Description
Practical insights and activities to help your organization build a thriving culture.
Finding, sending, and caring for missionaries has grown increasingly complex for mission leaders and staff. The mission world is more multicultural and global crises seem to be more frequent. And we can no longer make the same assumptions about shared values which can open the door for legal difficulties. We all want to see ministry staff thriving and serving the kingdom to their full potential, but how can we support that? In this book, you will be able to dig deeper into the fundamental questions of member care.
Member care workers collaborated with us to bring practical insights that will help you and your agencies. No matter where you fit on the spectrum of care – a concerned pastor, missionary colleague, or ministry leader all the way to a professional services provider – this book and its contents will help you implement improvements in caring for ministry staff.
About the Contributors
The contributors to this volume bring a wealth of experience and fresh insights to our discipline and the great commission community.
- They weave together new research, theological reflections, strategic frameworks, and practical tools.
- They explore the many dimensions of people care (see the chapter “Personal and Spiritual Problems Can Cause Legal Ones” by Theresa Sidebotham or the chapter on hospitality by Celeste Allen, “The Place of Welcome”).
- Many presented workshops at the Missio Nexus Mission Leader Conferences People Care and Development Track in 2022 or 2023.
Table of Content
Foreword by Laura Mae (“Larrie”) Gardner and Brent Lindquist
Preface by Heather Pubols and Geoff Whiteman
- The Stories We Tell and Why They Matter By Kimberly Drage and Tim J. Davy
- A Treasured History: Stories of Resilience By Kristina Whiteman
- Top Ten Reasons For Missionary Attrition By Andrea Sears
- Trauma Informed Staff Care By James Covey
- The Place of Welcome By Celeste Allen
- Caring in the Way of Christ By Vernon Salter
- Into the Fullness: Women in Mission Raised, Restored, Released By Michele Okimura
- The Family Readiness Discussion By Faith De La Cour
- Managing Missionary Coflict Constructively By David R. Dunaetz
- Supervisory Relationships and Well-Being By Kimberly Drage and Hyon Kim
- Personal and Spiritual Problems Can Cause Legal Ones By Theresa Sidebotham
- Reframing Sabbatical Posture in the Post-Pandemic Landscape By Jeff and Sara Simons
- Reframing Sabbatical Posture: Embodied and Developmental By Sara and Jeff Simons
- The Heart of Member Care By Geoff Whiteman
You can read the first chapter of the book at: https://missionexus.org/essentials-for-people-care-and-development/
This book is ideal for…
As you can see, this resource was created by and for our community. Each contributor includes additional resources and questions for reflection and discussion making this book an ideal resource for:
- seasoned member care professionals looking for a desktop resource to turn to again and again.
- those exploring a vocational calling into member care and wondering if there is space for them.
- professors looking for up to date resources to add to their syllabus.
- sending church and organizational care teams/departments wanting a digestible resource to structure their rhythm of professional development around.
