Distinctive 5: Proactive Missionary Care
October 2022
GFF is an Independent Baptist Mission Agency with 6 distinctives that are designed to minimize the causes of missionary attrition while maximizing Biblical accuracy and spiritual integrity by which it is done. I have highlighted and delineated distinctives 1-4 thus far. In review they are as follows:
- We partner new missionaries with experienced mentors.
- We plant churches that are independent and indigenous from inception.
- We propagate the Gospel by target the sinner’s conscience rather than his societal circumstances.
- We pattern an autonomous ministry which can be replicated through the faith and finances of national believers alone.
Adding to the list, now, is GFF’s next distinctive. The first four deal with the methods. The Fifth deals with the manpower:
- We take a proactive rather than reactive approach to missionary care.
We understand missionaries are susceptible to stresses, culture shock, and traumatic injuries related directly to the unique nature of their work as they labor in some of the darkest and most disturbing corners of the world. Missionaries aren’t confident that if they reach out to others about their struggles they will be met with sympathetic answers. Many times their battles are minimized or misunderstood when they do try to connect with help. Other times they are met with overreaction or overcompensation. Because of these risks, their problems are often left unaddressed and unresolved jeopardizing personal, family, and ministry stability and overall effectiveness on the field.
Therefore, GFF has developed a missionary care unit which helps missionaries to understand and overcome many of those dangers. In doing so, many more stay longer on the field and labor more profitably in their ministries. We cannot afford to make the mistake of separating the Great Commission from the Great Commandment. If we are going to continue entrusting those who hazard their lives to carry the Gospel to hard and hellish lands on our behalf, then we ourselves need to also be entrusted to care for them when they are wounded in action.
Thank you for your desire for God’s work to be done not only with integrity but with empathy!
Only One Life,
Rodney Myers
GFF General Director