Author: Dr Jonathan Ingleby, Editor of Encounters.
Abstract:
Today’s missionaries in training expect their future experience to reflect and develop their
gifts and skills, and to produce personal growth
In this section I plan to look at the ways that potential missionaries expect their future service
to develop their skills and gifts and to widen their experience, so that they can grow in personal effectiveness. I also want to determine whether they expect to develop
professionally and if so how strong that expectation is. Are they expecting not just to be
better people but also more employable when they return from the mission field?
Furthermore, I want to explore the questions that these issues raise for mission agencies. What, for example, about the need for ongoing training? Does the agency have a
responsibility (whether this is understood by missionary personnel or not) to ensure, not
simply that people on the job are given the chance to use their gifts and skills, but also to develop them? Can we now see missionary service as part of a ‘career path’.
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Encounters Mission Journal 