Years ago, I took the role of Minister of Missionary Care at Houston's First. It has been one of the most rewarding and stretching positions I have ever experienced in my short ministry career. Our church currently supports over 180 missionaries units on the field at this time. With over 35+ countries represented within that network, you could say our Missionary Care Team and our Mission’s Team have our work cut out for us.

In the ministry of missionary care, trust is the most valuable comity — trust is a currency. It allows you to move forward or prevents you from progressing with your partners. Trust with each missionary partner should be protected and valued as gifts given to us. With trust comes the need for communication and connection—which is a constant element of this job that requires our team to be on their smartphones. Platforms like WhatsApp, FaceTime, and Macro Polo enable us to connect through time zones and across the pond in ways that previous generations did not have the ability to do.

Over the last several years, our Missionary Care Team has seen and heard it all. We've seen everything from religious persecution to church planting movements, from hidden depression to unexplainable joy through trials. Whether our team gets to hear these stories through a screen or we get to hear them from across the table, we have learned some life lessons from our missionary partners, and we would love to share some with you.

1. Humility is the most effective learned skill.

“Coming alongside” is a phrase we hear constantly from missionaries. This statement not only gives the tone of humility but also displays how missionaries are not on the mission field to swoop and try to fix everything. 

Instead, “coming alongside” hints at the fact that they are there to learn from the locals on how to bring true transformation into these communities. As someone with a Wwestern mindset, anything “unproductive” or “inefficient” rubs me the wrong way;  I really hate it. Despite my impatience and stubbornness, watching our partners use this approach over the years has been truly humbling.

2. Leverage your gifts while living from your identity.

Leverage your Gifts & Talents.

Knowing the spiritual gift/s that God has given us is key when finding an effective role on the mission field. In fact, no one likes being bad at anything, let alone their job. That's why most missionaries leverage their gifts and time in areas where God has gifted them. 

I have written down some key scriptures where spiritual gifts are listed in the Bible. I encourage you to read these passages and start praying through how God has gifted you. Then, start investing your time in developing your gifts and talents:

Romans 12 // Motivational Gifts.

“In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.” Romans 12:6–8

1 Corinthians 12–14 // Ministry Gifts

“A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else, the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.” 1 Corinthians 12:7–11

Ephesians 4 // Equipping Gifts

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11–12

Live from your Identity.

Although exercising our spiritual gifts can be exciting and fruitful, it can not be the source in which any of us receive for our value. Jesus knew this—which is why He often went away to pray and to be reminded that He was more than His ministry. In fact, Jesus accused many in the crowd of following Him only because He had produced so many miracles, not because they understood who He truly was as the promised Messiah. 

Don't miss what the Father was saying to Jesus in Mark 1: 9-12:

“One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

I love this passage. When I teach on Mark 1, I like to point out that God declared “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy” before Jesus’ ministry even began. The Heavenly Father was declaring this statement before Jesus had performed and produced His impact. 

As children of God, this should give us extreme encouragement because this now means what God said about Jesus—God now says at US. Think about that.

That is exactly why missionaries have to live from their identity—not by what they are gifted at or what we can do or produce for the Kingdom. We can fail in many roles in this life, including being a missionary, but we can’t fail at being a son or daughter. That is crucial, because no matter what happens, that identity can not be taken away from us. 

At the end of the day, being a Son or Daughter is defines us.

3. It's ok to be misunderstood —Focus on your calling instead

Plenty of people in the Bible felt misunderstood when they were stepping into their calling—including John the Baptist, every Old Testament prophet, and even Jesus Himself. John the Baptist mentioned several times that he was not the promised Messiah but was only a forerunner for which one someone who is greater is coming. The Old Testament prophets were each rejected at their times of ministry, only be loved and honored after their deaths. Even Jesus Himself, would ask His disciples a frequent question — “Who do you say I am?” because He knew very few understood.

Focus on your personal calling: 

The majority of the time, our calling does not match our job title. Yet most of the time, our calling means to fulfill the unspoken roles that Jesus has given us in this life and to bring value to other people’s lives. 

Even as a minister on staff at a local church, there are some ministries that I have responsibility for but do not feel personally called to. That does not make them less important or mean that God will not work through them. No, what this means is that I have been in-trusted to steward them as responsibilities while having the freedom to focus on what I feel personally called to. 

What about those of us who are still looking for our calling? I would start looking in the area where we need the most grace, because Jesus is not going to call us into a place where we don’t need him. On the other side of that grace is the place is where we experience tremendous favor, conviction, passion, and gratitude. I hear many of our missionaries say “When the calling is true, you are willing to deal with any hardship”.

Focus on our communal calling: 

A good example of a communal calling is our church—Houston’s First Baptist Church. We see tremendous favor and fruit in the areas of ministry in which we are giving and going. I believe that is from how our church started. 

In the 1800’s, before Texas was a state, an attorney from New York funded a missionary from Tennessee to plant one of the first churches here in the unreached nation of Texas—very cool! Therefore 178 years later, we still are still a church that is trying to carry on the same legacy of fiving and going.

4. It’s okay for us to need care.

One of the biggest misconceptions that a church puts on missionaries is that missionaries do not need what they are constantly giving. They are not superhuman, Missionaries need sacred spaces with safe people. Yes, missionaries have bad days. Yes, missionaries doubt their faith at times. Yes, missionaries struggle with sin.

 Missionaries are people too.

Jesus understood this, which is why He was so intentional about doing ministry and living with boundaries. Even Jesus had boundaries:

“The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and taught. Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.” Mark 6:30–31

Jesus stepped away from the hustle and bustle of constant ministry and managed not to let everyone have the same access to him. Our Savior had an inner circle, which He shared and spilled His guts out too. The Teacher had three different layers of people in His life—The Crowd, The Twelve 12, and The Inner 3. Missionaries must keep the same boundaries and layers of relationships as well. This is difficult for a lot of us.

5. Prayer is the true work.

Lastly, our Missionary Care Team has taught us is that prayer is the true work of ministry. So much of missionary work must be drenched in prayer, with a constant dependence on the Lord’s help. This is something the twelve disciples understood after doing ministry and life with Jesus, for quite some time.

“Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1

It is interesting that Jesus’ disciples never asked him to teach them how to preach, how to teach, or how to lead church planting movements. Yet the twelve disciples ask, “Teach us how to pray.” After doing life and ministry with the Messiah for some time, they must have made the connection to the source of Jesus’ power, influence, and intimacy with God to prayer. Likewise, the source of missionaries' power, influence, and intimacy with God must be in prayer. 

It is the true work.

Skyler Womack served as the Minister of Missionary Care at Houston's First Baptist Church. Skyler and side his wife, Abigail Womack, currently live in downtown, Houston. They work with Apartmemt Life to provide wholistic community for their high-rise community.

A version of this article originally posted on Skyler's blog.