Impact of Staff Development on Missions in Mid-Term Care Period
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Reply please respond to these two students engaging in there post . Write as if you are writing in first person please. 125 words each
1. Hannah Wong
MondayOct 4 at 7:41pm
Importance of Staff Development
Research findings show ongoing staff development is important to re-tool missionaries to be better equipped for ministry in a new cultural context different from their home-country, especially for younger generation who see this as a must have priority (Hay, 2007, p. 277). Moreover, training is needed for grooming national leaders to take over responsibilities and the missionaries themselves need training to assume new responsibilities in another area of ministry (Hay, 2007, p. 277-278). Therefore, continuous training and new skills development is important for mid-term mission workers to prepare for role changes, gain confidence and cultivate abilities to take on new responsibilities (p. 277). The satisfaction of having opportunities for training and development of gifts and skills to develop their own ministry and fulfil their ministry responsibilities will increase the retention rate (p. 309).
Impact of Staff Development on Missions in Mid-Term Care Period
Mid-term mission workers are still adjusting as they are faced with challenges two years into the mission field. They come to realise their own limitations and unrealistic expectations and feel disappointed, may be even doubting their calling or suitability (Hay, 2007, p. 278). Staff development impacts mission in that when opportunities are given to for continuous training, personal development, change in skills, knowledge, and attitudes on the field, mid-term mission workers are more ready to move on with the new culture world, and when care needs of the mid-term worker are taken care of, the workers are ready to get on with new phase of doing ministry with confidence, and transfer new learning to ministry on the field (pp. 278-279).
The positive and negative examples given by Ishak (Hay, 2007, p. 312-314) clearly illustrate the impact of staff development. The first story of mission worker, Nathan, learns to adapt to fit ministry to the local church situation in Egypt, then using his gifts and strengths to train and equip the disciples of diverse groups, thus bringing a positive impact to the local church.
The second story of Keith, though a gifted evangelist, is not trained to be a pastor and thus his role as a pastor is met with difficulties without shepherding and discipleship skills (p. 313). Here, it must be noted that though staff development and training is important, assigning a trained worker to a role that he is not trained for would greatly impact the ministry in the field and cause a negative impact (p. 314)
2.MaDonna Maurer
MondayOct 4 at 10:50pm
Why is staff development important, especially in the critical mid-term period
“Staff development is investment in missionaries as individuals” (Hay, 2007, p. 276). Rob Hay goes on to say that “in mission, there is no monetary profit incentive, so it is important to prioritize staff development for other reasons” (p.276). During the first term missionaries understand that it will be a season of challenging work learning the language and adjusting to the new culture. It is during the second term that the missionary will begin to really do “ministry.” David Milligan says that “the process of realigning expected or idealistic expectations with reality can be a painful one for first-term and second term missionaries” (277-278). I believe this is so because many times the gifts of the missionary are not being used effectively or even worse mismatched with the ministry they are given. Milligan explains how they train and help missionaries evaluate or “appraise” the work that they are doing. He says that “at the end of the day, workers who find the right fit for ministry will remain n ministry and thrive” (280). And with all that we learned last week about generations and post-modernity; the younger missionaries need to feel like the ministry is worth the effort. Aligning the gifts with the right ministry will only aid in their trust and belief in worth of it all.
I found the article by Ron Brown on resilience in ministry to be interesting. I saw how the factors that helped with retention (p. 315-316) were mostly true for my case when we almost lost our daughter, then going through the diagnosis process and the surgery to have her feeding tube inserted. And I thought the list that was created to help agencies foster this resiliency was good – but I kept thinking about that phrase that Debby used from Geoff Whiteman, “Resiliency is not grit, but grace.” And I see this played out greatly in my situation. It was the grace of God who spoke to me in the hospital room in Beijing before the diagnosis asking me if I would still follow Him if Matthea never walked, never married, and if He chose to take her to heaven right there. That “grace” is what got me through those months of tests. I answered “yes, but asked Him to be patient with me” (in case you were wondering). And it is that grace that has kept us here – but like Debby said, it is that same grace that brought them to the States because that is what was best for them. So, as counselors helping missionaries grapple with the stresses in their life – whether that is trauma related or other daily stresses related to ministry and giftings – we have to remember grace. We have to humbly seek grace and point them to grace… what does/could this look like?
Wish we were all sitting around a table with a mug to discuss this. I would love your thoughts on this topic…
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