When churches send women overseas as missionaries, it should be the culmination of a process of communal discerning, preparing, and training.
By Emily Bennett
When a church lays hands on someone to send them overseas as a missionary, it should be the culmination of a long process of communal discerning, preparing, and training. That’s because the task of sharing the gospel and making disciples cross-culturally requires theological acumen as well as practical interpersonal skills.
While churches might naturally gravitate toward preparing the men they send to the mission field, they should hold the women missionaries they send to do a similar task to a similar standard. I’ll suggest four things women preparing for the mission field need from their churches before they go.
1. Pastor investment
The first thing women need is their pastors’ affirmation of both their biblical knowledge and their disciple-making habits. Potential missionaries must know the Scriptures well enough to communicate them in their local context. And they should be doing so regularly.
When churches send out missionaries, they are entrusting these women with the task of not only sharing their testimony but knowing the Scriptures well enough to explain the biblical narrative from creation to Christ to the church to the hope of new creation. In addition, if these missionary candidates are not sharing their faith here and now, the church should ask why they would expect them to do so somewhere else.
Missions is not an endeavor for women who simply want to travel and add some Jesus into the mix. Because of the gravity of the task, pastors of local churches need to know the women they are commissioning. Implementing a process whereby pastors, their wives, and female ministry leaders interview and observe prospective female missionaries explaining the truths of the gospel is a helpful way of ensuring that when women go internationally, they will be sharing the Scriptures with accuracy.
2. Female mentors
Female missionary candidates need other women who are asking hard questions about character development, past sin patterns, and their present walk with the Lord. Since character, integrity, and sanctification are aspects of the Christian life that are not culturally bound, please know it does not take an experienced missionary to mentor an aspiring one. If your church has many missionaries who have come off the field and can mentor those going, that is wonderful. But if that is not the case, the church still has the resources to ask good questions, point to the Word, and pray fervently for those headed overseas.
So much of a missionary’s life overseas mirrors what they have done in their home context. If you are a mentor, ask the women who are seeking to go overseas what their walk with the Lord looks like today. Ask what daily repentance looks like. Ask what sin struggles they are dealing with currently and those they have battled in the past. And ask if you can continue to press into those questions when they get to the field. Missionaries need accountability both before they go on the field and as they serve in their new context.
3. Normalize sacrifice
Women headed overseas need to see leaders leading in such a way that normalizes sacrifice. They should regularly observe people living as if the gospel is worth more than anything that this world could give or take away. When our church sent my husband and me overseas, the church normalized sending, sacrifice, and suffering for the sake of the gospel. We were one of hundreds of people who said yes to following Christ no matter where that took us. When we got overseas and life got hard, it was not a surprise because we had people from our church who had modeled for us a biblical response to suffering.
“Regularly remind your congregation of the sweetness of the gospel from the pulpit such that they cherish the privilege of sharing its goodness with others, even when it is costly.” — Emily Bennett Share on XI know this is not the case for every church and for every aspiring missionary. However, I want to encourage pastors and church leaders to lead and cast a vision that includes the sacrifice of time, energy, attention, and comfort. Regularly remind your congregation of the sweetness of the gospel from the pulpit such that they cherish the privilege of sharing its goodness with others, even when it is costly. Don’t be afraid to lead in such a way that your congregation is praying the question “Is the Lord asking me to go?”
4. Co-labor together
Finally, aspiring female missionaries need to be known by and within the congregation. The best way for this to happen is in the context of ongoing ministry within the church. Whether it be in kids’ ministry, greeting, or hauling out the trash after church on Sunday, the local church is the primary place women missionaries receive training in the rhythms of ministry. And it’s the best place for the rest of the body to catch their passion. The church members serving alongside them will have the opportunity to watch the Lord direct their steps and to catch the vision they have for the global glory of Christ.
Church members who get to serve alongside those who are going will be more deeply invested in holding the rope for them when they leave, with regular prayer, generous support, and ongoing friendship. The foundation of those things naturally flows out of service to the local church and relationships that are formed as that happens.
While aspiring missionaries will undoubtedly get a lot of training in other arenas, I believe these four investments fall to the local church. Not only will such women benefit from their church’s investment, but I believe the church will gain much from this type of intentionality. As Paul reminds us often, the church is a body of variously gifted members. Even when the body deploys those members, the body needs them, and they need the body.
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