If you are a student who is heading toward a career in missions, you probably have many options ahead of you, but just as many questions!  You may feel that it will be a long time until you can get to the field and the real stuff of ministry, but you also have an awesome opportunity to prepare yourself well for the future.  So, what's the best way to proceed from here?

First and foremost is your relationship with the Lord of the Harvest.  Press in and develop a deep and dependent love for Jesus.  Become a devoted follower who knows the Word of God, the voice of the Spirit, and the presence of the Lord.

It is vital for you to be very involved on the local church level and to maintain a good relationship with your pastor or other spiritual mentor.  Study God’s Word with that person, and listen carefully to their wisdom and advice for your continued spiritual growth.  When you are ready to formally apply for missionary service, you will need to be sponsored by your pastor and local church.  If you have not already, consider moving into leadership roles within your church and take advantage of opportunities that come along for special instruction and training.  Especially helpful is development of interpersonal strengths and witnessing/evangelism skills.

Of high importance is the education and training appropriate for your area of service on the field.  For example, medical personnel, teachers, pastors, etc. all need the same qualifications to do these jobs on the mission field as they would need to do them in their home country.

ExT missionaries generally need adequate cross-cultural experience before they can be appointed to serve overseas. You can begin working on this while you are a student by taking advantage of the opportunities that come your way to take short term missions trips, minister to people from other countries, interact with foreign students, possibly spend some time studying in another country, etc.  You may also want to consider going through our missionary internship program after you graduate.

Completion of the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (http://www.perspectives.org/) course offered by the U.S. Center for World Mission is a prerequisite for an ExT missionary’s field deployment.  They must also complete or arrange to take the following courses (sometimes via correspondence) before going to the field.  If you can include these in your college or seminary time, you can take care of required steps in the process early:  Free Methodist History and Polity, Inductive Bible Study, Intro to Christian Theology and Wesleyan Theology.  Click here for more detailed coursework info.

Aside from studies relating to your major area of service and the required courses for missionaries, it would be helpful to include extra coursework in areas such as Bible, world religions, foreign language, cross-cultural communication, cultural anthropology, basic accounting and public speaking.  Because it is a necessity for missionaries to communicate via the internet and e-mail, experience in those areas is essential, as well as a good working knowledge of preparing presentations and writing newsletters (an understanding of word processing, desktop publishing and presentation software is extremely helpful, as is the ability to create and manage a website).

VISA Ministries offers some excellent opportunities for exposure and training that we often incorporate into the missionary candidate process and that can help you find direction along the way.  Learn more about programs such as VISA University and Team Leader Training on the VISA section of this website. 

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