Missions Textbook 35
Mission Agencies

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

Most people believe that the missionary must be accountable to someone while they are on the mission field. It seems to make sense that a missionary needs direction from people with more experience and a broader overview than the new missionary would have. A mission agency can provide these, as well as services that most churches can’t or don’t provide. In addition, a missionary can fall into sin or theological error, and it seems helpful to have an organization behind a missionary with a clear doctrinal statement and code of behavior (hopefully based on the Bible). There should also be consequences for veering from those previous agreements.

After choosing a mission field, choosing a mission agency is the biggest, most influential decision the prospective missionary will make. So, what do you need to look for?

To begin with, some mission agencies focus on direct evangelism and church planting, while others offer specializations like medical missions, educational ministries, aviation, etc. All agencies provide the missionary with various levels of administrative support on and off the field. Working with a mission agency focuses on two issues: relationships and finances. Every ministry deals with people and needs money. We will cover finances in the next article.

For now, you will want to find the answers to the following questions on any agency before you commit to one.

Mission Agencies Questionnaire

1. What spiritual lifestyles do they require of their missionaries?

2. What prior education do they require of their missionaries?

3. What is the agency’s relationship to your home church? To your supporters? Does the agency require that you be loosely or closely connected to a local church?

4. What kind of recruiting strategy do they use, and do they require their missionaries to take part in that strategy?

5. Does the agency offer or require any training or orientation to their agency or to the field? When do they offer or require this training, before, during or after you leave for the field?

6. Finances! Does the money you raise also pay the home staff salaries?

  • If yes, what support services are you paying for?
  • Do you get what is designated to you, or does a surplus go to someone who received less? How do you feel about that?
  • Are you required to raise enough for insurance, retirement, etc.?
  • Will the agency allow you to raise money any way you want? Will the agency allow you to have a part-time job, if possible, while on the mission field? Why or why not? Can you live with that?

7. How much does the mission agency control the missionaries’ lifestyle?

  • What are the agency’s policies on the “gray areas:” dancing, alcohol, etc.
  • Do you have the freedom to fit in with a culture on the field?
  • Are roles different for men and women? How do you feel about that?
  • Is a wife and mother allowed to be a wife and mother before being a missionary?
  • What are the ministry options for women?
  • Are there some options closed to women? Can you live with that?

8. How much does the agency control the missionaries’ work?

  • Is the missionary free to determine the direction and the methods of the ministry on the field?
  • Do you get to choose your own team members?
  • Are you expected to lead a team?
  • Do you know the members? How well?
  • Are you expected to follow a leader whom you don’t know?

9. If the missionary requests, how much guidance (not control) does the agency provide with the work on the field?

10. Does the agency work with or cooperate with other agencies? Which agencies? Are you okay with that?

11. Does the agency provide any of the following services? Not every agency will offer all these things, but you at least need to know what they do provide.

  • Training and Orientation
  • Banking and financial advice
  • Forwarding gifts
  • Letters for foreign governments
  • Missionary kids’ education assistance
  • Help with home assignment and homecoming
  • Meetings during home assignment
  • Missionary or Bible conferences
  • Handbook of the other missionaries serving with the agency
  • Housing while on home assignment
  • Clothing adaptation help while at home (coats, boots?)
  • Field evacuation plan when the ministry becomes unsafe
  • Emergency health care
  • Emergency help for nationals during times of disaster

12. Does the agency provide counseling services for marriage, child rearing, and for intervention in the case of clashes between co-workers?

13. What is their policy in the case of a missionary caught in an ongoing sin that is disrupting the ministry? What if the missionary changes doctrine and is no longer in agreement with policies and doctrines of the mission agency and/or the missionaries on the field?

If you are hoping to be sent out by your local church, don’t miss the article “The ‘Ideal’ Missionary-sending Church” on page 321 and “Keeping Sending Church(es) Interested” on page 325.

If you are planning to build a “Business as Mission” team, re-read the article on page 297, and check out all the resources.

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

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