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New Residency Program to Benefit Missionaries
CHICAGO, IL (February 26, 2001) - When a missionary family returns home from their given mission area for a time of renewal, they complete a year of home assignment, which takes many forms.
Home assignment provides missionaries an opportunity to tell local churches what is happening in their various ministries. It also can provide an opportunity for continuing education. New options are being developed to help missionaries better care for their families and allow them to develop closer relationships with local churches.
One of the newer options is the Missionaries in Residence (MIR) program. It allows families to be based in a home church, providing opportunities for interaction with other nearby churches. Missionaries commit to between three and four visits per year to those congregations. A handful of others would receive one or two visits per year in a given region.
David and Roxanne Kelly are serving as missionaries in residence in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. They operate out of their home base church, Salem Covenant, in New Brighton. Fred and Kelly Prudek, missionaries in the Czech Republic, served last year as missionaries in residence in the Sacramento area. Karl and Sue Peterson of the Northwest Conference and Gary and Marylou Sander from Kingsburg, California, have also been part of the MIR program.
David Stockamp, coordinator of church relations for the Department of World Mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church, says the standard system of missionary itineration does not permit in-depth understanding on the part of any church of a particular missionary or mission ministry. It requires missionary families to spend considerable time traveling during much of their home assignment, making a sense of family stability difficult to achieve.
"People don't understand that the year of home assignment is the most stressful year," said Stockamp, a former missionary in Congo. "Their family is in culture shock, going to a faster pace of life. Kids are adjusting to school, there is continuing education for people and travel is extensive. The Missionary in Residence program is trying to put balance back into the lives of missionary families."
Stockamp hopes that missionary families on home assignment will become more like "sons and daughters" of churches located in the areas where the families reside - especially if the family is in a range of 30-45 minutes from the home congregation. Decreased cross-country travel by a missionary in residence also promises to conserve denominational time and financial resources. Other benefits include:
- Increased "personalization" of missionaries in the local church setting
- Greater saturation of the mission message
- Increased awareness and understanding of a particular mission ministry
- Potential to add more members to a missionary support team
- Enhancement of support for the future
- Increased interaction potential for the whole family
- Enhanced recruitment potential
- Flexible schedule to better accommodate educational opportunities
Plans call for development of six-month and one-year variations within the MIR program, Stockamp said. It is hoped that clusters of churches will partner to support a missionary in residence by assisting with transportation and coordinating combined mission events for the missionary. "We're trying to tailor this to missionaries' individual gifts and abilities," Stockamp said. "It's not a one-size-fits-all model - it's used as part of a mission portfolio."
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