I am a teacher. I was trained as a teacher at university, but found teaching surprisingly easy right from the beginning. Before starting my teaching course I wondered how on earth teachers can fill a whole hour with talking…until I did it. Despite being an introvert I soon discovered that when I’m in front of a class or group, I can speak confidently and fill up as much times as I’m given. I may sit quietly in a meeting or social gathering, but give me a mic and a topic I am passionate about, and you’ll see a different side of me.
On the other hand, I’m not naturally good at hospitality. I can cook, and my mum who is great at hosting people has taught me a lot, but it doesn’t occur to me to make a meal for someone to bless them. I am thankful for every person I work with who is good at the things I struggle with. It means that we each fill each other’s holes and together make up the functioning body of Christ. It isn’t easy working with people who are different to us, but if I can help you and you can help me, together we do a much better job.
Mission teams are exactly like this. We need a wide range of people who can take on different roles to enable ministry to happen. Sometimes people think you need to be a teacher or a doctor to do mission, but that isn’t the case at all. We need people who are media savvy, financially minded, socially gifted, entrepreneurs, team players, organised, people who have big visions and people who notice the details. We need people with different spiritual gifts, different work backgrounds and different hobbies, because all of these things can be used by God.
Sometimes you need particular work experience or qualifications to obtain a visa overseas. Sometimes your ministry experience will be the area you focus on; or perhaps it is your hobby that will open doors for you to connect with people.
Sometimes knowing what you aren’t good at also helps clarify places or ministries you shouldn’t serve in!
Next steps
Do you know what you are good at and not so good at?
What are your spiritual gifts? (check out this online spiritual gifts survey if you’re not sure https://gifts.churchgrowth.org/spiritual-gifts-survey/ )
What ministry experience do you have?
What are your hobbies?
What work experience do you have?
As you identify your strengths, gifts and passions, take time to pray about how God might be able to use these for His kingdom.
Ask a friend or mentor to help you honestly assess your strengths and weaknesses
Talk to someone from a mission agency about options. OMF has a wide range of opportunities that you can check out here: https://opportunities.omf.org/.
