If you visit EveryEthne’s website and click on the “How We Help” tab, you will see three things in the drop-down menu: Multiply Disciples, Leaders & Churches, Reach Ethnic Groups, and Send Healthy Missionaries. If you read a bit further, you will discover that EveryEthne is committed to mobilizing local churches to accomplish these three tasks.
We LOVE it when people who sense God’s leading into missions contact us. What a privilege to walk alongside people who have a heart for the world and want to discover where God wants them to invest their lives. (Back to that in a moment!). But mostly, we love to work with churches because we believe the local church is the key to sending healthy missionaries. Without the passion and support of local churches and pastors, there would be no missionaries to send.
Maybe we should say it like this: ABWE and EveryEthne do NOT send missionaries. Churches send missionaries. God is using us as a mission organization to come alongside local churches to help them become better senders of their missionaries. As we work with local churches in the sending of their missionaries, there are a few things we encourage them to do. These are things that we ask of every one of our EveryEthne teammates. Let’s call these 5 Mobilization Movements in the Sending of Healthy Missionaries.
- Team. This is not something you are called to do alone. Jesus rarely sends anyone alone on a mission. He sends in teams. We want you to run the race with others running the race. As part of our EveryEthne team, a missionary becomes a part of one of our regional teams. They participate in monthly meetings with colleagues under the direction of their regional director.
- Alignment. As we work on a team, what is our unique role and fit? How has the Lord uniquely gifted and shaped me in the mission? We work with the sending church to help the new missionary identify their unique calling. At the same time, we ask them to align with our EveryEthne Vision, Mission, and Values. Sharing these common goals helps create unity and synergy.
- Partnership Development. We never want to dismiss the reality that raising support for kingdom work is itself hard work. But it is a unique ministry, given by the Lord, to help missionaries depend on Him. As part of our EveryEthne team, new missionaries will receive partnership development/support-raising coaching through the highly-regarded Kingdom Come Training as well as encouragement from the regional team with whom they collaborate.
- Soul Care. Nobody is above loss or hurt. There are no perfect spiritual leaders. As part of the care for the soul of missionaries, we walk alongside to help them choose a Soul Care Coach. Their coach will have the support of regional coaches who, in turn, will have the encouragement from ABWE’s Member Care team. We strongly believe that we all need at least one Barnabas to build us up.
- Learner. All Christians should be lifelong learners. We want to work with sending churches and their missionaries to help create Individual Development Plans (IDP) that help hone ministry skills and acquire competencies that will make ministry more effective.
Pastors and missions committee leaders, we pray that God will give EveryEthne the privilege of partnering with you and together send healthy missionaries into the harvest fields of North America and the world.
