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How to become a missionary?
Welcome! We’re excited that you are considering a call to missions. We love to help God’s people explore vision and calling. Our processes are designed to help you explore calling and understand who and what Missionary Ventures does. We wish to understand your personality, giftings and the calling God has on your life. Together we determine whether we would be a good fit for you.
We break our processes down into several phases. It can feel a bit intimidating at first however we assign a mentor to walk with you. Our intention is to build a healthy foundation in preparation for years of fruitful ministry!
Application phase
In the application phase we share information with each other and mutually determine whether you wish to pursue an application for Missionary service with Missionary Ventures. For our part, we collect information, do reference, background, and medical checks, and do our best to determine your suitability for missionary service.
This phase is completed with a staff interview in which you are invited to become a candidate missionary with Missionary Ventures. Once approved, missionary candidates can begin raising funds to off-set training expenses.
This phase will typically take 6-9 weeks.
This usually happens through a phone call or introduction from somebody within Missionary Ventures. It leads to an informal conversation with our Director of Field Development who gets to hear the heart of the applicant and see if he/she might be a good fit for Missionary Ventures.
A phone or Zoom call will be scheduled between the Director of Field Development prior to the applicant submitting their application.
If the phone interview goes well, the applicant will be asked to complete the online application form here.
The references provided will be reviewed and contacted. If everything looks good, a staff interview is scheduled.
Applicant has a sit-down interview with the Director of Field Development and the President of Missionary Ventures.
Candidate Phase
The candidate phase begins with a week-long orientation, held bi-annually, in our offices in Maitland, Florida. We describe orientation as a discovery event. During orientation we want you to “discover” who MV is, who makes up our leadership team, what we value and do (our ministries). Conversely, we want to “discover” who our missionary candidates are, their giftings, experiences and the calling God has on their lives. By the end of the week we hope to determine whether we’re a good fit for each other!
Orientation week includes an interview with our personnel committee. With a positive review by the committee candidates are released to begin partner development (support raising). Funds can be used for training and partner development expenses and are released for living expenses once: the missionary candidate quits his or her job to engage full-time in partner development or is released to the mission field.
Discussion about where the candidate will serve intensifies with discussions and often one or more exploratory trips to scout out locations. Missionary Ventures values discussion, mutual respect, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We do our best to apply these values to every phase in our on-boarding processes. At this step it can be particularly comforting to the missionary candidate to know we will mutually seek to determine where God is calling them. Once a final decision is made, a budget is determined and approved.
For spiritual, relational, and legal reasons we consider our missionaries to be clergy or religious workers. We work with our missionary candidates to see them ordained or commissioned by a local church body.
This phase will typically take 2-6 months to complete. The timeline is dependent on our orientation schedule and need to take exploratory trips and/or cross-cultural training.
Training Phase
In the Training phase missionary candidates engage in Partner Development. We highly encourage all our candidates to attend a support raising solutions bootcamp https://supportraisingsolutions.org/bootcamp/. We have found this training to be highly effective in building a solid financial foundation for our missionaries.
Candidates are required to take an approved cross-cultural training course. Cross-cultural living and ministry create unique stresses on the individual cross-cultural worker and family in a variety of ways. Missionary Ventures wants our missionaries to not only survive, but thrive, within the culture to which God has called them. Learning to understand, embrace, and celebrate culture, even while working to redeem elements which are not in alignment with Biblical values is important to us. There are several approved cross-cultural programs which candidates can attend both in the US and Internationally. Most programs are between 4-6 weeks in duration.
While not a requirement we encourage candidates to consider taking the Perspectives in World Christian Movement course https://www.perspectives.org/. This is highly motivating as you work to raise support. The course provides you with the knowledge to more deeply understand your missionary calling and to speak about missions with confidence!
This phase can take between 2-8 months. Completion of this phase is highly dependent on the candidates’ effectiveness in partner development. Don’t worry, we will provide you with the tools to succeed and God will bless your efforts.
On-field phase
Our new missionaries are approved to deploy into the field and begin language learning and service. Language acquisition will take place in the country of service or another country in the region. Situations vary and we work with our missionaries to determine the best place for language learning. We do want to be careful to keep distractions at a minimum until an adequate level of language has been attained. Typically, this will take 3-12 months depending on the difficulty of the language and the desired fluency level.
During the first 12-18 months in the field our new missionaries are assigned a mentor. We want to walk with you for a while and make sure things are going smoothly for both you and MV. The mentor gives support and advice and provides accountability on ministry efforts. After this phase, the missionary is released to walk fully in ministry, pioneer new ministries and so on.
Missionary Ventures International - [email protected] | 1017 Maitland Center Commons Blvd Maitland, FL 32751-7205 | P 407.859.7322 | ©2022 Missionary Ventures International