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Mission Smart: 15 Critical Questions To Ask Before Launching Overseas
It costs a lot to train, send out, support and care for people in cross-cultural ministry; however, the costs are immeasurable when these workers don’t learn the language and culture well, fail to be effective and return home in trouble spiritually and emotionally. Mission Smart addresses serious gaps in the mission mobilization process and offers fresh solutions for seeing less missionary attrition. Mission Smart is for overseas ministry candidates, church leaders, and mission agency staff. The goal is to send the right people who know their callings, can thrive overseas and be effective in cross-cultural ministry.
192 pages, Paperback
First published December 27, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 26, 2024
TARGET AUDIENCE
The author has clearly written this book for Christian individuals who plan to move overseas and minister cross-culturally. The content in this book serves to enhance the pre-trip experience of those who go abroad as global missionaries, empowering them to thrive in their new cross-cultural environment. The author recognizes the numerous difficulties that overseas missionaries face, and seeks to better prepare those who take a faith step to serve their Lord where the witness of the Gospel is severely lacking.
CONTENT QUALITY
Rarely have I come across a book with such depth. The content in this book is next to none. Mission Smart should be required reading for every potential cross-cultural missionary. Each chapter is filled with invaluable topics and subject matter. But the author states that the content is only part of the solution of overcoming the numerous expectations of life on the mission field. “Simply reading this book gives only half the benefit of the material. The real meat of this training is found in working through the discussion questions and homework assignments personally and with mentors.” The content, layout, flow, reiterations, discussion questions, and homework assignments construct, in my opinion, the quintessential pre-field missionary guide.
MESSAGE CLARITY
The author explores a long list of issues that every overseas missionary will encounter at some point in his or her ministry service. The message is crystal clear: those who put in the preparation time before launching into overseas missionary work will not only survive, but thrive in their calling. This book is made up of three sections: The Person, The Partners, and The Place. The author reveals his expertise by exploring heart motivations, personal giftings, family needs, and learning the language and culture, to name a few themes. I was astonished at the depth of each chapter. I was also very happy that the author reiterated language learning as a prerequisite for successful overseas missional endeavors. I have found this to be true in my life, and the author’s urging to focus on the main things felt natural and encouraging.
CREATIVE STYLE
The flow of this book is both natural and surprisingly thorough. The author states that “this book is not designed to be a missionary training program.” Instead, he addresses the steps one should ask when considering cross-cultural ministry overseas. The strength of this book is it’s discussion questions and homework assignments. Each chapter challenges the reader (potential missionary) to explore the nuances of cross-cultural missionary work, learn from church mentors and present missionaries, and thus enjoy a healthy, long-term overseas missions experience.
LANGUAGE SELECTION
This book is written for the modern reader. There was no need for loquaciousness and lofty expressions. The author simply directs the reader to consider the subtleties that he or she will one day encounter overseas. He brings up numerous potential issues that impact every cross-cultural worker, and he does well to state his thoughts clearly and adequately. No need to break out a thesaurus for this one! You won’t be learning new terms. Instead you will better comprehend the many facets that are often unspoken in the global missionary endeavor.
OVERALL IMPACT
This book is an essential read for every potential cross-cultural missionary. It is superior to nearly every other pre-field missions book I have read. In fact, it will now become required reading for potential missionaries who desire to serve at Within Reach Global. I wish that this book existed 20 years ago when I first set out to serve as an overseas missionary to China. Many of the struggles I have encountered over the years might have been quelled had I better prepared for cross-cultural ministry. After reading this book, my prayer is that today’s potential missionary force might take ample time to better prepare themselves for the long haul of missionary work.
10 POINT RATING
I give Mission Smart: 15 Critical Questions to Ask Before Launching Overseas a 10/10
The author has clearly written this book for Christian individuals who plan to move overseas and minister cross-culturally. The content in this book serves to enhance the pre-trip experience of those who go abroad as global missionaries, empowering them to thrive in their new cross-cultural environment. The author recognizes the numerous difficulties that overseas missionaries face, and seeks to better prepare those who take a faith step to serve their Lord where the witness of the Gospel is severely lacking.
CONTENT QUALITY
Rarely have I come across a book with such depth. The content in this book is next to none. Mission Smart should be required reading for every potential cross-cultural missionary. Each chapter is filled with invaluable topics and subject matter. But the author states that the content is only part of the solution of overcoming the numerous expectations of life on the mission field. “Simply reading this book gives only half the benefit of the material. The real meat of this training is found in working through the discussion questions and homework assignments personally and with mentors.” The content, layout, flow, reiterations, discussion questions, and homework assignments construct, in my opinion, the quintessential pre-field missionary guide.
MESSAGE CLARITY
The author explores a long list of issues that every overseas missionary will encounter at some point in his or her ministry service. The message is crystal clear: those who put in the preparation time before launching into overseas missionary work will not only survive, but thrive in their calling. This book is made up of three sections: The Person, The Partners, and The Place. The author reveals his expertise by exploring heart motivations, personal giftings, family needs, and learning the language and culture, to name a few themes. I was astonished at the depth of each chapter. I was also very happy that the author reiterated language learning as a prerequisite for successful overseas missional endeavors. I have found this to be true in my life, and the author’s urging to focus on the main things felt natural and encouraging.
CREATIVE STYLE
The flow of this book is both natural and surprisingly thorough. The author states that “this book is not designed to be a missionary training program.” Instead, he addresses the steps one should ask when considering cross-cultural ministry overseas. The strength of this book is it’s discussion questions and homework assignments. Each chapter challenges the reader (potential missionary) to explore the nuances of cross-cultural missionary work, learn from church mentors and present missionaries, and thus enjoy a healthy, long-term overseas missions experience.
LANGUAGE SELECTION
This book is written for the modern reader. There was no need for loquaciousness and lofty expressions. The author simply directs the reader to consider the subtleties that he or she will one day encounter overseas. He brings up numerous potential issues that impact every cross-cultural worker, and he does well to state his thoughts clearly and adequately. No need to break out a thesaurus for this one! You won’t be learning new terms. Instead you will better comprehend the many facets that are often unspoken in the global missionary endeavor.
OVERALL IMPACT
This book is an essential read for every potential cross-cultural missionary. It is superior to nearly every other pre-field missions book I have read. In fact, it will now become required reading for potential missionaries who desire to serve at Within Reach Global. I wish that this book existed 20 years ago when I first set out to serve as an overseas missionary to China. Many of the struggles I have encountered over the years might have been quelled had I better prepared for cross-cultural ministry. After reading this book, my prayer is that today’s potential missionary force might take ample time to better prepare themselves for the long haul of missionary work.
10 POINT RATING
I give Mission Smart: 15 Critical Questions to Ask Before Launching Overseas a 10/10
July 22, 2021
A good book with lots of food for thought, but not really the book I needed to read at this time.
First of all, a huge chunk of the book is spent discussing the difficulties of language acquisition. This really doesn't apply to me in my current situation because the mission agency I've worked with in the past (and hope to work with again) works primarily in Spanish-speaking countries, and I already speak Spanish. Not that I wouldn't need to improve somewhat if I were to live there full-time, but I wouldn't have the experience that a lot of people have of being surrounded by people they can barely communicate with. I communicate in Spanish quite well. And even if I were thinking about moving to a place where a different language was spoken, yes it would be a good bit more difficult than moving to a Spanish-speaking country, but the fact remains that I've always been a huge language nerd and would welcome the challenge of mastering a new language. I recognize that it could hinder me in any work I wanted to do in the beginning, but it certainly wouldn't be something that made me so frustrated that I wanted to quit. For me, studying languages is fun.
The book also spends a couple of chapters about how women struggle in the mission field more than men. The assumption seemed to be that it's always the man who gets the calling, and the wife goes along with it as her way of being supportive. Again, not the case in my situation. I'm the one who's interested in this, and my husband is the one who is hesitant. Really, I suppose the warnings about men needing to listen to their wives struggles and be understanding about their hesitation does apply, just with the genders reversed. It was just a little off-putting to me to see it framed in that way. As though men are always the adventurous ones and women are always the ones who are afraid to jump into something new. Okay, yes, I've known many couples who did indeed fit that pattern (shout-out to my own parents here) but my husband and I don't. I'm always dragging him along on my adventures and he's always pointing out all the reasons why we shouldn't do A, B, or C. I feel a little weird writing this, because gender stereotypes rarely bother me, but this one was so opposite of what my own life experiences have been that I couldn't help but feel a little vexed.
Those points aside, this book did give me a lot of good things to think about. I particularly liked the suggested reading sections. Lots of good books there for me to take a look at in the future.
First of all, a huge chunk of the book is spent discussing the difficulties of language acquisition. This really doesn't apply to me in my current situation because the mission agency I've worked with in the past (and hope to work with again) works primarily in Spanish-speaking countries, and I already speak Spanish. Not that I wouldn't need to improve somewhat if I were to live there full-time, but I wouldn't have the experience that a lot of people have of being surrounded by people they can barely communicate with. I communicate in Spanish quite well. And even if I were thinking about moving to a place where a different language was spoken, yes it would be a good bit more difficult than moving to a Spanish-speaking country, but the fact remains that I've always been a huge language nerd and would welcome the challenge of mastering a new language. I recognize that it could hinder me in any work I wanted to do in the beginning, but it certainly wouldn't be something that made me so frustrated that I wanted to quit. For me, studying languages is fun.
The book also spends a couple of chapters about how women struggle in the mission field more than men. The assumption seemed to be that it's always the man who gets the calling, and the wife goes along with it as her way of being supportive. Again, not the case in my situation. I'm the one who's interested in this, and my husband is the one who is hesitant. Really, I suppose the warnings about men needing to listen to their wives struggles and be understanding about their hesitation does apply, just with the genders reversed. It was just a little off-putting to me to see it framed in that way. As though men are always the adventurous ones and women are always the ones who are afraid to jump into something new. Okay, yes, I've known many couples who did indeed fit that pattern (shout-out to my own parents here) but my husband and I don't. I'm always dragging him along on my adventures and he's always pointing out all the reasons why we shouldn't do A, B, or C. I feel a little weird writing this, because gender stereotypes rarely bother me, but this one was so opposite of what my own life experiences have been that I couldn't help but feel a little vexed.
Those points aside, this book did give me a lot of good things to think about. I particularly liked the suggested reading sections. Lots of good books there for me to take a look at in the future.
May 17, 2023
Really enjoyed thinking about these 15 critical questions that are essential to consider before leaving for the field. Extremely helpful!
April 27, 2021
A more apt title to this book might be “Mission START.” With my experience with missionaries, this book is a bit late in the game. Most of the information was much more preliminary, questions you ought to ask as an introduction to discovering your gifting and where God may use it most strategically.
The premise of this book is based upon what he calls “missionary attrition,” or the common occurrence of missionaries returning from the field after a few years, burned and burned out. Throughout the book, Frazier makes a point to not only ask challenging questions to discourage the reader from a particular field but to encourage the reader to the right field.
His handling of church and agency involvement in a person’s process startled me. He handles these and many other subjects such as gifting, equipping, and on-field accountability. Who is responsible for identifying your calling? Who is responsible for equipping you? Who is responsible to create networks of accountability for you? Who is responsible for searching your heart for besetting sins that may cause issues on the field? The loud, resounding answer shocked me:
YOU ARE.
It’s that simple. Every day, we have to take up responsibility for our own hearts, examine them before God and open ourselves to the Spirit, inviting His gentle examination.
This book has extensive resources, reflection questions, and group discussion questions, but it is not a replacement for your own honest evaluation with that of those who know you best.
A must-read for anyone considering work on the mission field.
The premise of this book is based upon what he calls “missionary attrition,” or the common occurrence of missionaries returning from the field after a few years, burned and burned out. Throughout the book, Frazier makes a point to not only ask challenging questions to discourage the reader from a particular field but to encourage the reader to the right field.
His handling of church and agency involvement in a person’s process startled me. He handles these and many other subjects such as gifting, equipping, and on-field accountability. Who is responsible for identifying your calling? Who is responsible for equipping you? Who is responsible to create networks of accountability for you? Who is responsible for searching your heart for besetting sins that may cause issues on the field? The loud, resounding answer shocked me:
YOU ARE.
It’s that simple. Every day, we have to take up responsibility for our own hearts, examine them before God and open ourselves to the Spirit, inviting His gentle examination.
This book has extensive resources, reflection questions, and group discussion questions, but it is not a replacement for your own honest evaluation with that of those who know you best.
A must-read for anyone considering work on the mission field.
December 3, 2020
An incredibly easy and swift read, but that does not take away from the depth of this book. These 150 pages or so are filled with thought provoking questions and resources for those preparing to go on the mission field. Those looking to go on the field should read this and pastors should have this book handy to walk through with those thinking about the mission field. Some resources in it may be a little dated, but that doesn’t take away from the content of the book.
January 2, 2022
Really good and practical advice for anyone considering missions.
May 1, 2023
If you are considering moving overseas for missions. This book is a MUST! It helps you process through it all and asks the hard questions that are there to ensure you are prepared to go!
April 15, 2015
I found the questions about partners (Part 2) and place (Part 3) even helpful for thinking through how to minister in my own culture. I say this because it is easy for me to create a Christian culture which totally isolates me from not-yet believers who live in my town.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews