How to Identify Future Missionaries in Your Church

What if your church’s future missionaries are already sitting in the pews, and no one realizes it? I’ve noticed that most churches identify missionaries reactively. We wait until someone raises his hand and expresses a desire to go overseas before he comes to mind as a future missionary.

There’s nothing wrong with waiting until someone expresses a desire to go overseas. But future missionaries are often visible to the church long before they recognize it themselves.

When I started leading global missions at my local church, I wanted to proactively identify our next missionaries, but I didn’t know how to find them. Here are a few things I’ve learned to look for:

LOOK FOR CHURCH MEMBERS WHO LOVE THE CHURCH

When I was in college, I realized that most of my friends who loved the local church were indifferent toward the nations, and most of my friends with a heart for the nations were indifferent toward the church. 

But the mission of the church is to establish and strengthen churches among the nations. Before someone is a missionary, they should be a healthy church member at their sending church. We want to send missionaries who love the local church and who are committed to rolling up their sleeves to plant a new local church or strengthen an existing church. 

In our church, we almost exclusively send missionaries to existing churches during their first term because we want them shaped by ordinary church life, even during culture and language acquisition. Healthy church members naturally look for people to disciple, serve, and encourage within the church, which strengthens local churches over time.

So if you want to proactively identify missionary candidates in your church, look for spiritually mature members who are deeply invested in the life of the church and see evangelism and discipleship as part of ordinary church life. 

Find people who combine a love for the church with a love for the nations.

LOOK FOR CHURCH MEMBERS ALREADY SERVING THE NATIONS

In my first few months in my role, I started meeting with members involved in international ministry, missionary care, and mobilization. I didn’t know whether they would eventually move overseas, but I knew these people already cared about the nations. Over time, they introduced me to more members who were exploring global missions. We held a meeting for college students who had spent time overseas during the summer and ended up identifying two future mid-term missionaries for our church. A few weeks later, I met a man in our church who was regularly bringing several international students to church events with him.

If you want to find a missionary, look for church members already serving the nations. Who is signing up for short-term trips but has never considered long-term missions? Who is actively involved in international ministry in our city? Many church members are already involved in global missions without ever considering going overseas themselves. Not everyone needs to be a missionary, but it’s possible that your next missionary is already serving the nations in your neighborhood. 

Often, future missionaries become visible long before they tell the church they want to be a missionary.

TRAIN MISSIONARIES AND MISSIONS LEADERS TOGETHER

Whether someone identifies themselves as a missionary candidate or not, churches should take steps to develop aspiring missionaries alongside future missions leaders. In our church, we invite future missions leaders into our missionary cohort so that our missionaries and deacons are shaped by shared convictions about global missions.

But beyond any cohort or training program, we understand the local church to be the training ground for missionary candidates. Well-meaning Christians may want to pull missionary candidates away from ordinary church life to spend more time preparing with like-minded people, but this can create an insular culture where missions becomes disconnected from the church. Instead, we should push our missionary candidates back into the life of the church for discipleship, community, and relationships with church members.

Healthy churches don’t just react to members who want to become missionaries. Instead, a healthy church creates an environment where future missionaries become visible over time. Then, the church has the opportunity to assess, develop, and affirm them to establish and strengthen churches among the nations.