agency to join, the people we interviewed valued ongoing, personal contact with agency representatives who helped them to work out how they might fit into a specific role on the field. This requires agency representatives to spend lots of time getting to know prospective missionaries, answering their questions, and regularly following up with them. At the same time, our interviews suggest that prospective missionaries are looking to join a group that cares about them and their uniqueness. Agency representatives who focus on finding out about the person’s needs, aspirations, and gifts and are seen to be committed to the best interests of that person are likely to be most effective in mobilizing people into mission.

Because interviewees may not end up at a certain agency, mission agency personnel need to have a kingdom perspective. There may be value in establishing combined recruiting/mobilization consultancies for missions, rather than each mission agency relying on its own representatives.

#3. Provide opportunities for two different types of short-term trips. Being exposed to the world and its needs is an important step in many people’s journeys to becoming long-term missionaries. One way of bringing this exposure is to provide short-term trips overseas. Early in their journey into missions, short-term trips increased interviewees’ awareness of the world and its needs and of what missionary life was like. It encouraged them that missionary service was a viable pathway for them. 

Further along in their journey, a more focused kind of mission trip gave them the opportunity to see specific contexts and ministries and work out the practicalities of living and serving in a particular place. This confirms the conclusion of earlier research that short-term mission experiences “can be extremely beneficial for confirming the gifts/ability/desire to serve in a full-time career capacity” (McDonough and Peterson 1999, 19). Organizers of this type of trip need to ensure that participants are able to spend time with missionaries serving on the field. Meeting missionaries in their context of ministry enables participants to put themselves in the shoes of the missionaries, see what their ministry looks like day to day, and see the needs of the local people through their eyes. 

#4. Peer communities can be key in nurturing interest in missions. Finally, the peer interactions in the Bible colleges attended by our interviewees provided a significant medium through which interest in missions was nurtured. Potential missionaries interacted with other students who were heading into missions, creating a sense of doing missions together. These fellow students created a spontaneous, interactive environment that was dynamic and enjoyable. This is easier to establish where students live and study together full time for several years, as occurs in residential Bible colleges. However, it may also be possible to develop in other contexts where young people naturally spend time together, such as in youth or university Christian groups. 

References

Austin, Thomas. 2000. “The Missionary Call.” In Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, Eds. Scott Moreau, Harold Netland, and Charles E. Van Engen, 645-646. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

Harris, Paula. 2002. “Calling Young People to Missionary Vocations in a Yahoo World.”  Missiology: An International Review 30(1): 33-50.

McConnell, Walter. 2007. “The Missionary Call: A Biblical and Practical Appraisal.”  Evangelical Missions Quarterly 43(2): 210-217.

McDonough, Daniel, and Roger Peterson. 1999. Can Short-term Mission Really Create Long-term Career Missionaries? Minneapolis: STEM Ministries.

Stebbins, Mark. 2010. “Design and Fit: Nurturing the Call of God in Mobilizing Mission Candidates.”  Evangelical Missions Quarterly 46(4): 482-484.

. . . .

Richard and Evelyn Hibbert have been missionaries in the Turkic world and involved in mobilizing cross-cultural workers for the past thirty years. Richard is director of the School of Cross-Cultural Mission at the Sydney Missionary and Bible College. Evelyn is Academic Director of the Sydney College of Divinity. 

Tim Silberman is a faculty member at the Sydney Missionary and Bible College’s School of Cross-Cultural Mission. He is passionate about seeing every follower of Jesus engaged in God’s global mission wherever they are.

EMQ, Vol. 52, No. 2 pp. 172-179. Copyright  © 2016 Billy Graham Center for Evangelism.  All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMQ editors.

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