individual, couple and family counseling
care for missionaries, pastors and churches
organizational consulting
© Minnesota Renewal, 2009
Session Details
Keynote Address
Come Follow Me: A Fresh Look at Christ’s Invitation to Kingdom Work
Paul Tshihamba – Christ Presbyterian Church
Saturday Plenary Address
Key Tools for Missionary Care
Laura Mae (Larrie) Gardner – Wycliffe
Friday Evening Intensives
Helping Our Missionaries Address the Trap of Addiction
Mark Laaser – Faithful and True Ministries
The stress and challenge of cross-cultural ministry has always been high, but is perhaps at an all-time high in these days. Changes in society and the advent of the Internet have led to an epidemic of the full range of addictive struggles – and in particular struggles with sexual addiction – literally around the world. All are vulnerable, huge numbers of people are struggling, and some of those who are struggling are our missionaries. Many of them needlessly suffer because church and mission leaders providing teaching and care to them have limited knowledge about addiction/compulsive behavior and inadequate approaches to dealing with it. Dr. Laaser will present findings from the latest research and his experience in working with strugglers, in the hope that more can be done to stem the tide of this growing problem. Together we will consider what addictive behavior looks like, what needs to be done to address it and how we as lay cargivers may be able to help.
Mark Laaser holds a PhD in religion and psychology from the University of Iowa and an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is an internationally known author, speaker and consultant to churches and organizations around the world. He has written several books, including Restoring the Soul of the Church, The Pornography Trap, Healing the Wounds of Sexual Addiction, and The Seven Desires of Every Heart. He and his wife, Debra, started Faithful & True Ministries to counsel couples healing from sexual addiction.
Staying Healthy When the Situation Isn’t
Laura Mae (Larrie) Gardner – Wycliffe
A crucial attribute our missionaries need in their toolkit is emotional resilience. How can a missionary maintain equilibrium and thrive in a context of widespread change? What if this change comes unexpectedly, contains elements of injustice and evil, and nothing is predictable? How does one stay balanced and wholesome and productive? This session is filled with illustrations and will suggest practical ideas for encouraging our missionaries toward emotional wholeness.
Missionaries Speak Up About Their Care
Mary Droullard – Minnesota Renewal Center
Here is your chance to hear about Missionary Care from those who receive it. Mary will guide a number of cross-cultural workers in describing their experiences of missionary care. In past MC2 conferences, these missionary panel sessions have been some of the most powerful and helpful we have offered. So this year we have added it to the roster of intensive sessions.
Mary and her husband Rob went to northern Pakistan with TEAM in 1986. When they resettled in the US after 9/11, Mary pursued her dream of graduate school. Now a Licensed Psychologist and Marriage & Family Therapist, she serves as MRC's Coordinator for Missionary Assessment.
Saturday Breakout Sessions
Category I: Tools for Understanding and Serving Our Missionaries
There Is No Therapist—I’m All They’ve Got!
Dick & Larrie Gardner – Wycliffe
And these colleagues are traumatized! What can a lay caregiver do during and after trauma? What right do we have to give help when we’re untrained? What would a trained therapist do – and what dare I do? This interactive session will give thoughtful ideas and guidelines for a lay caregiver when debriefing is needed.
The Missionary Care Gap
Dick Gardner – Wycliffe
How can you be a caring bridge between missionary and church? There can be major misunderstandings between missionaries and their sending churches. That gap needs to be bridged if the missionary is to have confidence in his church caregivers, and if the church is to be productively involved in caring for their member. What would that bridge look like? This session attempts to answer the question and gives a blueprint to build/rebuild this bridge.
The Pros and Cons of Cyberspace:
How We Help Missionaries & Families Handle the Internet
Steve Edlin – TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission)
The internet is a marvelous gift to international ministry, putting the world at our fingertips. However, like the wheat and tares it also puts at our fingertips a world of cybersex. This session will look at the growing menu of cybersex available on the internet and what this means for missionaries and their families. We will look at research about the prevalence of cybersex among international workers and discuss how vulnerable they are to cybersex compared to other Christians. We will discuss what overseas workers, sending churches, and agencies can practically do to make internet use safe without losing the opportunities it presents. We will briefly mention how to work with a worker who has a problem with cybersex. As the Counseling Office Director for TEAM, Steve oversees a global team of four Regional Member Care Coordinators who provide proactive and reactive care for TEAM’s missionaries.
A Church Based Care Team Approach for Addressing Member Care Needs and Restoring International Workers
Steve Edlin – TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission)
How can a sending church or organization be sure that lasting change takes place when a worker gets care for a member care need or needs to be restored after a crisis? This session will present a proven approach to ensuring lasting change when a need arises for an overseas worker. The care team approach has been used successfully to address medical, spiritual, emotional, and interpersonal needs of overseas workers with TEAM. We will outline the kinds of issues for which a care team is needed such as serious medical issues, trauma, team conflicts, moral failure, marriage problems, and more. We will build a case biblically for a team approach to restoration. We will discuss the practical aspects of setting up a team, creating a care plan, identifying underlying issues to address, and measuring progress to know when care is complete.
The Missionary Kid Experience: Understanding Your Missionaries’ Children
Heidi Tunberg – ReachGlobal (EFCA)
Do you care about MKs? Do you want to know what their life is really like? Do you want to know what you can do to have a greater impact on them? Join Heidi Tunberg, the College & Career MK Coordinator for Reach Global and herself an adult TCK, to learn more about the unique Missionary Kids experience. The session will include specific suggestions for caring for younger MKs while they are overseas and for reaching out to MKs when they return to the U.S. as college students and young adults. (This workshop will extend to two sessions).
Missionary Transition: How to Help in Challenging Times
Heidi Tunberg – ReachGlobal (EFCA)
Would you like to encourage missionary families? This session will touch on models of transition (stages/tasks of transition), applying them to the missionary experience. Missionary families need extra care and support during these challenging times and churches have great opportunity and resources to provide that extra care. We will discuss together ways churches can offer support long-distance when missionaries are transitioning abroad, and ways they can reach out emotionally & practically when they return to the U.S. for home assignment or life/career transition.
Caring for Your Missionary on HMA/Furlough
Charlie & Cheryl Warner – Barnabas International
The purpose of the seminar is to encourage the average person in the church pew to become directly involved in ministering to missionaries who are on home assignment/furlough. A booklet with the same title as the seminar will be distributed.
Landing on your Feet: Helping International Workers Find Meaningful Work Once They Return to the U.S.
Denny Morrow – ReachGlobal
For a variety of reasons (aging parents, rebellious kids, conflict with peers, etc.), international workers eventually return to the U.S. They often fear, however, that their rolodex is rusty, their skills are outdated, and their prospects are zilch. In reality, they bring with them transferrable skills that are in demand in business, government, education, and not-for-profit organizations. This is a very practical look at where the jobs are, how to find them, and how to tailor a resume to get an interview. Denny Morrow is the Associate Executive Director of ReachGlobal.
The Parable of the Bridge:
Why International Workers and Bridges Sometimes Fail
Denny Morrow – ReachGlobal
On August 2nd, 2007, the major thoroughfare out of Minneapolis collapsed killing 13 and wounding dozens. As forensic scientists groped for the cause of the collapse, five theories emerged. Each of them had a corollary symptom for international workers. Each of the theories will be examined and the eventual culprit will be revealed to determine if a similar weakness might be the reason why our workers come home too soon and too hurt.
Parenting & Grandparenting MK’s on the Field
David & Karin Livingston, Mike & Judy Anderson – Bethlehem Baptist Church
Come and meet with two couples who are parents and grandparents to missionary families on the field. We will hear our collective stories of the joys and challenges of sending loved ones to overseas, cross-cultural service and together discuss strategies for supporting and keeping connected to them from a distance.
Congregation-Wide Care for Missionaries
Tom Correll – Wooddale Church
When believers think about how to support missionaries what most often comes to mind is prayer and financial support. This session will explore a wide variety of ways that individuals can support, encourage and partner with missionaries to further their effectiveness.
Building Vitality in Our Single Missionaries
Debbie Klaver – World Mission Prayer League/Minnesota Renewal Center
What are some of the unique needs and stressors of single people serving cross-culturally in God's Kingdom and mission in the world? How can we support our faithful, courageous singles who go as God calls them, knowing that they leave behind their closest family and friends? Are there ways we can help them prepare to confront various difficulties that they may encounter? Come hear a former single missionary to Ecuador speak of her experience and also hear a panel of current and past single missionaries discuss these and other important questions on how to build vitality in our single missionaries. Debbie is a therapist at MN Renewal Center and, with her husband Al, the Midwest representatives for World Mission Prayer League.
Targeting the Top Five Missionary Stressors
Leonard J. Cerny II, PhD – Member Care International
This session will develop and discuss five comprehensive missionary stress factors and suggest practical management tools. The identification of these factors is based on data gathered over 5 years through the CernySmith Assessment, an instrument that was internationally normed on cross-cultural workers from 46 sending countries working in 130 host countries. Dr. Cerny is a clinical psychologist with 30+ years private practice clinical experience and 15+ years experience coaching missionary agencies, workers and families in the field. He is the General Director of Member Care International and a co-founder of CernySmith LLC. He and his wife, Patty (also a clinical psychologist), recently moved from California to Missouri where they have the joy of being close to their two sons, who are missionaries, and their families including 9 grand children.
Category 2: Tools for Church Program and Missionary Candidate Development
The Missionary Call
Tom Correll – Wooddale Church
Conventional wisdom says that a strong sense of God’s Call to ministry is bedrock to missionary service. Yet, the “call” of Paul and Barnabas as recorded in Acts 13 wasn’t given to them; it was given to their local church. And, the only man for whom God “wrote on the wall” didn’t like the message he received. What really does constitute a call to ministry? To whom is the call given? How do we as caregivers guide and support prospective missionaries through the process of discovering and responding to God’s call on their lives?
An Introduction To a Dozen Pre-Field and In-Service Assessments For Candidates and Missionaries
Monroe Brewer – National Association of Missions Pastors
This workshop describes a number of non-psychological, non-professional inventories that can be administered by church leaders to candidates and veterans alike in helping missionaries better understand themselves, their spouses, and their teammates in the field. Some of the inventories include the Intercultural Competencies Scale, Style of Influence Inventory, Communication Values Orientation, Kersey-Bates Temperament Sorter, Conflict Resolution Inventory, the Cultural Values Grid, and the Learning Styles Inventory. Participants will have the opportunity to take one inventory which has been used for over 25 years in accurately predicting who will succeed in living and working overseas.
Creative Tools for Financing Missions
Carl Nelson – GMAE
Raising funds to support missionaries is becoming much harder to do. This workshop will provide an overview of what has worked successfully for other churches, agencies and missionaries, with the focus being on strategies that a congregation can use to help its missionaries develop support, and on newly emerging financing tools for missions. Carl is the President and CEO of the Greater Minnesota Association of Evangelicals.
Developing Intercultural Sensitivity
Wilbur Stone – Bethel Seminary
In helping our candidates prepare for cross-cultural service, is education and training in cultural adaptation enough? Perhaps not. We also need to assist them in developing an Intercultural Worldview. This includes: learning to appreciate the value but also the limitations of cultural similarities, learning to understand and value the significance of cultural differences, and translating this new understanding into increased cultural sensitivity. In this session, we will discuss the meaning and importance of intercultural sensitivity and how we can encourage our missionaries and missionary candidates to grow in their intercultural worldview. Dr. Stone the program director and lead faculty for the doctoral program in Global and Contextual Studies at Bethel Seminary.
Tools for Building Strong Short Term Mission Teams
Kim Sollie – North Heights Lutheran Church
We will take a look what is involved in good member care for short term team members, so they in turn can encourage the missionaries and projects they go to serve. We will also discuss the importance of debriefing as an integral part of good member care for short term missionaries.
The Missions Passionate Church - How Do We Measure Up?
Lee Christenson – ACMC
Now that you are getting all these great ideas from this conference, how do you get started? Evaluating your missions ministry using the Missions Assessment Profile (MAP) has been described by churches as the most helpful tool in determining what to work on first. Lee is the Midwest regional director of Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment.
Missionary Care - A Church Model
Lee Christenson – ACMC
Come and discuss how one midsized church has designed a comprehensive missionary care program to respond rapidly to the normal and crisis needs of their mission family. Faith Missionary Church, Indianapolis, IN, was founded with Missions at its core; yet missionary care was done informally. We will discuss why we added a formal program and what it looks like. Lee is the Midwest regional director of Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment.
Missionary Care – A Church Model II
Paul Tshihamba – Christ Presbyterian Church
Our host church, Christ Presbyterian, has a unique missions program that puts a priority on working with indigenous partners. In that context, what does missionary care look like – both to the local church members who go as missionaries and to the indigenous partners they serve?
To register and pay online for this conference, click here.
To download a registration form to mail with a check, click here.
To return to the main information page, click here.
Paul Tshihamba works in the missions department of Christ Presbyterian Church as the Pastor for Missions, with a special focus on International Missions. A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Paul’s great passion is to link Christian communities to the world through opportunities for global and local engagement. He holds a
Master of Divinity from Fuller Seminary and serves on theboard of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention, the National Youth Leadership Council and the Congo Initiative. He is married to the love of his life, Andrea, with whom he shares four kids: Josh, Jacob, Charis, and Miriam. Paul loves to read and keep up with world events; he loves the outdoors, and enjoys entertaining guests and cooking ethnic foods. He also enjoys playing racquetball and considers himself to be a "wicked ping pong player" (and yes, that is a challenge!).
Dr. Laura Mae (Larrie) and Dick Gardner spent 25 years on the mission field and completed a translation program for a group of indigenous people. Following four years of graduate study they led the International Counseling Department for Wycliffe and SIL for 12 years, training missions-aware therapists and developing materials for use
in caring for missionaries facing challenges of every kind. Moving on from that, they developed member care for both organizations, Wycliffe and SIL. Larrie has served as International Vice President for Personnel for Wycliffe and on the Board of Wycliffe USA and of MAF USA and MAF International. She is on the leadership team for Global Missionary Care for the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission. She speaks extensively throughout the world and continues working firsthand with missionaries and mission agencies. Their current titles are: International Personnel Consultants and Trainers. Larrie is also heavily involved in leadership development within missions.
