How to Care for Your Missionaries While They are Preparing to Go, While They are On the Field, and When They Return Home

It’s hard to recall where I got this book, since I tend to pick up missions-related books whenever I see them. Before reading it, I hadn’t ever heard of Neal Pirolo or the Emmaus Road, International organization that he founded. For safety’s sake, I did a smidgeon of background checks to make sure his reputation hadn’t been besmirched somehow over the intervening decades since publication (which sadly happens even the best of authors, see the disturbing case of Ravi Zacharias). Praise God, the man remains a faithful servant of the Lord with an organization dedicated to “Third Millennium Missions.”

Overall, I absolutely loved this book. In fact, I’ve summarized the content into an 8-page (5,000 word) document that I plan to hand out to my Missions Team at church. I’ll even offer it to others upon request, though the book is certainly (let’s do the math) 25x better than my summary.

For this post, I’ll offer an even briefer summary of the book and encourage you to let this whet your appetite for more and to get the book yourself (see the links). I think it’s a definite gem.

Preface: If you’re called to stay home, then you’re called to stay home and support those who go as a sender.

Chapter 1: “The Need for Senders” introduces the outline of the books and offers an incredibly helpful timelines for cross-cultural workers. I’ll jot the summary here with a few explanatory notes.

Chapter 2: “Moral Support” suggests both what not to do (i.e. vocalize the doubts they’ve already battled with, remain a self-focused apathetic church, etc.) and what to do to encourage your missionary (as much an attitude as action). In this chapter he writes: “The missionary heart of God is pierced again and again as fellowships deny the biblical injunctions to go preach and teach.” (38)

Chapter 3: “Logistics Support” helps handle the missionary’s responsibilities (accountability, spiritual business, personal needs, etc.) back home—especially since agencies can’t do everything.

Chapter 4: “Financial Support” is what most people think of when discussing missionary support. It’s not just giving, but living a lifestyle of sacrifice at home for the work abroad. He offers some great insights into wealth management both on and off the field.

Chapter 5: “Prayer Support” notes that in fields where there is less Christian witness, spiritual oppression is greater. Colossians 1:9-12 offers an 8-part model for prayer worth studying out. He also describes the need for intercession, fasting, more field workers, Gospel opportunities, the binding of “the strong man,” and for God’s Kingdom to come.

Chapter 6: “Communication Support” is a bit outdated as a chapter, but emphasizes the need for letters and phone calls and proof of care. He offers more dos and don’ts as well as a unique look at how NT writers communicated to their audiences.

Chapter 7: “Re-entry Support” is his most hard-hitting chapter (he wrote a separate book on the subject). He describes the situation of re-entry, nine unique challenges, and four negative behavior patterns that missionaries face when coming home—all with a goal of the support team helping the missionary reintegrate into life and ministry back home. It’s a misunderstood and often ignored reality that deserves this heavy treatment.

Chapter 8: “Your Part in the Big Picture” focuses on the state of world evangelism at the time of publication. Very outdated, yet he encourages people towards focusing on the unreached, the 10-40 Window, the 2/3 Majority World, etc.

Serving as Senders is an incredibly useful book from a man who’s spent decades serving as a sender and who knows from personal experience the harsh realities of cross-cultural ministry. This book would be a useful study for anyone “called to stay,” that is, “called to be a sender.”

©2024 E.T.