Welcome to May’s Messenger article! In our monthly journey together through our model for member care, we’ve come to the circle of care that we call "specialist care." These are the professionals who step in on an as-needed basis to help missionaries with specific needs. We’ll eventually hear from two; this month, Dr. Sonny Guild will speak to the importance of an outside team consultant. Dr. Guild has worked with a variety of teams on many continents sent by numerous different organizations and churches. He is the kind of missionary care specialist who can play an infrequent but crucial role in the life of a missionary.

by Dr. Sonny Guild

The goal of the team consultant is to be able to enter the missionary’s world as seamlessly as possible. You certainly don’t want to be a burden on those you have come to help. We have always been welcomed into their world and have been blessed to walk alongside many missionary family units. Entering the world of another to listen, experience, consult, and suggest is a sacred opportunity. Therefore, the whole task should first be bathed in prayer; this is the primary work of anyone supporting missionaries! The other, more specific tasks of the missionary team consultant that I want to address here are pre-arrival work, building trust, fairness, and reporting.

Pre-arrival Work: The work always begins prior to arriving onsite. In anticipation of an onsite visit, I write each team member individually. If I do not know them I give them our bios and request a bio from them. I also ask for a history of the team. One important question is, “What do you think is the most important thing the team needs to discuss?” I have, on occasion, seen all team members mention the same issue, an issue avoided for fear of hurting others. The work has begun!

Before arriving, I administer several assessments, two of which I’ll mention here. The CernySmith Assessment(CSA) is a tool that measures areas and levels of stress in one’s life, particularly focusing on cross-cultural stress. On arrival, I debrief the CSA individually (or as couples with my wife, Eunice) as well as with the whole team. The second assessment is the Periodic Assessment of Team Health (PATH), which I developed. This tool addresses seven domains of a healthy team to surface both strengths and challenges of the team. PATH is always debriefed in a group setting and leads to individuals and the team as a whole discerning what they can do to enhance their team’s health.

Building Trust: I am often amazed at the level of openness missionaries give Eunice and me, something that likely stems from several sources. First, we have often been involved in training the teams we serve. Through that training, a bond of love, rapport and a deep level of trust was built. Second, if I do not already know the team, pre-visit communication begins the building of trust. In addition to emails, Zoom is a wonderful platform for visiting, laying a spiritual and healthy foundation for the consultation. Finally, on initial visits, I ask about each team member’s spiritual journey, something which allows insight into their life experiences and significant moments as well as deepens our appreciation for each missionary. This illustrates that we are interested in their story, not just their immediate circumstance. It is also an acknowledgment that God has been at work in their lives and will be at work in our time together.

Receiving feedback from team members provides much detail regarding their lives and their team, which facilitates the building of trust. Keeping confidences is especially important when gathering personal information.

Fairness: Our value as consultants is enhanced because we have no connection with the financial support base of the missionaries. We do not represent any one sending church. When a third party consults, it is easier to trust in a lack of bias. In fact, supporting churches value outside consultants because, in their words, “You can probe more deeply because there is no threat to their support.” Our trips to provide specialized team care are often funded by supporting churches because they recognize the value of the help given the team.

On our trips to work with teams, there are many things we do for every member of the team. We usually bring personalized gifts for both the adults and the children. We try to schedule time to stay in each home. We generally try to have our consulting meetings (either individual or team) in the mornings so the afternoons are free to see their work or to spend time visiting. All of these activities show that we want to be fair and have a balance between consulting and enjoying being with them. They need to understand that they and their work are important to us.

We have seen many different issues that teams struggled with. How do you address personal issues? What is the way forward when relationships are so broken a team cannot worship together? How do you draw forth conversations all want to have but are too fearful to address? How do you help team members begin the process of rebuilding trust?

Our presence as a third-party in combination with a tool such as the PATH often opens up conversations and hearts. Taking the PATH naturally reveals strengths and challenges as well as what is on their hearts. The fear of addressing a challenging issue is somewhat mitigated because a trusted third party is present. Because we are there to facilitate the conversation, we are able to talk both task (what the team does) as well as relationship (who the team is). A good team care specialist will listen well, ask good questions and give suggestions when appropriate, all while listening to God and seeking His help to guide the process.

Finally, at the end of our time with teams we take them out on the town. In remote places this is more of a challenge, but it is important to celebrate the team and the work they’ve done. The team needs to be praised for the hard work they’ve done during the consultation! Their life together in the mission of God is worth the work and deserves to be celebrated.

Reporting: After the hard work of consulting, how do you use what has been learned? Who needs to know? Our practice is to let the missionaries know we will send a report to their supporting churches. We promise to protect anonymity but at the same time let churches should know how the team is doing.

The report gives insight into the process we used: schedule, assessments used and general results, time spent with missionaries as well as seeing their work, etc. We try to honor and encourage the supporting churches. Their attentiveness to maintaining the health of the team is critical in making the team effective and resilient. Once the report is written, a copy is sent to each missionary, asking if this is a fair and true representation of our time together. Only after their approval is the report sent to each supporting church.

Gifted individuals from organizations like MRN as well as others from local churches, universities, and other walks of life can be helpful to churches seeking specialists to serve their missionaries. We thank the Lord for our opportunities to walk alongside His workers. May God bless all who contribute to the Mission to His glory!