by Joshua Tracy, PhD

Sending and Missions Minister, Highland Oaks Church

Missionaries are people. That may sound like an all-too-simple statement, but more often than not churches, care providers, and mission committees can treat or, at the very least, conceive of their missionaries as caricatures, not people. In some instances, missionaries are faithful “supermen”, men and women of steel who have left their home to go to a far-off place and join God on mission. They are put on a pedestal, heralded as the best of us. Or maybe it is the opposite. Missionaries are lazy or overly fortunate, living in foreign countries on the church’s dime. Sometimes they live in places most people could only dream of visiting, let alone reside, and occasionally those very missionaries have the audacity to take a vacation. The nerve.

Perhaps, though, it is somewhere in the middle. We hear from our missionaries through a quarterly newsletter and our mission committee fills us in on the work. They seem nice enough. They swoop in every year or so, usually on a special month or day, have a nice slide show and presentation, then head back to the field. Missionaries are a necessary component to a church’s budget but do not really have much to offer the congregation.

Sometimes these caricatures seem to make sense, but in the end, they are all overly simplistic and miss the basic truth: missionaries are people. People want to be known, seen, listened to, and loved. Soul care, when done well, knows, sees, and listens to people; it is how we love them well. The beautiful thing? When we practice it for our mission partners, soul care can and should affect our churches as well, leading to deeper spiritual formation not only for our friends on the field but those in our congregations too.

Get to Know Your Mission Partners

Do you know your mission partners? Not just where they are from, what they are doing wherever they are, or how much you support them, but do you really know them? As simple as it sounds, the baseline of missionary care is knowing who they are, both the significant and the recreational. Do you know their story, passions, and desires? Do you know what they do to relax or unwind? Do you know their hobbies, what they do outside of ministry for their mental, physical, and emotional well-being?

When we know our mission partners, we can more effectively care for them. At the very least, a mission committee or care team should be connected enough with missionaries to answer these questions easily and encourage missionaries accordingly. Ideally, each supporting congregation would have some meaningful time to get to know their mission partners prior to going to the field. Regardless of if that happens or not, consider a “concentric circle” approach to relationship (what we use in my context) with a point person/minister consistently checking in with mission partners for the sake of their well-being, a committee of some kind who know and communicate with them, as well as receive reports from the point person, and then the congregation at large with members personally engaged with the missionaries to varying degrees.

Practically, this means person to person interaction. Technology now gives us incredible means of connection over great distance, so video calls are meaningful ways to engage with mission partners. Nothing, of course, replaces physical presence. Visit them in their context. See what they do firsthand. Be around them when they are working and not working, not as a means of surveillance but as a companion. Whether in person or online, presence matters, so schedule regular intervals to continue building your relationship. It will go a long way in knowing your mission partners.

See and Listen to Your Mission Partners

It is only when we know our mission partners that we can begin see and listen to them well. “Seeing” as in knowing them enough to understand how certain situations, difficulties, and celebrations may affect them, and “listening” as in hearing what they may need or desire, even under what they may be saying. “I’m good,” for example, may be an appropriate and truthful response to the question “how are you?” Your mission partners may well be good from a work or family perspective, accomplishing all the things a healthy worker, spouse, teammate, etc. may be expected to do. But if we know them well, if we know their situation—what’s going on back “at home” or wherever their extended family lives, how long they have been on the field without sabbatical, what the culture to which they have been called demands of them—we can ask better questions and, hopefully, “see” and “listen” beneath the surface.

Importantly, this does not mean our mission partners are being disingenuous or deceitful. We all know what it is like to respond with “fine” when internally we desire someone to ask us a more poignant question or know we are anything but “fine.” Seeing and listening to our mission partners looks like caring for them enough to ask difficult but helpful questions to make sure they are indeed “good.” To “see” and “listen to” means going from simple knowing to trust, and when people trust one another, they can engage one another in deep, earnest ways.

Simply, this looks like attentiveness, like consistently checking with our mission partners and asking them questions not only related to their work, but to their soul as well (I often ask that very question: “how is your soul?”). Dallas Willard’s anatomy of the soul is helpful here, which begins with the spirit (heart/will), then the mind (thought/feeling), next the body, after that a person’s social context, all of which is encapsulated by the soul (and then the soul interacts with God’s infinite environment). The soul, then, is not a little thing next to our heart, but that which makes us who we are.

Why is this important? Seeing and listening to our mission partners means caring for each aspect of their soul. This could mean providing a spiritual director, suggesting a ministry coach, a significant sabbatical for spiritual and physical rest, or a therapist for their mental health. As God loves every part of our being, so too should we love those of our missionaries.

The Emanating and Reciprocal Effect of Soul Care

Soul care is an outpouring of spiritual formation, the process of transforming every part of our being, of our soul to imitate that of Jesus Christ. Soul care and spiritual formation go hand in hand, and making soul care the priority or center of your mission program can naturally create formative ripple effects throughout your organization or congregation. First, when we, as leaders on staff or volunteers, engage in soul care for our mission partners, we must do so knowing full well where we are with our own spiritual formation journey. We should not ask “how is your soul?” without first asking that question to ourselves: “how is my soul?” Without honest self-assessment and reflection, we can project our own issues, pain, or even joy on others. This type of inner consideration lends itself to sincere spiritual formation, which in turn informs appropriate soul care.

But soul care and spiritual formation are not only for missionaries and leaders but for all people who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ. Revisiting the “concentric circles” mentioned earlier, a core of spiritual formation and soul care can (and should) emanate outward, potentially affecting everyone in your organization or congregation as well. In my context, for example, we create cohorts of 8-10 adults every year who engage in a Pilgrimage process, where they go experience God in a new place and people, all the while working on their own spiritual formation. This has been done in conjunction with our mission partners who pour back into our congregation—the very people who financially support and love our friends on the mission field. In this way, soul care and spiritual formation can create a reciprocal effect, one where missionaries, receiving soul care from leaders, in turn teach and walk alongside congregants in their own spiritual transformation.

When done attentively and consistently, soul care instills a robust spiritual community where mission partners are cared for, leaders and volunteers are in tune with their own spiritual formation journey, and congregants—he very people financially sustaining our missionaries—encounter a more meaningful way of transforming their soul into the likeness of Jesus Christ.