How many of you ended up in a leadership position you did not train for and were not experienced at? How many of you are led by a leader who did not ask for his/her role, does not like it, does not feel skilled for it and frankly in your experience is not very good at it? And yet leadership and about forty other factors significantly affect how long you are likely to serve with your present mission and the length of your career in mission generally. These are the results of the World Evangelical Alliance Missions Commission study ReMAPII that examined the organisational practices of 600 mission agencies and compared these with their retention rates for the last twenty years.
- If you serve with one of the agencies in the top third of retention rates you and your colleagues average sixteen years service whereas if you are with an agency in the bottom third you will average just over seven years.
- If you do at least one years mission training (not Bible College training) before going you will average more than double the length of service of those without.
- If your agency has competent leaders in whom most people have confidence you will probably average seventeen years but without that it will be closer to seven.
- Does you agency prioritise Continuing Professional Development (CPD)? The emphasis on creating development opportunities was a characteristic unique to the best retaining mission agencies.
However whilst these results represent 20% of the evangelical missionaries around the world the answers were based on rating the agencies performance and the rating was given by the Country Director for each mission. What we have not done until now is hear from you the individual mission partner about your experiences in mission. BUT that is all changing NOW! "Your Story" is a partner study to ReMAP being run by Generating Change, an independent research organisation. It is your opportunity to be heard. It is the largest study of its kind to be undertaken, is completely confidential and independent and is very quick and easy to take part. It takes about thirty minutes, happens online and can be accessed at www.generatingchange.co.uk/yourstory/form.php. Just enter User name: oscar Password: oscar. Why not take part now or first browse the results of ReMAP which are all online at www.generatingchange.co.uk.
Rob Hay
Rob Hay has been the Principal of Redcliffe College. Prior to that he worked in management with Marks and Spencer before serving in Nepal for 3 years with International Nepal Fellowship.
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