Things To Do Before You Go

As believers our lives speak of the One we worship.  When those of us with a missionary calling live in another culture not only our behavior will be on display, but people will also look to us as leaders. So while you’re preparing to go to the field, here is a list of specific things you can be doing:

1. Be Rooted in a Local Church

•  Participate in the life of the church; get involved!

•  Support the leadership

•  Build strong relationships

•  Seek confirmation of your calling to be a missionary by the church

2. Develop Ministry Skills

•  Discover and use your spiritual gifts

•  Equip someone else for a specific ministry

•  Participate in cross-cultural ministry near home

3. Demonstrate servant leadership in your home church

•  Accept new levels of leadership responsibility

•  Serve on a leadership Board and/or missions committee

•  Facilitate some action--be a "causer" not simply a "doer"

•  Do an internship--report to someone and supervise/lead someone

4. Practice discipline in your life

•  Develop a regular habit of Bible Study and prayer

•  Read Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

•  Read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey

•  Ask a mature Christian to mentor you

•  Learn accountability by Identifying your top 5 priorities for the next 3 months and ask someone to hold you accountable to fulfilling them

5. Target a specific people group or nation for research and prayer

•  Begin to use Operation World by Patrick Johnstone

•  Go to a library and find books on your people group or region of interest

•  Do an internet search to find information on your target people group or area

•  Write to a missionary working among your target group

•  Bring results of your research to your local church prayer meeting, or form a small group to pray for your target group

6. Grow in wholeness as a person

•  Identify your weaknesses and ways to grow in those areas

•  Meet with your pastor to discuss steps you might need to take to deal with unresolved issues in your life

•  If necessary, seek personal or marriage and family counseling

•  Begin a habit of regular exercise

7. Get appropriate education and training

•  Sit down with your pastor and a mission leader to evaluate your training needs

•  Initiate the next step of studies or training

•  Establish a regular pattern of reading and reflection

•  Acquire the attitdue of a life-long learner

8. Go on a short-term ministry trip in a cross-cultural setting

•  Seek to go to an area of possible long-term interest

•  Seek to use your gifts

•  Spend as much time with nationals as possible

•  Try to speak the language

9. If your single, be careful whom you marry - if you're married, strengthen your relationship.

•  Don't be afraid to stay single if God calls - don't rush into anything

•  Be sure of compatible values and if they feel called to be a missionary prior to marriage

•  Be honest about your heart's desire and calling to be a missionary with a prospective spouse

•  Spend quality time discussing your dreams

•  Seek out a counselor to review your marriage to date – be willing to uncover real issues – they will be revealed as cultural stresses mount in another culture

10. Connect with a good mission agency

•  Identify your own purpose, values, and philosophy of ministry

•  Be open to discovering and forming strategic missiology

•  Write down what you are looking for in an agency

•  Talk to several mission representatives and missionaries

•  Make sure to include your local church leadership in your decision as you pursue your calling to be a missionary.