As fewer people appear to be coming forward for full-time overseas ministry, it is vital we understand some of the barriers and fears. Many of these obstacles may be grounded in reality and just part of the cost of going, but other concerns might be misunderstandings or things that we, as a mission society, or the local church can address or remove.

In our research project Pathways to Mission, we asked our mission partners to name the top barriers to going long-term overseas.

They listed the following barriers (ranked in order of priority):

  • The cost of going / challenge of fund-raising
  • The impact on children
  • The impact on wider family
  • The challenge of language learning

Many also shared fears about their own suitability; fear of failure; the isolation of ministry; and the challenge of generating support. Some of our mission partners didn’t remember any fears, just youthful exuberance and hope!

How can the church respond to these barriers?

As we consider these barriers, is there anything we can do as friends or family of prospective mission partners or as church leaders and mission agencies? How can we alleviate fears about money? How can we demonstrate that we share the responsibility to fundraise? How can we offer support and reassurance regarding children? Could we introduce prospective candidates to families that have thrived overseas and picked up the language? What promises of God can we speak into these fears?

As well as citing the top barriers to mission, we also asked our mission partners to share their general fears. Rather than summarising, we share their answers in full as they are so helpful as we think about supporting existing and potential gospel workers:

What were your biggest fears / reservations before becoming a long-term mission partner? 

Family

  • Missing family
  • How my wife would cope
  • The impact on the boys – how they would adjust, what education would look like
  • Giving birth abroad – which I haven’t even had to do!
  • Moving overseas with teenage kids
  • Telling my parents we were going overseas
  • Family pressure (and related shame)
  • The complete and multiple unknowns in relation to the future (where we might end up settling, our children’s futures), and leaving my parents
  • Who will take care of my ageing parents, should the need arise whilst I’m abroad
  • Raising children in a foreign church context – lack of Christian peers and a hostile culture

Isolation

  • Isolation and loneliness as a single person
  • Lack of close friendships/partners in ministry
  • Where would our spiritual support come from if not locally? Would we be able to be “fed” by our home church in UK?

Suitability and fear of failure

  • I had not had much cross-cultural ministry training
  • Being a faithful witness. I wasn’t sure if I was suitable.
  • My own suitability
  • Becoming a role model and standing in front of supporting churches – the pressure to appear to be perfect
  • Before going to my placement my biggest fear was how people would respond to me in my role there
  • Failure of our objective to church plant in a big city in Italy
  • Failing either through my own sin, lack of ability with language or lack of ability to support local church and it all being a waste of resources/sacrifice
  • Sense of inadequacy for the task
  • Previous bad experience

Finance and support from churches

  • Raising money
  • That nobody would care or want to support us
  • The fundraising process kept me on my knees, practicing that trust in prayer.
  • Funding was the main worry

Excitement

  • None that I can remember – I was young, unmarried, and eager for the adventure!
  • If I’m honest, naively I didn’t really have any that I remember
  • There were 1000 unknowns. Looking back we were quite naive. However, God has provided wonderfully!

Many of these fears will be realised – it can be heart-breaking for mission partners to live far from ageing parents or raise teenagers in a different culture. Fundraising can be difficult and ministry can be isolating. But again, how can we, as sending and supporting churches and friends, provide some reassurance in the light of these fears?

Can we, as family members, make it easier for our children or grandchildren to go by not making them feel guilty about what they might miss? Can we offer to call a single mission partner every month to help carry their burdens? What Bible truths offer hope when we sense our own inadequacy for the task? How can we preach into these insecurities and fears?

To find out more about the typical pathways to overseas mission as well as the barriers and fears faced by our mission partners, download our new report, Pathways to Mission.