Worker Assessment
by Andy Johnson
Director of Worker Care
My oldest son wants to be a pilot. Given how much of his life has been spent between worlds as a third-culture kid, this comes as a surprise to exactly No One. As he heads into his senior year, though, he’s now confronted with the reality that simply wanting to fly jets for a living does not qualify him to do so. Turns out, there are some pretty rigorous requirements in place for that.
Virtually every field requires some form of assessment. While my oldest may one day captain a 777, he currently works in fast food – and even working at Chick-fil-a didn’t come without assessment.
That’s part of why it confuses me when I bump into people who think that simply wanting to be a cross-cultural worker is all it takes. We’d never let a junior in high school who wants to fly jets anywhere near the cockpit. Why then do we assume that everyone with the desire and perceived calling is qualified to board one of those jets and navigate the complexities, challenges, and risks of cross-cultural service?
At MRN, we believe in and advocate very strongly for rigorous assessment of candidates for the field. While it might not feel this way to candidates walking through (enduring…) our processes, screening and preparation are some of the most important ways we provide care. Over the last little while, though, we’ve been wrestling with the fact that, while our traditional go-to’s for assessment were designed with white, middle-class Americans in mind, the majority of the cross-cultural workers in the world today are not that. We’ve been working to create assessment processes that are culturally humble to better serve cross-cultural workers world-wide.
In order to reorient the how, we needed to remind ourselves of the what. What are the characteristics of candidates who have a good chance of moving cross-culturally and thriving in ways that lead to movements of disciples forming? I recently read an article on the 28 Qualities the Best Missionaries Have in Common. I hang out with a lot of cross-cultural workers, but I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who embodies all of these all the time. Going looking for that guy or that girl is fruitless - not to mention the fact that God seems to do some of His best work through broken, flawed people.
So what do we look for? Among other things, we hold to these:
- Disciple Makers are disciples. Effective cross-cultural workers must love Jesus and have a plan or a way forward to become more like him. Our director Dan Bouchelle is fond of saying, We teach what we know; we reproduce what we are1
- Disciple Makers can articulate their calling. When they come to us, they may not know where they are headed, who will send them, or with whom they will go, but they do know that God is stirring something in their heart. They must be able to articulate and establish their call. This is for two reasons: hard times will come that cause them to question if they heard correctly, and they will have to repeatedly recenter their hearts and ministries to avoid mission drift amidst all the good (but not best!) ways they could serve.
- Disciple Makers are resilient. They can recount times when they tried and failed and tried again. They have a proven track record of trying hard things. They must be willing to try things that are so big they are bound to fail unless Jesus shows up in power.
- Disciple Makers are self-starters. They are people who ask Why not? when confronted with a new possibility. They can get themselves out of bed and out of the house to work even when no one is keeping score. More specifically, they are on the lookout for God’s movement and are looking for ways to jump in.
- Disciple Makers are always learning and adapting. They understand that, no matter how long they’ve been in a given context, they still have much to learn. They are coachable and teachable and willing even to change their mind. The self-awareness to see weakness in themselves (and seek out help addressing it!) is critical to growing in Christlikeness and in their skills.
- Disciple Makers work and play well with others. One of the most powerful witnesses to the Christ happens when very different people serve others and each other in oneness. The stubbornness of a resilient self-starter can be tempered and refined into Christlikeness best in the crucible of communal life.
Here at MRN, we go about assessing these traits (and others!) in a variety of ways. Candidates begin with an interview with their potential Initiative Director to determine fit for the ways in which we think about and pursue mission. They then complete an extensive application profile as well as a battery of tests, all of which have been normed and translated into a variety of languages. Our care department then engages candidates in a series of interviews around these tools before giving recommendations toward growth.
All this before they are admitted into a nine-month learning cohort.
Which includes another built-in round of in-person assessment.
Did I mention we take assessment seriously?
Two more things to keep in mind. First, we don’t look at assessment merely as gate-keeping; we use what we learn to serve candidates-turned-workers in ministry throughout our working relationship. Second, even after all we do, the best we can say is MRN-assessed workers have the potential to thrive and bear fruit. We must always remember that the Father calls people to Himself and the Spirit brings the harvest.
Where I worship, almost every Sunday someone says, “We exist to lead people into thriving relationships with Jesus.” Every believer everywhere should always be about the work of making disciples. Not every believer is called to do this in a cross-cultural capacity. Thorough, culturally-humble assessment is an essential part of responsible sending. Whether you are a worker considering heading to the field or a church looking to send, we are here to partner with you. Either reply to this email or reach out to us here to start the conversation!