A Call to Prayer for the Global Church and the Future of Missions

Suzanne Pearson • Sep 01, 2022

For over 130 years , TEAM’s passion and priority have been to partner with the Church as it equips and sends individuals to share the Gospel of Christ with unreached and underserved nations.

In today’s globalized context, TEAM’s focus remains the same. Yet, it is pivoting toward more of a supporting role of serving and assisting the global Church as it fulfills God’s call to make disciples among the nations. This shift is something God is doing. TEAM’s future fruitfulness depends on serving and following global leaders with whom we can link arms as we serve Christ together. It also explores new channels for “called” disciples to enter places closed to traditional missionaries.

For this month’s Prayer Focus, we invite you to pray for the global Church and the future of missions in these 5 areas:

1. Mobilization of the Global Church

Over the last decade, TEAM identified the need for significant adaptation to meet the needs of an increasingly globalized world. Advances in technology and digital communications allow new avenues for the dynamic growth and health of the global Church.

According to TEAM International Director Dave Hall, “TEAM will increasingly seek ways to serve and assist the global Church as it fulfills God’s call to make disciples among the nations. While we will not abandon our commitment to serving the Church in North America, the future of missions will be increasingly shaped by our global brothers and sisters outside North America. We want to link arms with global leaders to serve Christ together. Such endeavors promise significant Kingdom advances in some of the world’s neediest regions.”

PRAY for TEAM’s efforts to assist, equip and empower national believers to fulfill God’s call to reach the lost in their own communities and beyond.

2. Member Care Network

While our world is more connected than ever before, the challenges of cross-cultural ministry pressure new global workers in ways that threaten adjustment to their new home and ministry. Language learning, cultural adaptation, family adjustment, new health and safety routines, and relational bonding can be overwhelming. Veteran workers also encounter mid-career pressures when family and ministry dynamics change, co-workers leave, and spiritual, physical, or mental struggles surface.

TEAM’s Member Care Network consists of holistic caregivers who prayerfully foster the spiritual vitality of those committed to spiritual service, reminding them to work with God, empowered by the Spirit and not merely from human effort, for God. As TEAM comes alongside national sending movements worldwide, we want to train and equip indigenous workers to provide member care for those they send to bring the Gospel to neighboring countries and communities without Christ.

PRAY for the Member Care staff and the global workers they support, that these relationships may be encouraging, edifying and effective.

Two ladies hugging after a church service.

Member Care specialists help global workers face the spiritual challenges that come with missionary life.

3. Equipping of Missional Churches

As the primary focus of TEAM’s mission is to partner with the global Church to send disciples of Jesus Christ to actively disciple others as they incarnate Christ’s love to those they serve, the following step is to form communities of disciples to do the same. These expressions of Christ’s life are the Church, the living Body of Christ. The growth of the Church in the global south is evidence of God’s blessing and purpose to use this growth and maturity to take an active part in reaching the nations for Christ. Thus, our former North America sending priority is shifting towards resourcing and serving national churches to send and receive global workers (also called “ polycentric sending ”).

PRAY for God to raise up missional churches around the world to send and receive ambassadors of the Gospel.

4. Cybersecurity to Safeguard Ministry

Globalization provides exciting opportunities for mission agencies like TEAM. However, it also creates complex challenges and the imperative to keep pace with technology to serve and safeguard our cross-cultural workers. Today TEAM has nearly 20 closed-access ministry areas. These include countries, regions, or people groups where traditional ministry activity is restricted due to state policy, cultural hostility, or both. Christian workers share their faith in creative legal ways, but their presence represents a risk to their colleagues and national believers. TEAM provides tools and training to our global staff in high-risk areas.

PRAY for TEAM’s Global Security Task Force as they work tirelessly to implement and maintain security protocols.

Today’s technology provides new avenues for ministry, but cybersecurity is essential to keep global workers safe in online communications.

5. Learning and Development

TEAM’s Learning and Development Group (L&D) creates a culture of learning to equip personnel for effectiveness, fulfillment, and joyfulness in life and work as they carry out our mission and values. To do this, L&D collaborates with organization leaders and subject matter experts to create customizable learning pathways for individuals and teams.

Learning and Development focuses on three areas: People (helping personnel be effective and healthy through collaborative learning and mentoring), Mission (helping teams share organizational priorities and define values), and Transformation (ensuring that all learning experiences result in effective change).

PRAY for global workers and staff as they participate in various Learning and Development initiatives, all for the glory of God and further advancement of His kingdom.

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Loving Like Jesus Cross-Culturally (Part 1)

By Megan Lunsford • 23 Apr, 2024

When seeking to serve cross-culturally with an authentic love for others, there’s no better example for us than Jesus. If we sat around a table and threw out the question, “How do we love like Jesus?” I think we would have several commonalities as we respond. For example, Jesus loved all people right where they were. He loved those who were deemed the least, those hardest to love, or those who were His enemies. These are all beautiful realities of the heart of Jesus. When we step into relationships, it can be easier to take on the warmer, more gracious gestures of Jesus’ love, especially in cross-cultural relationships. Think about it––when doing life with those who look and act differently than us, we are already out of our comfort zones and would rather keep things as simple and familiar as possible. But there are other facets of Jesus’ heart we often overlook that can transform us and others even more into His likeness. Jesus is love because God is love. Everything Jesus did was out of love; it’s the mere definition of who He is. As followers of Jesus, He calls us to the same: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John:7-12) Every display of love we offer to others is an opportunity for them to encounter the ultimate love of the Father. That’s a pretty big deal! In this article, we’ll look at three expressions of Jesus’ love that we tend to overlook when engaging others cross-culturally. (Next month, we’ll look at three more.) 1. Jesus loved sacrificially. Everywhere Jesus went, crowds followed Him. We even see times in Scripture where Jesus had plans to step away for time alone but those who were hurting found Him and He had compassion on them and stayed with them. Can you imagine rarely having any time to yourself but, instead, constantly being surrounded by crowds of people wanting help from you? Jesus loved sacrificially. He welcomed all who came to Him with love and compassion, never turning anyone away. “When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) In the same way, we can make room in our lives for Jesus to bring sacrificial interruptions which, in His eyes, are orchestrated encounters to transfer His love to others. It can be tempting to be so “on mission” that we are full steam ahead and find ourselves frustrated when the Holy Spirit sends an interruption into our path that we feel we don’t have time for. Or, perhaps, we have scheduled a meet-up but it’s the norm in another culture to be 30 minutes or an hour late. We anxiously think through how it will affect whatever we have planned next. While it’s normal to feel a little stressed, what if the very "interruption” standing in front of you was really a divine appointment sent by God? Or what if that person running late experiences how peaceful and gracious you are in adapting to their culture and therefore, they can encounter a beautiful display of Jesus’ love? To truly represent Christ, we should remain ready and willing for each assignment the Lord sends into our path, no matter the cost or how much we will have to re-route our day. He is always a hundred steps ahead and will work all things for His glory and our good. 2. Jesus loved by discerning each situation well. Think about how many situations Jesus had to respond to on a daily basis. We read in Scripture that there were lines of people waiting to be healed by Him, talk to Him, hear His teachings, or simply touch the hem of His robe. Jesus was fully dependent on His Father to discern each situation before addressing it. “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19) Another temptation we can have when in a relationship with those God has sent us to is to think we already know the solution or what God wants to do before we’ve even asked Him. We believe we are full of knowledge, so we just pull from the bank we have stored within and go with it. However, when we access what is familiar to us as our default, we risk missing out on a God-given solution that might truly be the key to unlocking whatever challenge is in front of us. What does this look like when interacting with others? We can simply ask, “God, what is on Your heart for the person standing in front of me?” Then we listen and respond as He speaks. When we make it a daily habit to pause and hear God’s heart for each situation before responding, we are guaranteed to be effective in loving those around us. He knows the heart of every person that will cross our paths. Imagine how impactful we can be if we first lean on His wisdom and discernment before moving forward. 3. Jesus loved by speaking truth. Most of us are familiar with the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. If we are honest, this conversation makes us a bit nervous as none of us would be comfortable with Jesus calling out intimate details of our lives that we would prefer to hide. But Jesus went further than just airing her dirty laundry. He offered her the hope of the Gospel and a relationship with Him - a divine fulfillment that could never be found in an earthly relationship. Jesus modeled a powerful example of loving others well cross-culturally. He took the low place and spoke truth, truly out of love––speaking to her heart from His. Like Jesus, our goal in sharing the truths about Him and His Word is to bring hope and satisfaction through Him alone. When we speak truth from Scripture, we are calling others higher into all God has for them. The tricky part here is we should avoid speaking truth if it isn’t first fueled by compassion. If it merely comes from a place of judgment, condemnation, or self-righteousness, it will fall flat 100% of the time. But if it truly comes from love, you are likely to not only win a heart back to the Father but, like the story of the Samaritan woman, even an entire village! If you see someone living outside of God’s best for their lives, ask God to show you your heart before engaging theirs. Once your heart is properly postured, you can speak truth out of an overflow of God’s love and trust Him for a transformation in their lives.

Hospitality, Help, and the Hope of the Gospel

By Suzanne Pearson • 16 Apr, 2024

TEAM Canada provides warm welcome and trusted friendships for diaspora populations living far from their native countries. As TEAM Canada workers Peter and Ruth (names changed) drive from their home to a nearby community center, they pass numerous apartment buildings and townhouses. Most of the families who live there are immigrants. They’ve left their countries of origin due to political unrest, trauma, and other difficulties. They’ve left family, friends, homes, jobs, and personal wealth behind. They search for peace, justice for the oppressed, and rest from fear and weariness. And as they adjust to a new country and a new language, they are often very isolated from others around them. “The sad reality is most immigrants are never even invited inside a Canadian home,” says Ruth. Peter and Ruth and their team try to change that reality. For the last nine years, the team, which includes workers from partner organizations as well as volunteers, has held English classes at the community center. Three days a week, over 60 students from more than 20 countries come together to learn English as well as to fellowship together and receive practical help in assimilating to a new normal. Meeting Needs and Building Trust That practical help may come in the form of procuring furniture, clothes, or dishes for newcomers, assistance with creating a resume and finding a job, or teaching people how to navigate Canadian laws and the medical system. As these tangible needs are met, relationships are built. “We invite them into our homes for meals and games,” Ruth shares. “We take them on hiking trips, picnics, outings, and out for coffee.” This is particularly important in this type of ministry because most immigrants come to Canada from cultures that value hospitality. Conversely, Canadians do not typically prioritize hospitality and consequently many newcomers feel lonely and isolated. Inviting folks to various gatherings and outings allows the team to spend extended time hearing people’s stories, struggles, hopes, and dreams. When she speaks about building friendships, Ruth’s heart for the people she serves is evident. “Hearing their stories, it’s easy to love them, and many have become close friends,” Ruth says. “We recognize the value of steady one-on-one relationships.”