by Greg Fletcher

Many mission agencies are experiencing a decline in numbers as the attrition from retiring personnel is not offset by new members. The option of expansion simply doesn’t exist for most agencies these days. In some cases, the very survival of the agency is even at stake! Mobilizers must ask some hard questions and make course corrections in response.

There are many facets to this issue, and oversimplification is not helpful. However, there are indicators that solutions exist, and we must pay attention to them. To ignore them would be to our own peril.

Institutional Loyalty vs. Relational Loyalty
One key element to be considered is the current generation’s concept of loyalty. Loyalty has taken on a different form from that of prior generations. We must recognize that we cannot afford to “do what we’ve always done” and expect to “get what we’ve always gotten”.

To an earlier generation, the concept of loyalty related directly to institutional loyalty. If Junior became a missionary, it was assumed he would join Dad’s agency. Recent generations do not function that way. They are more interested in your identity and your capacity to engage the work than your history as an agency. Read the rest of this article »

by David Armstrong

At the annual M-DAT Board Retreat this Spring, the staff and Board made some significant changes in M-DAT’s leadership roles to better facilitate continuing growth in our services and better match our team member’s skills and gifts with needs in the office.

Some key responsibilities were shuffled and the organization is moving to a three person leadership team composed of an Executive Director, a Director of Program Services and a Director of Operations.

Peter Armstrong, who has ably led M-DAT for its first 10 years, has assumed the role of Program Services Director to focus his energies and skills on the ongoing development of our web based missions training and preparation services.

The legal, financial and overall administrative tasks for the organization will now be covered by the Director of Operations. David Armstrong has moved into that role. Amanda Snodgrass has assumed the position of ShortTermMissions.com Service Manager and will be helping the many organizations who use ShortTermMissions.com to make known the opportunities they offer.

And lastly, we are now looking for a new Executive Director. Pray for our Board as they define the unique job description for this position and then find and interview candidates. We would appreciate your prayers as we wait on God to provide the right person for the new role. Also pray for the team as a whole as we adjust to these transitions.

As always we remain committed to helping people take their next step in missions involvement.

Do you think you have what it takes to mentor aspiring missionaries? Jeff Goins is putting some of his time and energy into matching people who want to mentor with people who want to help missionaries tell their stories in compelling ways. If you believe you can help writers, photographers, graphic designers and so forth excel at their craft in order to bring the stories of God’s faithfulness on the mission field back home, learn more by going to Goins’ Pilgrimage of the Heart blog.

Prayer: Pray that God would provide a new Executive Director for our Leadership Team. And pray for the M-DAT team as we adjust to the modified and enlarged roles.

Prayer: Pray for us as we are in discussions about a partnering arrangement with another website to provide broader coverage for the many great mission trips posted on ShortTermMissions.com. There are a lot of details to be considered.

Praise: Praise the Lord for a college student and recent graduate who are inquiring about helping develop content for our web sites as volunteers.

Praise: Praise for a great time of interaction at our March Annual Board Retreat. We have a terrific Board which provides helpful perspectives.

Praise: We were greatly encouraged to see the number of people looking for mission trips go back up this Spring after a plateauing of interest last Spring.

For this issue’s interview, we bring you a video from PreparingToGo.com. We’ve posted quite a few videos interviews to PreparingToGo.com this year. In the video below the young aspiring missionaries talk about their journey toward cross-cultural service. Links to three other brief videos with the couple are below.

Watch more videos from our conversation with the Olanders:
How did you raise support?
How to choose a mission agency
Dating and missions