By Ken Guenther, SEND U — One of our goals throughout the pre-field preparation process at SEND International is to help our new missionaries become adept at feeding themselves spiritually. We emphasize the importance of a personal daily “Quiet Time.” We encourage them to be like Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus, rather than becoming distracted by a multitude of opportunities to serve Jesus, like her sister Martha (Luke 10:38-42).
We practice various spiritual disciplines during the training. We provide structure and some accountability for implementing what they are learning. Near the end of the two weeks of training, everyone spends a whole day alone with God, a day with no classes, when each person goes off to spend a whole day talking to God. This Day Alone with God has been a regular part of the SEND pre-field training for many years.
Why is it so important that our missionaries learn to feed themselves spiritually? In conversations with many new missionaries, I am realizing that well over half of them struggle with any type of consistency in their daily Bible reading and prayer.
Learning how to consistently “self feed” is crucially important for cross-cultural missionaries! Before they left for the field, these missionaries would have been spiritually supported by good preaching, small groups and a host of Christian friends, all in their own heart language. But once they arrive on their field of service, there may not be any good Bible-believing churches for them to attend. After all, they are going to the unreached.
If there is solid Biblical teaching available in a local church, it will likely not be in the first language of the missionary. Then, as many missionaries have discovered, even once they understand the language, the differences in culture, ways of thinking and family situations of the local people mean that more often than not, sermons and Bible lessons do not address the questions and issues these missionaries are facing. The missionary team may provide some Bible teaching during team meetings, but often these are only once a month, and any focus on the Word must compete with all the administrative and personnel questions the team must address during those meetings.
So missionaries must learn to feed themselves if they are to remain strong spiritually. They are on the front lines of a spiritual battle, dealing with stress and loneliness in ways that they never encountered back home. To remain vibrant Christians, reflecting the truth of the Gospel in their daily lives, they must have spiritual nourishment on a regular basis.
Psalm 1:2–3 tells us that the person whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night, that person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. A study on missionary attrition ("Too Valuable to Lose") has identified various reasons why missionaries leave the field. Although mission agencies ranked “immature spiritual life” as only the twelfth most common reason for long-term missionaries leaving the field, many of the other reasons given such as inadequate commitment, lack of call, problems with peers, marriage and family conflict, and immorality are also closely related to one’s spiritual resilience. When all these related factors are added up, fully a third of the causes of preventable missionary attrition are directly or indirectly linked to poor spiritual health.
I would suggest that the ongoing spiritual health of missionaries is not so much determined by the strength of the Bible teaching in their home churches or the quality of their theological education, but by how well those missionaries are able to feed themselves spiritually from the Word once they get to the field.
Reposted with permission from the SEND U blog. SEND U is SEND International’s department dedicated to training and lifelong learning.
