No missionary needs to feel like a failure, if he will simply get straight what his first goals are, and then lay out reasonable goals that are attainable goals for when he gets to the mission field.

There are two philosophies and both are true. When you arrive on the mission field it should become your new home, you no longer live in the United States of America, you have now chosen a new home. You may not fit in, you may always be strange, and you may always have an accent.

I was recently preaching in a church in the South and I heard an accent and I looked at the man and said, “You’re from Boston.” And he said that he was from Boston, but he has been living in the South over twenty years. His accent may be from Boston, and he still likes to brag about Boston, but he is in Georgia and that’s where he lives.

Your home is where you’re moving to, please get in your head that’s where you’re moving to, so when you move take your pictures, take your books with you, and move in.

When you talk about where you live, give the address of where you live. If you’re trying to live out of a suitcase and be on vacation on the mission field you will only make you, yourself, your wife, and your children miserable.

So when you land on the field do not count down the days until you go home. Instead move in and say “We are home. This is our new address. This is where we live. We no longer live in the United States.”

But at the same time I would like to challenge you to get a clock, in your head or on the wall that you can use as a countdown clock. Just like when you are playing a ballgame, when you go out into a ballgame and you’re playing; you look up at the score board and you see that there are this many minutes left in the first quarter, this many minutes in the second, third and fourth quarter. You know what quarter you’re in, you know what time it is and you play accordingly. You honestly feel pressure, you know this game is over in x amount of time.

As a missionary, you need to feel pressure, it’s a good thing. You need to feel pressure so you can get up every morning and do the job you were called to do. You were sent with a specific task, you didn’t move over there for a vacation, I know you didn’t that’s not your goal.

So let’s get our goals down, and by the way, watch the clock. When you land you have 48 months left if you’re on a four year term. You have 48 months left to accomplish what you will accomplish while you’re on the field this time.

I’d like to go over maybe the first two terms, and what ought to be your goals, as you land there.

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Mentoring is not optional, but required if you plan on making a difference around the world with world evangelism. Here are some instructions on how to mentor:

Number one, never talk about a student behind their back without talking to their face. They ought to know they can trust you, they ought to know you’re up front and frank with them. They ought to know that you don’t go to anybody else, that you would fight to protect their reputation, but that you don’t mind telling them straight to their face what they need to do to get fixed.

Always love them like your son or daughter in the ministry. It’s amazing the way we would treat our sons and daughters literally and physically, and the way we treat our sons and daughters in the ministry. We would talk to our kids, we would fight for our kids, we would straighten up our kids, and we would give our kids another chance. So be careful that they know that’s how you would handle the situation with them.

Always keep your distance from the opposite sex. Be very careful that you maintain your distance, men only train men, and we don’t mentor the other sex. Any comments made about the other sex means a women to women, man to man, and you need to set up every safeguard you can so your wife knows where you are, your wife knows what you’re doing, and there are no secrets about any meetings with her.

Always, if possible, show affection in public with your wife; make it clear that you’re in love with your wife. Let everybody know that, and stay at arm’s length and let everyone know that you are separate. Let people develop the attitude that you nearly hate the opposite sex because you are there to protect your wedding and your marriage.

You must be consumed about what you are going to teach them. Another problem that many people have is that they want to be a mentor, but they’re not all that excited about what they’re teaching themselves. So whenever they are alone, a lot of people that think they are mentoring, and they do spend one-on-one time, but when they do it’s to play a Nintendo game, go to a ballgame, choose a fad about anything from politics to sports, and never go to the subject.

Mentoring and discipleship is being so consumed with it that it’s what you talk about, its what’s on your heart, its what’s on your mind. It’s what you talk about when you’re playing, it’s what you talk about when you’re working, and it becomes real to you. If it’s not, you are not going be able to help them.

As a traveling missionary, I can tell you that many pastors I visited didn’t seem to want to talk about ministry. They didn’t want to talk about their ministry, and definitely did not want to talk about mr ministry.

You must not have that attitude if you expect to be a mentor and to train them. If you do not have an consuming passion or desire for the things of God then you have no ability or right to mentor someone. You have to be what you want them to be; you have to live out, do, what you want them to do; you have to be a picture and an example of what you want them to be. Paul said “follow my example.”

2 Thessalonians 3:7-9
“For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.”

1 Peter 2:21
“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:”

Matthew 16:24
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

Every mentor should read quite a few books and learn on how to talk about it, what to teach, and having the right attitude about mentoring and world evangelism. I strongly suggest that you get Mentoring for Missions by Gunther Krallman!

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Every missionary that is going to be successful is going to have to develop a work ethic. And that is going to become a major part of your life. That ought to be done before you leave for the field, but if you’re already gone and you’re already on the field, you can continue to work on your work ethic. Here are some verses for you to consider, and you know all of these.

Colossians 3:23 “And whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;”

Proverbs 6:6-8 “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest.”

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and [that] ye may have lack of nothing.”

Ephesians 4:28 “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with [his] hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”

One of the reasons that missionaries fail is because many of them have gone straight out of college, or even some have gone out of the ministry, and have not developed a work ethic.

They don’t have the idea “I have to clock in at such and such a time and then I work until such and such a time.”

They don’t have the idea that they work until they get the job done.

They have an idea “I’m paid to be a missionary and somehow along the way it turns into ‘hold on a minute’.” We need to learn to keep set hours. We go to the office at a certain time, and you do need an office outside of your home.

There are several things involved in this. One, as you train nationals how to do things. If you work out of your home and they come in and you are in pajamas and they see you sitting around the house, and they get the wrong idea. Everything I’m doing as I train men, and am a mentor to them I am doing to be an example.

So also it tends to help most people to work when there in a working environment, so be in a place where you can work. So I would challenge you to consider getting an office, go to your office at certain times, keep a record of your hours, set up blocks of time that you spend reading or studying, praying, getting messages ready, visitation or whatever.

Please understand that church services do not count as part of your work.

Please understand that taking care of your wife and children do not count as a part of your work. If you take care of your wife and children as part of your work, and no one else in your church would ever be allowed to do that.

You are getting the national ready to not do that which will cause the national to take care of his wife and children during his work hours, and the nationals who support him will begin to think “He sure does have a cushy job, we shouldn’t pay him very much, he lays around his house a lot, he always goes to the market with his wife; he always takes care of his children; he doesn’t really work a job like we really work a job, and since he doesn’t we shouldn’t have to give him money.” So you have set the national up to fail.

We have to do with all our might whatever our hand finds to do. We have to get up early, we have to stay up late, we have to make visits, we have to pray, and we have to realize that we are serving God. He is watching every move were making. He is blessing us as we work, and our people are watching what we do. And from that learning how to be and act as pastors and in the ministry work ethic.

Remember that a man in the ministry will always be mocked. If you don’t teach him to work, then the people in his community will begin to mock him. As I grew up as a young man, I lived on a farm, I lived among working people, and it was always interesting to hear how they thought that the pastors worked:

“A pastor only works two or three hours a week, and he gets paid for working a full week.

How do you know when you are called to preach? You know you are called to preach when you wake up one morning craving chicken and not wanting to go to work.

What’s the belt around the preacher? It is the fence around a chicken graveyard.

The story goes that a man had several sons,

the first son was a carpenter, and the second son had a good hard working job also.

The third son was a politician, and the fourth son was a liar too.

The fifth son was a lawyer, and the sixth son was a thief.

Number seven was a preacher, and the next one didn’t want to work either.”

I do not want those things to be ever said about me, I do not want them to be said about the men I train. I’m in this to elevate, to magnify my office

Romans 11:13 “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:”

I want to magnify my office. I want people to know that being a preacher is a worthwhile task, a worthwhile job, worthy of my life, worthy of my work, and worthy of my sweat. I want them to know that I spend hours in the Bible not because I say so but because they can tell it when I preach.

I want to finish the day knowing that I have accomplished things. I want to be able to say I have written this much, I have prayed this much, I have read this much, I have accomplished things in my life today. I do not want to finish the day thinking that I have taken advantage of those people.

Even though some will always accuse you of being lazy and some will always accuse you of using of the ministry, I want to know in my heart with a good conscience that I have given my work and I have given my life into doing the job that I was called to do.

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I want to challenge all of the students of the training center to read this article. It is a great article and should be taken to heart!

May 23, 2011 in Quitter with View Comments

The last place you want to put a spouse is on the opposite of your dream. The harder you lean into the dream the further you push them away. You start to say things like, “Why don’t you want my dream to happen? Why aren’t you supporting the thing I feel called to?” Things get real gross, real quick.

So what’s one simple way to get your spouse to support your dream?

Make action payments.

Words are so cheap when it comes to dreaming. You can fill up the ocean with your ideas and your what ifs and your words. Thoughts about what you’re going to do or what will be different this time eventually become useless to a spouse who has heard it all before. But as we’ve known all along, actions speak louder than words.

Want to get your spouse to support you?

Get up 30 minutes before the rest of the house wakes up and work on your dream.

Turn off the TV and read 20 pages of a book instead by an expert in the field you’re pursuing.

Take a second job to help pay for the startup money your dream might take instead of draining your savings account.

Make action payments.

Actions tells your spouse you’re serious. Consistent, focused action tends to crack even the hardest, least supportive heart. Sacrifices prove commitment. And they have to be sacrifices you pay for yourself. Cancelling a date night with your spouse so you can work on your dream does not prove you’re serious about your dream. It proves you’re selfish.

This simple idea is one of the biggest reasons my wife Jenny was able to jump on board with the move to Nashville from Atlanta. She had a history of my actions that told her I was dedicated to making this work. After years of me babbling about my dreams and my plans, she could actually see progress.

Writing books, speaking, joining the Dave Ramsey team. These weren’t more flimsy dream ideas like so many others I’ve exhausted her with in the past. This dream was real and she had months and years of actions that reassured her.

You need your spouse. Dreaming is a team sport. So in addition to supporting his or her dream, to win support, make action payments.

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Our goal is to train hard working men of God that will know how to carry the Gospel to the common man and have a heart to evangelize the world. We want our men to be trained; if they can’t do it here they can’t do it there.

Getting on an airplane makes you a tourist; it does not make you a missionary. Nothing magical happens between here and there. And the problem is once they print up their prayer card and start their deputation, they are pumped so full of being somebody special they often forget to seek God and to get the training they need.

The students and future leaders should be considered our own spiritual children. Every pastor should have in his heart and mind, “These are my kids. I love them, I will discipline and correct them, but I love them. I will stand by them I will be there every time they have a need.” This is big business.

The pastor is the key to changing the world. The pastor is the key world evangelism. Every student that will be trained should show such an initiative as to constantly be seeking out means to be honoring and serving God; not to be in need to be motivated, to be pushed to be in service. If you have to push them and motivate them, if you have to be constantly behind them, back away, let them alone.

Only train prepared men, self-motivated, self-feeders, that are excited about serving God and getting to the mission field. We will never even imply that we can make a man God but we will serve those who are already called out by the Lord and helping them to get training in the experience. You must fully recognize that it is God that puts his hand on a man to the gospel ministry. It is God that does the work in a man.

We have absolutely no desire to train a man or woman that has failed in everything else or some field that God has called them into the ministry. Amazingly, if they won’t work at another job they won’t work in the ministry. If they’re not full of doing something for God, they won’t carry the gospel around the world.

We don’t want to work with a team or train a man or woman to be a part of a team that are simply trying to get a spouse, simply trying to have something to do, simply lazy bums. We are to train leaders. In Mark 3:14, Jesus came and he came to spend time with men that He might send them forth to preach.

“And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,”

Choose the men wisely. Jesus prayed all night before he chose his men. Those men may not have had great Bible training, those men may not have gone to a Bible college and took theology, but in the book of Acts, when they came into town, they took note of them that they were only common men, but they had been with Jesus. Let’s train men that can carry the gospel message anywhere in the world and tell people about the Lord Jesus.

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