How Long Should I Be a Missionary?

Jordan • Jul 27, 2021

The journey of pursuing missions is unique for each person. God is personal and above all, and He is able to orchestrate all the details of a missionary’s life for His honor and glory.

And yet, as you pursue cross-cultural Christian missions, you might find yourself stuck on this question: How long should you commit to overseas missions service?

Is there really a valuable difference between short-term missions or a mid-term assignment? Should you just jump into long-term missions and commit your foreseeable future to overseas work?

As a TEAM missions coach , I regularly help people walk through these questions, and a big factor is discerning your motives. So, I’m going to share a few key ways to discern your motives and then dive into what each service length has to offer.

1. Talk with Your Local Church Leadership.

Many churches have staff or elders over missions and outreach. However, a trusted leader, someone in ministry or a faithful person in your church who displays godly fruit would be able to help you discern your next steps in missions. You want to communicate with someone who puts the word of God first, will ask hard questions and will pray with you .

So how do you start the conversation? It is much easier than you may think. Ask a church leader to be a part of your missions discernment process. Let them know that you value input and biblical guidance, and that their prayers are needed. You don’t have to have the answers in order to approach church leadership. Rather, give them a voice in your missional call.

TEAM’s Missions Readiness Guide is a great tool for helping you ask and discuss the hard questions with your church. Get yours free !

2. Learn About Missions in Scripture.

If you want to be obedient to God, you need to know Him. You need to be able to discern His voice among others to know what’s in line with His will and what isn’t. And to do this, one needs to know Scripture.

Explore how Jesus trained His disciples in ministry, and read about the Apostles’ journeys in Acts and the epistles. Then go into the Old Testament to explore how God called people to move and serve from the very beginning!

God has given us everything we need in His word to equip the servant of God for every good work ( 2 Timothy 3:16–17 ). Missions is a very good work! Spend time with the Lord in His word, and He will lead you.

3. Ask the Holy Spirit to Search Your Heart.

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” ( Psalm 139:23–24 ). Making decisions should always be done with wisdom and discernment, led by the Holy Spirit. Ask the Spirit to convict, to lead and to give you wisdom. He will answer your prayers!

Share what God is showing you through His word with your church leadership. And ask them to pray with you for the Spirit’s leading.

Exploring Your Options

With these three principles guiding your discernment process, you’re ready to start exploring the possibilities. Every service length is valuable, but to know which one to pick, you need to know what each one entails.

The Case for Short-Term Missions (2 Weeks to 8 Months)

If long-term missions isn’t on your radar, a short-term mission trip can be a great way to give a season to the Lord and invest in His work.

Many college students fulfill internships overseas with TEAM. Others go to refresh long-term missionaries and provide care or support. Some short-term missionaries with TEAM meet a specific need, such as staffing a summer camp, helping with a conference or teaching a class. There are many opportunities for short-term missionaries to contribute and to grow themselves.

A short-term trip can also give you valuable exposure to missions to help you discern your long-term calling. All TEAM short-termers serve alongside seasoned missionaries, ready to mentor and provide ministry exposure .

There are many nuances to overseas ministry that aren’t the same as working in your home context. So if long-term cross-cultural ministry is something you want to consider, a short-term discernment trip could be the best step.

The Case for Mid-Term Missions (1 to 2 Years)

The next level of commitment is a mid-term assignment, which is one to two years abroad. Mid-term missions opportunities are effective, help form lasting relationships and create greater opportunities to be sanctified and grow deeply.

This commitment is very different from short-term in a few specific ways. You’ll get out of the honeymoon phase and really experience the highs and lows of cross-cultural living . Relationships can be long lasting, as you move in, make yourself at home and struggle through building a life in a new country. There’s also the potential to not just participate in ministry, but also to help lead ministries.

Mid-term service provides greater opportunities for building relationships and exploring the ministries God might be calling to engage in long-term.

Where there is more commitment, many times there is more fruit! But where there is more commitment, there are more struggles to mold you into the likeness of Jesus.

A mid-term assignment can be great for those that are unsure about making the long-term commitment . It allows you to do something beneficial with your time and resources while testing the waters of long-term missions. And many long-term missionaries recommend going the full two years if you truly want to understand what it’s like to serve abroad.

But mid-term service isn’t limited to people considering longer service.

A mid-term assignment can be very fruitful use of a gap year for students or recent grads. Many married couples go on mid-term missions before having children. Still others will choose to use their first year of retirement overseas serving in missions. There are amazing ways to utilize a year or two in missions.

The Case for Long-Term Missions (Over 2 Years)

It takes years to build relationships, trust and see churches established. If your end goal is to see a missional church full of disciples of Jesus in whatever context you’re going, prepare to commit your life to the task.

TEAM field leader Becky asks people to flip the “how long” question on its head. Rather than the length of time that works best for you, think of the length of time that would be most beneficial to those you are going to serve . Think of the context you are going to. Will you need to learn the language in order to minister effectively? Nine out of 10 times, the answer is yes! Or, how open are local people to new relationships? These questions focus more on those you are serving and the best way to steward them, rather than on your own individual discernment.

Oftentimes the honest answers to these questions will lead people to commit to long-term missions. Becky shares that all lengths of service are beneficial, but missionaries are usually more effective in year five than year two .

In the midst of all of our human planning, Becky says, “I do think that even those who are preparing to go long-term today should be prepared to serve in several different capacities and places during their career. The world is truly VUCA today : volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Perhaps the world has always been that way for those who are vulnerable — but certainly the world changes at a much more rapid pace now than ever before.”

Begin with Prayer

Short-term , mid-term and long-term missions can all produce fruit that lasts. Each person needs to discern, in their church community and with a missions agency, what is wisest in their own context. Begin by praying, and be willing to do some research. All commitments are serious and phenomenal decisions, so be sure to steward the discernment and preparation stage well.

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Bridging Dissonance: Finding Connection in Music and the Gospel

By Emily Sheddan • 18 Jul, 2024

TEAM worker Luke Standridge and his fellow musicians use music to build connections to faith in Japan. In music terms, dissonance creates movement or even suspense in a song. It invites tension. That tension is what helps grab our ear’s attention and the interchanging of these notes with pleasant melodious parts is what makes music such a delight. In a similar way, God is using music to grab people’s attention and catalyze Gospel impact in the largely unreached nation of Japan. TEAM Global Worker, Luke Standridge moved to Japan in 2019 with no clear direction on how he was going to use his passion for composing music while doing ministry. However, after Luke got involved with a local church and began developing deep friendships, the Lord opened unimaginable doors for Luke that in time, coordinating his creative skills with sharing the Word. “People Need to Come to Japan!” Growing up as one of ten kids in a family that was heavily involved in ministry and missions, Luke never considered that it would one day be a part of his own journey. In 2016, via a Japanese language learning class in Indiana, Luke and his brother had the opportunity to travel to Japan. Hearing, learning, and using the language in the context of Japanese culture was the goal. While it was Luke’s first international trip – even his first trip on a plane - it was also his first time hearing about the spiritual condition of the Japanese people. “And just through that, God did a huge 180 change on my heart,” says Luke. “More people should come here as global workers. People need to come to Japan!” The call God was laying on Luke’s heart is echoed when looking at the spiritual landscape of Japan. The nation is home to the second largest unreached people group in the world. It is one of the most difficult places for the Gospel to take hold and grow. Japan is also home to a deep and rich culture that prizes creative arts from pottery to ink to music to anime – a fact that would help Luke find his niche in life and ministry. God’s Guiding Hand In the short three-month timespan of that first trip, Luke found that opportunities came naturally to share about life, and people’s curiosity for Christianity grew. “I left Japan knowing I just had to come back,” Luke shares. “Even if I didn’t get back to the same area, I knew Japan was where God wanted me to be.” The Lord is good all the time and all the time the Lord is good. His plans do not fail. Luke returned to Japan in 2019, and less than a week after arriving, he was put in touch with a renowned composer in Japan. The composer saw some of Luke’s music and invited him to help write the music for a beloved in-country animated show. But God wasn’t finished yet! Fast forward a year, and more connections and opportunities allowed Luke to help with music for Pokémon - a franchise that has brand recognition around the world and was being developed into a TV series in Japan. Luke recalls how the Lord began using these connections in the production world to open doors for Gospel conversations. One night while having dinner in downtown Tokyo with famous artists and composers from all around the country, Luke was asked about his ministry-focused visa. This was a rare opportunity in a setting with people otherwise uninterested in Christianity. Luke shares, “The whole time I could see God’s hand in guiding the entire thing.”

Connecting in a New Kind of “Neighborhood”

By Lorena de la Rosa and Suzanne Pearson • 13 Jun, 2024

Through creative arts and other forms of innovative outreach, “The Neighborhood” is creating connections to the Gospel and the love of Jesus. CONNECTION. It’s a common word with powerful implications. Dictionary.com defines connection as a joining or linking together; a relationship between people or objects that unites or binds them together. God has created each of us with a deep need for connection with Him as well as connection with others. Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this, as the writer exhorts, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” This God-given need for connection lies at the heart of a creative and innovative ministry in Japan known as “The Neighborhood.” TEAM Japan global worker, Kelly and her family created The Neighborhood as a place where connections are formed through creative arts, educational opportunities, and simply just providing a space for people to be together. A Family Calling The journey to the creation of The Neighborhood began over 5,000 miles away from Tokyo, in California where Kelly, her husband Jeff, and their five children were living. The kids were the first to sense God’s calling to missions, and asked why their family wasn’t serving in this way. How Kelly and her family came to TEAM is a God-story in and of itself. “God placed a TEAM Japan worker at our lunch table the same week that the kids posed that question to us,” Kelly recalls. “We had never heard of TEAM and so we thought, ‘let’s check this out.’ After that, God just kept confirming that we were supposed to be here.” After a period of fundraising and with much excitement, the family of seven moved to Japan in 2014. For the first five years, Kelly and Jeff served as a part of other TEAM ministry initiatives, but they began to sense a stirring for something new. Creating The Neighborhood Kelly and her family truly have a deep gift for hospitality, and regularly opened up their home to others they met in Tokyo. They saw a great need for people to have a place to gather and connect, and they wondered what doors the Lord might be opening for them to meet that need. “About a year before we were to return the States on home assignment, we were just really thinking about our future in Japan,” Kelly says. “We saw a need for people to have a ‘third place’ – a place that’s not home and it’s not work. They didn’t have a church community or any other place where they could meet people and just connect.” Kelly goes on to explain that in Japan, the culture is such that people don’t generally invite each other into their homes, but as her family did so, people embraced that opportunity. “This idea formed in all of our hearts of a student ministry center – a place where we can create community and learning,” says Kelly. “It was born out of what we were already doing in our home, but seeing how we could expand it and have better space.” God’s Provision What happened next is a true testament to God’s provision. Kelly, Jeff, and the kids returned to the States and began sharing their vision for The Neighborhood with their supporters and churches who responded generously. Upon returning to Japan, the search was on for the right space. “We had a Christian realtor that we told our dream to, and he just went looking for it,” Kelly recalls. When the realtor found a 5-story apartment building, he said, “It’s kind of out of your budget but it has what you need and want.” The Lord provided the funds and the family moved into the space in November 2019. They now occupy all but the ground floor, with living space for their family as well as classrooms, areas to study or hang out, and guest rooms for exchange students or others who need a place to stay overnight. The first floor is occupied by a pizza shop – a welcome amenity for the many groups and students who visit The Neighborhood. “It’s very convenient!” Kelly says with a laugh. The Neighborhood began to see lots of activity right away until the pandemic hit in early 2020. During the height of the quarantine, Kelly and Jeff used the time to redecorate the space and plant gardens outside the building. Then as the restrictions eased, they invited individual students or families over for meals and fellowship. It wasn’t until March 2023 that The Neighborhood was able to fully open again as intended. Kelly shares that despite the setbacks of COVID, the Lord continued to provide the funds to pay the rent.