The providence of God has led us all into a new world of opportunity, danger, and duty. World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910

Your thoughts please–What are some of the ways that the international field of member care is part of Lausanne 3? Have a look at the brief materials below and leave a comment. Thanks!

Member care is the Biblical practice–and discipline–of supporting the diversity of workers and senders in the global mission community. Currently there are an estimated 400,000 mission workers and nearly 12 million national workers (January 2010 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Johnson et al). These figures of course do not include the millions of Christ-followers who live internationally as “tentmakers” or who relocate intentionally or unintentionally for economic, political, educational or human rights-related reasons.

Member care is a handmaiden to the mission task. It is a core part of mission strategy and includes a broad spectrum of services/resources such as cross-cultural training, coaching, health screening, team building, crisis care, marriage enrichment, consultation about member care programs and children’s issues, pastoral support, and debriefing.

Member care’s practical and at times prophetic voice rallies us all towards lovingly and skillfully caring for those who like Paul, earnestly seek to serve Christ, often in places and ways where He has not been named before. Member care has been a recognized, international, and interdisciplinary field for over 20 years. It’s emphasis on sacrificial lifestyles and supportive resources provide a Biblical and balanced approach to see our mission goals realized in this beautiful yet troubled world.

Wondering: And so we are wondering…how the international field of member care is present at Lausanne 3.  We have not seen anything yet on the web site or topics. Yet we imagine that member care-related areas are being implicitly discussed in many different ways and we certainly hope that member care is also being explicitly discussed in many different ways.

Wondering: And we are also wondering…who the member care leaders are at Lausanne 3. We certainly wish we could be there to connect and contribute with the wonderful folks at this historic event.  

So where is member care exactly in Lausanne III?  We sincerely hope that it is there both implicitly and explicitly.

Here is something to encourage us all: We are doing an historical overview of Member Care during the last 40 years. A great many folks have laboured to see it become a key part of world mission. Read about it at this site, and enjoy the music/video links too: CORE Member Care: Reflections and Resources for Good Practice wwww.COREmembercare.blogspot.com

The video below reminds us of how member care has traveled far and wide to help encourage/sustain many Christian workers. Onward together as we go into our world of “opportunity, duty, and danger.” International Member Care–A Dancing Analogy to Support Christian Workers  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY