Go from caring "about" missionaries to caring "for" them!

Mind the Gaps: Engaging the Church in Missionary Care

Encourages missionaries, enhances the efforts of sending agencies and engages churches in proactive and intentional missionary care.

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Mind the Gaps

Mind the Gaps: Engaging the Church in Missionary Care is a practical guide to equip churches and church leaders to provide excellent care for their missionaries. Filled with personal stories, lessons learned, insights from practitioners and best practices, this book seeks to encourage the church to take proactive steps to reduce missionary attrition rates and to help overseas workers be successful on the field.

Most churches care about their missionaries, but Mind the Gaps will prepare a church to be intentional in caring for their missionaries. Recognizing that all churches are different, this book offers principles for engagement rather than a step-by-step method for missionary care.

Care for missionaries begins before they depart for the mission field and is needed all the way through their retirement years. The church needs to have sound wisdom to navigate the complexity of the rapidly changing environment of the global missionary movement.

Mind the Gaps provides a distinct contribution to existing missionary care literature because it is collaboratively written by an experienced and practicing missionary care team from a local church. They share their experiences, both good and bad, and relate real stories and lessons learned. By minding the gaps in missionary care, the church can create a system of proactive care, which will ensure lasting engagement of both the church and the agency into the lives of our precious and beloved missionaries.

"Mind the Gaps is intended to empower churches, to complement and enhance the efforts of the member care department of agencies, and to reduce the attrition rate of missionaries who are sent out to the field."  David J. Wilson

Book Outline

Introduction 

Part One: All Aboard – Getting Started

  • People for your Team
  • Philosophy of Effective Ministry (POEM)
  • Confidentiality Policy

Part Two: Passenger List – Choosing Who You Send

  • Predictors of Missionary Success
  • Strategic Focus of the Church

Part Three: Making Connections – Developing Relationships

  • Connecting through Prayer
  • Connecting the Missionary to the Care Team
  • Connecting Missionaries to the Congregation
  • Connecting with the Sending Agency

Part Four: On the Journey – Meeting Needs

  • Spiritual Needs
  • Emotional Needs
  • Physical Needs
  • Professional Effectiveness Needs

Part Five: Changing Tracks – Transitions

  • Changes within Ministry
  • Re-Entry, Retirement and other Transitions

Conclusion

Endorsements

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Laura Mae Gardner, International Personnel Consultant and Trainer, Wycliffe and SIL

"Mind the Gaps is a vibrant, timely, and relevant book that will move a standard Mission Committee that oversees mission funds and arranges occasional Mission Conferences to an involved and energetic Missionary Care team… I know of no other book like it. This volume will be incredibly useful to any church that wants to become more missional, and wants to be energetically and compassionately involved in the workers they deploy."

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Bob Blincoe, US Director, Frontiers

"At last, a missionary care manual written for sending churches by a sending church.  This is a hands-on, how-to book for church leaders who want to know how to start, or start over, in caring for missionaries from beginning to end.  Here you will learn how to choose a sending team from within the church, how to select a mission agency, how to prepare your missionaries, how to let them feel your love, how to heal the brokenhearted, how to help them persevere, and how to welcome them home. Church leaders who want to know that the care of missionary families and singles is going to be complex and demanding, will want to read this book.  It will make a dream become a reality; it will turn your "What if?" into "What is."

General Editor - David & Lorene Wilson

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"We believe that God is calling the Church to rise up and be an answer to prayer for missionaries who are serving the world on our behalf. Through humble and genuine partnership with the agencies, we can foster effective ministries through missionaries who stay on the field longer".   

Click here for more about the Wilsons

Expert Writers and Contributors

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William G. Britt III, Ph.D

Bill has a MA and Doctor of Philosophy degree in Clinical Psychology from Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University. He is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Senior Psychologist Specialist-Neuropsychology at Patton State Hospital. He has been on the Missionary Care Team at Trinity Church since its inception.
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Susanne Hood

Sue has a BA in Education from Seattle Pacific University, and MA in Education from Azusa Pacific University, and has served with Mission Aviation Fellowship for 37 years.
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Linda Parker

Linda received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Wheaton College and her Masters degree in Counseling from Georgia State University. She was in private practice for 30 years and served as Missionary Care Team Leader with Trinity Church before moving to Asia to counsel overseas workers in 2015.
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William and Betty Jane Born

Betty Jane has a BS in Education from Wheaton College and MS in Christian Counseling from Cairn University. She invested her missionary career in Brazil and her last ten years before retirement with Member Care at Mission Aviation Fellowship. Bill has a BS in Pastoral Studies, an Associate Degree in Missionary Aviation from Moody Bible Institute and an MS in Christian Counseling from Cairn University. He served with Mission Aviation Fellowship for 42 years as a pilot/mechanic in Brazil as the Director of Safety, and developed the Volunteer Ministry and initiated MAF Member Care.

Resources

Resources by Chapter and by Subject/Topic, articles, blogs and more!

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