...... Propempo International ......

"Must you go to China? How much nicer it would be to stay here and serve the Lord at home!" She made it plain at last that she would not go to China." 
           - J. Hudson Taylor's new ex-girlfriend

Missionaries ought to be highly qualified in every respect; good education, good sense, and good temper are indispensable. ...

Have you ever read the second version? It's rarely in our hymnbooks. The text of So Send I You, sometimes called the finest missionary hymn of the twentieth century, was written by 22-year-old E. Margaret Clarkson. The original version is certainly one of the best known missionary hymns. However, few people know the second version and the story of her re-writing the original to be far better.

First, anyone planning a short term missions ministry should become aware of the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission. Even if someone is hoping to gain exposure by joining an agency planned trip, they should ask the questions implicit in the SOE document.

An overview of those guidelines are, as follows:

... ran across this. See if you like it, too. It appeals for churches to adopt a strategy of sending "church-based teams" to some of the most difficult areas of the world. Churches sending their own folks and being vitally involved in the whole process from selection through training, appointment, and resourcing to ongoing pastoral care and assistance IS THE ESSENCE OF IMPLEMENTING THE NEW TESTAMENT WORD "PROPEMPO."

Stay tuned. You might want to sign up for RSS feed on this page. On this page, we will build a compilation of church-based missionary training resources. Really, we have more than can be given on one web page. So, eventually, we'll split it up a bit. But, for now, we post the resources as downloadable documents and PDFs.

I'm going to upset a lot of people by what I say here. It's not my goal to offend. So, please don't put me in the camp of those who are looking for a fight. But this is what I believe, because this is what I think the Bible teaches about “the missionary call”. First of all, it is interesting to note that term “missionary call” does not exist in the Bible. Secondly, it is good to observe that much confusion about “the missionary call” exists because it is entwined with foggy thinking about knowing the will of God, in general.