Financial costs and caring for children and older parents are key obstacles to becoming a modern missionary, according a to a new global mission report.
Missionary organisation Crosslinks surveyed their 87 mission partners for their ‘Pathways to Mission’ report which identifies the key factors behind key issues in the modern global mission.
Theological training and church apprenticeships were key, giving individuals the confidence to spread the gospel, exploring their journey into missionary.
Mission director John McLernon said that while financial fears are commonplace, he believed that churches and those close to aspiring missionaries help enable them to follow their conviction to serve Christ.
McLernon told Premier Christian News: “It has always been our experience that when the Lord calls someone to ministry, that the funds inevitably follow on from that.
“Part of the work we do is to help people exercise faith and go out and have confidence to ask their friends, family and churches if they will support them financially - to do that unashamedly, not as if they’re begging but people want to give generously.”
Financial costs were in the top three obstacles for three-in-five mission partners. Half of the survey’s sample cited caring for children in their top three, 43% naming impact on wider family including older parents.
With 19% of respondents bi-vocational, often happening when married to a missionary, the report outlines that the global mission sees people juggling life around serving Christ.
McLernon explained what missionaries are thinking about as they care for children during ministry.
“If the education system isn’t satisfactory, and in a lot of the world there’s a really good education system,” he commented, “but there are some placements where you might feel like you’re hours away from civilisation.
“Either the option is that you homeschool your children or you have to return to the UK.”
Nearly four-in-ten respondents to Crosslinks waited between seven to ten years to join the global mission.
Just shy of half of Crosslink’s mission partners also made one to three trips abroad before committing to a global mission.
Three quarters of their surveyed missionaries had gone on some short term trips before entering the mission.
McLernon continued, saying that short term trips were a great way to become comfortable in a new environment as a Christian.
“I think that a great opportunity to engage in an exploration and discernment process is the area of short term missions. I was really surprised by the figures,” McLernon added.
“I know that some churches have an active programme every year of sending teams to volunteer at a camp, so the Church is catching up people to give an experience of another country, of another Christian context.”