I was fascinated by mission work very early in my life. Through high school and college, my fascination grew into a passion, and I knew God had set me apart to be part of His kingdom work abroad.

While this understanding of purpose so early in life was a gift, I also felt a bit lost. There were few outlets in the RPCNA for someone like me to engage in missions. I also didn’t know whether God was drawing me to go abroad into global missions or whether I was to support the global work in other ways from North America. And I had no idea how to figure that all out. I struggled to find tools, resources, and people to help me explore my calling. In God’s good providence, He set me on several paths that directed me to where I am today.

When I accepted my current role, I suddenly found myself in a position to do something to help others like myself on their journeys from discerning their call to finding their place in the global missions landscape. That realization has evolved into what we call the RP Global Missions Funnel.

What Is The Funnel?

I don’t know about you, but I am really good at coming up with ideas. I have more ideas than I could ever do anything with, but I struggle with implementation. Thank the Lord I don’t work alone!

Knowing my areas of weakness, I shared my ideas with Vince W. (RPGM missions consultant) and Matt F. (former RP Missions director). They eagerly engaged with these ideas. We divvied up the work, and next thing I knew the funnel was (literally) taking shape.

The funnel shows what the path to long-term work abroad looks like for those interested. But it isn’t just for those few people. It is also for those who, like me, need time to explore their calling. It is for people who long to be a part of global missions but see their role as senders, givers, and mobilizers. Wherever you are on the spectrum, there is a path with tools and opportunities for you as you find your place in the global missions landscape.

RPGM Explore

At the top of the funnel is RPGM Explore, which is RP Missions’ training program. If you are going on an RP Missions trip, you get to be a part of an RPGM Explore cohort to learn what it means to become a global Christian and to prepare you for the work you have as an RP Missions team member.

It is not just for RP Missions team members. Anyone can join an RPGM Explore cohort. Whether you are a Congregational Missions Advocate, an RP Global Missions board member, or someone interested in learning more about how you can engage with missions if unable to go on a short-term trip, RPGM Explore is for you!

You and your cohort will meet together virtually to explore (see what I did there?) God’s heart for the nations, an overview of world religions, and ways you can engage in cross-cultural ministry by praying, sending, welcoming, going, and mobilizing.

RP Missions

Short-term missions are an effective way for people to expand their understanding of the global church and be exposed to what God is doing globally. I long for you to hear the appeals we receive from the global churches and ministries that RP Missions partners with, asking us to send out these teams. The greatest contribution RP Missions offers is encouragement to brothers and sisters abroad in places where it can feel lonely with so few Bible-believing Christians. But we have also seen God use short-term trips to implant His heart for the nations in the hearts of those who have gone on these trips. As I look at those who are currently serving with RP Global Missions abroad, the overwhelming majority of them have served on short-term trips before going to serve long term.

RP Missions has also raised up those who are now giving, praying, and serving on the RP Global Missions board, serving as Congregational Missions Advocates, and engaging in global missions in many other ways. RP Missions continues to be a significant training ground for RPCNA members who go on to be involved at all levels in the work of RP Global Missions.

Missionary Cross Training

If someone has completed RPGM Explore, has been on an RP Missions trip, and still wants to explore his or her calling to cross-cultural service, Missionary Cross Training (MCT) is that next step.

MCT takes students through five modules, which cover Life in Christ and four cross-cultural ministry dynamics (Theological, Team, Missional, and Cultural).

There are multiple ways an MCT student can complete the curriculum. If they are already full-time students, working full-time, or otherwise have full schedules, they can start out by joining our Next Steps program, where they cover the first third of the curriculum over the course of three years. Students at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary can take MCT for credit. Those who want to go at their own pace or join a cohort of others serious about working through the curriculum can do that as well.

Mid-Term Trips

As people work their way through MCT, some will want to deepen their cross-cultural ministry experience by taking a mid-term trip (three months to three years). Those serious about future long-term ministry are encouraged to consider going on a Trailblaze trip. This trip combines opportunities to serve with hands-on, practical training to help participants develop skills needed for pioneer mission work, such as language learning, cultural adaptation, and field ministry experience.

There are also opportunities to simply go and help fill a need on the field for an extended period of time, whether helping at Cush Christian School in South Sudan, doing an internship in South Asia, or working with university students in Japan.

Arrow

Once someone is confident the Lord is directing him (or her) to serve abroad in a long-term capacity and is projecting that he will be on the field within one to three years, he is invited to join our ARROW community. This group meets via videoconference once a month to encourage one another, pray together, and discuss some of the topics they are working through in their minds and hearts. Topics cover everything from fear and avoiding a white savior mentality, to addressing team conflict and managing expectations. Several former long-term missionaries join this call to offer advice, counsel, and wisdom as they disciple participants toward the harvest fields. These monthly calls are one of the things I love most about my job. ARROW members graduate when they go to serve abroad in an RP Global Missions field or other global mission.

What About Everyone Else?

This diagram is a funnel because each layer of the funnel will have fewer people. Lots of people will take RPGM Explore and go on RP Missions trips, but few will make their way into the ARROW community and to long-term service abroad. So, what happens to all of those people at the top of the funnel?

This isn’t like an escape room. There is no exit to find. Once in the funnel, we pray you will always be in the funnel. But most people will find their way into the sides of the funnel, supporting the work of those continuing down the middle. Here’s the thing: Everyone is called to global missions. As you will learn in RPGM Explore, there are many ways to live out that calling. You can serve abroad long term, but most will serve by mobilizing, giving, praying, sending, and welcoming.

I realize many of you belong to small congregations. You may wonder what kind of global impact you can have when you are just trying to cover the cost of your local ministry. I’d like to leave you with this challenge from Samuel Miller, the second president of Princeton Theological Seminary:

*“The time has been when serious Christians were apprehensive, that the spirit of Foreign Missions, if cherished and acted upon, beyond certain very moderate bounds, would exhaust the resources and impair the strength of the churches at home. This error, I trust, is now beginning to be abandoned by the most of those who study the word of God, and regard the dispensations of his providence.

They begin to see that efforts to spread the gospel are the surest pledge of its power and success at home; that when such efforts are sincerely and fervently made, they never fail to rouse, to animate, and to draw down a blessing upon those who make them; and that, of course, however feeble and impoverished a church may be, one of the very best means of enlarging, strengthening, and building herself up, is to engage, heart and hand, in the hallowed work of sending the gospel to the benighted and perishing. Oh, if we could hear of all the churches being united as one man in feeling, praying, and laboring for the conversion of the world, we might certainly conclude that the time, even the set time to favor Zion, in a glorious manner, had come”* (October 14, 1833).

Church, let’s strengthen our hands to see the gospel of Jesus Christ spread at home and abroad. Join us in the funnel. Whether to strengthen its sides or to flow through the middle toward long-term service, God is calling you.