Giving Your Community a Voice in Your Calling

Anna Price • Nov 21, 2017

“What does your church say about going to Ghana?”

Hmm…. Now that was a question I hadn’t considered before. What did my church have to say about what country I was serving in and what I was doing while there?

When someone asked me that question after I returned from a summer mission trip to West Africa, I was a little surprised. It’s not that my church wasn’t involved in sending me. They had financially supported me and told me they were proud of me. But when I stopped and thought about it, I realized I hadn’t taken a moment to think about how my personal calling connected to my church’s ministry.

Several years later, I now get to connect with newly appointed missionaries and often recommend they have their church speak into where and how they serve. Many people have the same reaction I did: “Umm…. What?”

But time after time, we’ve seen that healthy missionaries are sent with a healthy community behind them, and a healthy community often includes a church that has participated in discussions about where a missionary should serve.

After all, your community often knows where you would best thrive, and they can also share about where they are most excited to see God move through their support.

Your calling impacts your community.

When it comes to something so seemingly personal as a missionary calling , it can be hard to think of why your community’s opinion matters. But over and over in Scripture, as God calls individuals, He calls a whole community to something.

For instance, when Noah was called by God to build an ark, his whole family was saved.

When Abram was called, not only were his family and servants’ lives disrupted, a whole nation was born.

When Jonah was called to preach the Gospel to a sinful city, his calling impacted those on the boat on which he tried to run. When he surrendered to the call, his actions changed the lives of an entire city.

Your calling will impact your community. As your community supports you, the one they’ve sent, they get to know the people you are serving. Instead of a faraway place on the other side of the globe, your work creates a tangible tie connecting your community to how God is moving among other peoples.

Your community will understand in a new way the spiritual challenges of the culture where you will live. And they will help equip you to reach the people through prayer, support and encouragement.

Your community impacts your calling.

In Acts 13 , we see the church worshipping together when God tells the church to set apart Paul and Barnabas for missionary service. The Spirit confirmed what the church knew of Paul and Barnabas: They had a talent and passion for sharing the Gospel in unreached areas, so the Antioch church sent them to do so.

Your church family is a part of your calling. They have been a part of the discipleship that has gotten you to the point of serving as a missionary. They have worshipped with you, ministered alongside you and grown with you in your knowledge of the Gospel. They know your strengths, and they have witnessed your challenges as well.

Who better to speak to where they think you’ll thrive in ministry?

Tina*, a TEAM missionary in the Middle East , experienced this firsthand. She was deeply involved in a small group at Irving Bible Church in Irving, Texas. This small group hosted missionaries several years ago who talked about their work counseling ministry leaders from around Asia. The missionaries shared a need for a hostess to welcome their guests and make them comfortable while they sought counseling.

After the missionaries’ visit ended, Tina’s small group began praying for God to provide the right person to serve as hostess for the counseling center. A few months later, Tina tentatively told her small group leader, “I think I might be the one we are praying for.” Now, Tina is on the field serving as the hands and feet of her entire small group.

Without her small group community, Tina never would have known about this opportunity to serve. Without her calling to serve, her small group might have moved the need for a hostess to the backburner. Instead, Tina and her small group were deeply involved in filling this need.

So why does this matter?

Your community will be impacted by the work you are doing overseas, and you will be impacted by your community’s support.

At TEAM, we encourage people considering missionary service to talk with their church about what places and people groups their church feels called to serve. By involving trusted members of your community in your discovery of where you should serve, you are honoring the ways your community has walked alongside you as God has called you to ministry.

*Name changed

By Suzanne Pearson 19 Mar, 2024
Previously on the TEAM blog, we sat down with Justin Burkholder (pictured above at left, with TEAM's Executive Director of Communications, Aaron Catlin). Justin will become TEAM’s next International Director on July 1, 2024. Justin shared about his background, family, and the journey that led him to TEAM. Check out that interview here . Today, we pick up the conversation as Justin shares how God called him to the role of International Director, and what he sees for the next chapter in TEAM’s work in the global Church. Q: How and when did you first consider applying for the position of International Director? How did the Lord reveal Himself to you as this opportunity presented itself? A: For some time, I have been evaluating how God wants me to use the gifts He has given me. Jenny and I have had a fruitful ministry in church planting in Guatemala and would happily continue doing so as God leads. However, as God blessed my efforts in TEAM leadership, there were friends and family who expressed that I should consider using my gifts in the International Director role. I don’t believe that everything necessarily rises and falls on leadership, but I do believe that it is a core component in the body of Christ. Using the gifts God has given me is a way that I want to bless the body of Christ in TEAM, making my contribution to the global purposes of God’s mission. Jenny and I spent a lot of time praying about this and decided that I should put my name in for consideration, trusting God’s guidance. We had a tremendous amount of peace throughout the entire process and were blessed by the prayer-filled process that the board undertook. Q: This is a key role in a large and complex organization, and I’m sure this was a big decision for you and your family. What were your fears or concerns? Why did you ultimately decide to accept the position? A: You say “were” like the fears have passed! I still am quite aware of my youth and inexperience - of the responsibility and weight of this role. Mostly, I’m afraid of leading an organization like TEAM in the flesh. Many of the fears that I have faced have been fears rooted in fleshly desires and concerns. I have no desire to succeed in the world’s eyes and fail in the Kingdom of Jesus. Why did I ultimately decide to accept the position? I’m convinced that the Good News about Jesus is true. The tomb is empty, Jesus is King, and the world needs to know, because Jesus is coming back. He will put things in order. He will establish righteousness, peace, and justice for all mankind, and He has commissioned His Church to proclaim and demonstrate His rule and reign. I want to use my gifts to do whatever I can to amplify the proclamation of this message and the multiplication of His Church around the world. Q: What are your goals and vision for the future of TEAM? A: This is something that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. I’m certainly not ready to present a fully-shaped vision and goals for TEAM’s future without the input of other people in different contexts in TEAM. But, I will share a few things that I think are important: First, we need to model God-Dependence . I am hopeful that as leaders in TEAM, we can continue to model God-Dependence. As Hudson Taylor said years ago “…God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supplies.” I am hopeful that we can increase our sense of faith in God, prayer, and seeking direction from the Spirit. Secondly, we must strengthen our relational fabric . Due to the changes that we have experienced by decentralizing our home office functions, and the challenges from the pandemic, we have experienced a loss of relationships. It is imperative that we intentionally prioritize the building of relationships with one another. I plan to visit our workers and staff, and I am expectant that other key leaders and staff will be doing the same. Third, we must pursue the greater presence of the global Church. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ doesn’t look like any single geopolitical, ethnic, or racial culture. If we want to truly see the Kingdom of Jesus come on earth as it is in heaven, then we as citizens of this Kingdom must learn from one another, submit to one another, and grow with one another. The missional potential of the global Church has been unleashed by God’s Spirit since Acts 1, and we have an opportunity to learn from many brothers and sisters in Christ who can help us to better model and proclaim the Kingdom of Jesus to those who have yet to believe. Lastly, we must increase our Gospel boldness . There are still many places of great spiritual blindness and spiritual brokenness around the world. The apostolic impulse of cross-cultural organizations should call us to the to the edges of where the Kingdom of Jesus is not penetrating. Whether spiritual blindness and brokenness exists because of lack of access, idolatry, injustice, or any other myriad of reasons, I prayerfully hope to see more and more TEAM workers continue to move into spaces of great Gospel need.
By Suzanne Pearson 08 Mar, 2024
Through God-ordained partnerships and creative connections, TEAM worker Keith Moore sees the global Church advancing in amazing ways. In the global missions landscape, a phrase that comes up often is “from everywhere, to everywhere.” God is calling His global Church in literal new directions, as He raises up cross-cultural workers to be sent from places that were once on the receiving end of missions work. We call this movement “polycentric sending.” TEAM workers Dawn and Keith Moore have seen first-hand this transition taking place. Their story involves the unlikely but beautiful intersection of Charlotte, North Carolina; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Memphis, Tennessee...and beyond. The Path to Honduras Keith and Dawn joined TEAM in 1991 and served as church planters for nine years in Bogota, Colombia. After safety concerns precipitated their return to the States in 1999, they knew they wanted to continue serving in Latin America. The Moores felt called to Honduras but wanted to connect with a strong missional church to help send them. The Lord orchestrated a collaboration with Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. “Some people asked, ‘Why Honduras? Missionaries have been there for 100 years. It’s already reached,’” Keith says. “But there’s a whole section of Latin America that had not been reached - the upper crust.” Keith goes on to explain that he and Dawn felt called to reach college-educated professionals in Honduras – a ministry vision that resonated with the missional goals of Bellevue Baptist. Impact and Growth With the support of this new church partnership as well as another sending church in Birmingham, Alabama, the Moores embarked on their next adventure. Keith and Dawn started Impacto Honduras Church from scratch, and in less than 20 years, the church grew into four locations with 1600 total members. The Moores and other TEAM workers also created a “Bible school” type training program to help professionals who feel a call to ministry to make that transition. Throughout this period of explosive growth, church partnerships played an integral role. “It’s such a different vision when you have a church that says, ‘OK, this is our deal, we want to make this happen,’” Keith explains. “They helped us with everything. They took away every single obstacle to growth. Every time we needed something, they were there.” In 2017, the Moores once again found themselves on the verge of another decision. Was it time to leave Honduras? “I had no desire to leave,” Keith recalls. “People were coming to Christ every week! It was just so amazing.” However, back in the U.S., Keith and Dawn’s parents were in their 80s and would soon be in need of more care. “We realized that either we would leave in a crisis, or we would leave strategically,” says Keith. The couple began to implement a careful succession plan. By the time they left, the four churches were established with strong, Honduran leadership ready to carry on the work of the Gospel.
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