Global Workers and Partners Week 2020
Our 2020 Campaign will share stories, and the values that our Global Workers live out, as they model and inspire what is means to live missionally in context.
Inspiring Stories
Our 2020 Campaign, 'Wherever God Invites' below.
Part 1 - The Inspirational Journey of Global Mission Workers ⇩
How have Global workers adapted to embrace new roles?
Part 2 - In it for the Long-haul ⇩
Resilience, faithfulness and a long-term investment.
Part 3 - The Gift of Walking Beside Others ⇩
With Dan and Kerry Wiens.
Part 4 - Being led by the Spirit to Embrace Change ⇩
With Ken and Carolyn Benson and Dorothy Reid.
Part 5 - A Continual Invitation ⇩
Wrapping up our week with next steps.
Part 1 - The Inspirational Journey of Global Mission Workers
We are all becoming aware of how the Global Mission landscape is changing. As the Lausanne Covenant reminds us, now is the time for "the whole Church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world".
In the EMCC, we have a rich history of sending and supporting, leading, directing and giving. While this is an incredible legacy, there is also a new reality emerging in the world. We are called to participate together with the global church. One Challenge, a global alliance, reports that "75% of all cross-cultural workers are now coming from the Global South" [One Challenge, USA]. What could this mean for our participation in Jesus' mission? And where can we turn for help?
As the EMCC continues to discover how to participate in Jesus' mission with the global church, we can learn from those who are modelling a life of listening, trusting and obeying the Spirit in serving alongside brothers and sisters from other cultures.
Our Global Workers (a.k.a. Missionaries) from Canada, serving cross-culturally and internationally, provide us with a perspective, a posture and a mindset for how to walk together with the global church in mission. This week, we'll hear from them, and discover what Jesus might be saying to us about participating in his mission.
#whereverGodinvitesus
How have Global workers adapted and changed, to embrace new roles? The chart below describes stages of relationship between mission workers and a community of followers of Jesus that is formed in any given culture or context: Pioneer > Parent > Partner > Co-Participant.
For effective disciple-making in each culture and context where a new church is formed, cross-cultural workers shift to become peers in Jesus' mission, on a global team with brothers and sisters from around the world. This is true across the globe, and in our neighbourhoods too!
Part 2 - In it for the long-haul
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada published in their "Canadian Evangelical Missional Engagement Study Series" in 2017, that "nearly two in five (39% of) Evangelical church lay-people and just under one-fifth of pastors (18%) think that Long-term Career Mission service typically lasts 5 years or less" [EFC 2017].
But what if we looked at the long-term perspective in the way we saw yesterday, where over the course of time, disciple-making movements are birthed through pioneers leading eventually to partnership? Imagine it: by as little as a single follower of Jesus making contact and living as a witness, enlivened by God's Spirit, fruit reproduces and grows as two or more repeat the process, giving life to a community of followers on mission together, and joining God's work to the nations. Not every Global Worker gets a chance to be a part of the entire process; in fact, most do not.
But what if we're in this together, led by the Spirit? Isn't that how Paul describes workers in First Corinthians?
'For we are fellow workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. '
The long mission-sending history that we have in the EMCC has inspired generations of the church to pray, to become engaged, and to build upon what God has done through others before us, along the timeline of history. And as a result, we now belong as co-participants with a global family, and is the reason our Directory includes both Workers (from EMCC churches) and Partners (that resulted from earlier chapters of pioneer workers from North America). We take a long-term perspective.
With a heart for “seed planting, watering, nurturing, and reproducing" EMCC's global workers are a part of a much larger narrative, living their lives as followers of Jesus, in such a way that produce long-term fruit, to the next generation, and to the future shaped by indigenous or "national" leaders in their own context, living and proclaiming good news.
Learn more about the long-term investment of these friends. Watch the videos here:
Church Support Means a Lot!
The word resilience comes up a great deal for Global Workers.
Facing distance from family members, mental health strains, spiritual opposition to battle, and vulnerability and safety issues, global workers can often feel overwhelmed. Thank you for learning how to listen, to pray effectively, and respond with regular love and support - it all helps with the care for Global Workers!
Michael R. Vanhhuis, of Missio Nexus, writes,
"As stewards of [global workers], our role in missions leadership is to shepherd, love and provide the best possible services to them. Whether we are helping them work through a difficult issue or transition back home, they should feel supported and loved. Transition will take place, but how we serve our missionaries through these transitions will profoundly be the measure of our stewardship"[1]
Part 3 - The Gift of Walking Beside Others
"In humility, consider others as better than yourselves". Philippians 2:4.
To be like Jesus is to walk with others. This is the way of discipling; the way of Jesus. To see the fruit of our global workers' lives, discover the gifting, beauty, and growing capacity in the friends they journey with.
Dan and Kerry Wiens, our Global Workers, are 10 years in on their mission work in South Africa, now managing Inundo Development, where they host and invest in leaders who will spread good news addressing food insecurity across the country and beyond.
WATCH Walking Beside Others
Dan and Kerry talk about Inundo, and introduce us to some friends who inspire them.
As with our Global Workers, you and I can grow to understand and embrace this challenge to journey with others.
Who comes to mind for you today?
How might you come beside them, that they might come to know the beauty and gifts God has placed within them?
In taking this step today, they too can come to know God's heart for them, and be discipled into offering themselves to the world, as we participate in Jesus' mission together.
For Global Workers who have stayed in place during COVID-19, and those who are continuing to encourage and build capacity in others by resourcing from Canada, it is such good news to see their relationships continue to grow in mutual love to the glory of God.
Take a moment now to thank Jesus for the privilege to participate in his mission. Thank God, too, for our Global Workers who are a part of our church, for the love of Christ they have for others, and for all the people around them they lift up and invest in, as we follow Jesus together on mission in the whole world.
Part 4 - Being led by the Spirit to Embrace Change
Though I am free and belong to no-one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. '
When our global workers have experienced change to their roles in life and ministry, time and time again, they have been willing to surrender that to the Lord, and adapt to "become what is needed" for the sake of Jesus' mission. Lately, some have even shifted to serve from Canada, so that partnership with global church and disciple-making leaders can be fostered, while others have had to keep asking, "What now, Lord?" The effects of the current gIobal pandemic mean that many workers are confidently sitting with this question, and trusting God for the strength and wisdom to adapt.
Dorothy Reid, who is featured in one of today's videos, talks about being called upon to be a witness at a trial of a sexual offender from a family she cared for, and despite not wanting to get involved, remembered a prayer she prayed that morning,
"I yield my hands, my feet, my voice, my eyes and ears for you to use however you want today.”
WATCH MissionPREP Equips For Change.
Ken and Carolyn Benson talk about MissionPREP's role in on preparing and debriefing new global workers / missionaries to face new challenges.
WATCH Where God Leads, I Will Follow
Dorothy Reid was reminded by God of a mentor's example, now giving her renewed joy in her missionary service.
Long before COVID-19 brought disruption, God often invited me into things I did not feel fully equipped or best-suited for, yet my willingness was enough.
Adapting, in this sense, involved both creativity and consistency.
How might Jesus be guiding you, and those you know, to a fresh sense of purpose at this time, to simply follow Him?
How is your steadiness enabling confidence to live a life of adventuring in the Spirit and asking, "Where are we going together today?"
#whereverGodinvitesus
Part 5 - A Continual Invitation
Come and pray with our Global Workers today. Together, we want to bring blessing and encouragement to one another. There is a beautiful spirit of encouragement in our team, to engage you, as part of our EMCC family, in however and wherever God has invited you to participate in Jesus' mission. And you will have an opportunity to extend that same encouragement, partnership, and prayer.
We've heard this week from some of our global workers, who've passionately shared things like:
"Lord Jesus, I yield myself for service today".
"Show yourself strong through my weakness, not merely my ability".
"Allow me to be a blessing by getting behind, or beside others, that they can shine, and share their gifts".
This posture of availability is infused with an adaptive mindset, and a sense of joining others on their journey with Jesus. Believing, leaning, and trusting in God’s all-sufficient nature has helped our Global Workers be constantly ready for the new realities, opportunities, and transitions that are presented before them.
We, at World Partners, believe this attitude of availability and adaptability is a prayer for ALL of us. We hope this week has left you inspired and willing to ask the question: What is Jesus saying to you? What might be your next step?
How might Jesus be inspiring you to participate in His mission? Maybe it is….
To see that right where you are is where God has sent you?
To explore how your Business or Profession is part of your witness?
To explore internship or cross-cultural learning near you?
To encourage a global mission heartbeat in your church?
To simply live and follow Jesus through your everyday life?
To disciple or mentor someone today?
As those prayers, thoughts, and next steps stir within you and those around you, we’d love to hear about them.
World Partners is here to serve the EMCC, and to assist you in inspiring you and your people, from any generation, to be engaged and involved wherever God invites you.
#whereverGodinvitesus