Standards for Sending Long-term Missionaries
For the purposes of this document, long-term mission service is understood to be normally three or more years and not less than one year.
Qualifications of Missionary Candidates
AGMP organizations give serious consideration for appointment to missionary service candidates who exhibit the following qualities:
- Vital and growing Christian faith and practice
- Commitment to the authority of Scripture and the historic faith and order of the Church
- Contagious witness that commends Christ and the Church
- Theological understanding of mission
- Skills, education and experience appropriate for assignment
- Relationship with an Anglican community of potential support, e.g., congregation, religious order, seminary
- Desire to serve and learn from people in the receiving community
- Personal integrity
- Family stability
- Eagerness for cross-cultural encounter
- Desire to work in companionship with others
- Ability and willingness to learn another language
- Physical, psychological and spiritual capacity to meet challenges
- Financial stability
- Willingness to work under the authority of the local Anglican bishop
- Desire to participate in the worship of the local Anglican community
Screening of Missionary Candidates
AGMP organizations include in their screening of missionary candidates the following elements:
- Comprehensive written applications
- References from responsible persons who know the candidate
- Participation of the home community in the discernment of call and placement
- Communication with the candidate’s bishop or proper judicatory authority
- Interviews with the candidate and spouse (if applicable) by a team of interviewers of the sending agency
- Background checks
- Evidence of psychological examination
- Evidence of physical examination, taking into account prior medical conditions
Orientation of Missionary Candidates
AGMP organizations provide mission orientations that include the following elements:
- Biblical reflection on mission
- Cross-cultural training
- History and theology of mission
- Contemporary Episcopal and Anglican organizations, structures and movements
- Resources for evangelism, discipleship, spiritual growth, and justice issues
- Inter-faith and ecumenical reflection
- Lifestyle reflection on family and finance
- Language acquisition techniques
- Country-specific orientation
- Interpersonal skills
- Certified participation in sexual misconduct prevention training
Development of Mission Assignments
AGMP organizations develop mission assignments according to the following criteria:
- Invitation by the Anglican bishop or appropriate ecclesiastical authority in the proposed place of service
- In situations where there is no Anglican ecclesiastical authority, as is the case with least evangelized peoples, collaboration wherever possible with regional Anglican entities or other Christian groups
- Rationale for missionary rather than national to fill position
- Potential for missionary to train national to carry on ministry
- Potential of project to become a model for other similar projects, multiplying its benefit for maximum impact
- Placement collaboration among candidate, home church, receiving church and sending agency
- Match between missionary and assignment in theological identity, churchmanship, mission vision, and preferences of climate and locale type
- Match between assignment and the missionary’s gifts and talents, including ability to work in a team setting and ability to pioneer new work
- When feasible, the missionary should visit possible placement sites to facilitate the discernment process for both the missionary and the receiving site
- When practicable, the home church should participate in the discernment of the missionary’s placement, including visits to placement opportunities
Pastoral Care of Missionaries
AGMP organizations provide pastoral care for their missionaries and will include:
- Commissioning events for missionaries that express prayerful care and the sending role of the home congregation, diocese, other supporting congregations and individuals, and the sending agency
- Intentional prayer for missionaries by agency staff and support networks
- Consistent expression of honor and appreciation for missionaries
- Regular and frequent communication with the missionary
- Development of a pastoral care plan for missionary wellness, including, if possible, a designated pastoral caregiver in the region of the assignment
- Concern for needs of the whole family
- Exploration of ways to collaborate among agencies in providing on-site professional-level pastoral care for missionaries
- Periodic regional retreats, wherever possible, for refreshment of missionaries
- Encouragement of weekly Sabbath rest and provision for annual vacation
- Provision of continuing education events and resources
- Encouragement of spiritual direction and disciplines
Home Ministry Assignment for Missionaries
AGMP organizations offer and require home ministry assignment (HMA) for missionaries, which consists of a period of months in the home country after a period of years in the assignment and which includes:
- Timely preparation for the HMA, in consultation with the home congregation and diocese and well in advance of travel, including attention to housing, compensation and transportation needs
- Debriefing and personal growth consultation with home staff
- Required rest and vacation
- Pastoral care, and personal growth and retreat resources, as needed, with attention to the pastoral relationship between the missionary and the home congregation and diocese
- Opportunity for continuing education
- Speaking to congregations and other support groups to mobilize the Church for mission
- Availability to be a resource for prospective missionaries
- Encouraging support for the wider work and encouraging others to serve as missionaries
Home Re-Entry of Missionaries
AGMP organizations make arrangements for a graceful transition at the conclusion of a missionary’s term of service, which will include:
- Timely preparation for conclusion of service, in consultation with the home congregation and diocese and well in advance of travel, including attention to housing, compensation and transportation needs
- Liturgical recognition, in consultation with the home congregation, of the missionary’s past contribution and future transition to a new stage of life and ministry
- Consultation and counseling for future employment placement or retirement, as appropriate
- Exit interviews with sending organization’s staff
- Transition seminar and/or retreat experiences, if indicated
- Attention to the needs of the whole family, including children
- Continuing pastoral support for six months to a year, as appropriate, with attention to the pastoral relationship between the missionary and the home congregation and diocese
Mutual Accountability
AGMP organizations and their missionaries minister within a network of mutual accountabilities, which develop and maintain the integrity of all relationships in the mission assignment:
- A missionary’s primary accountability for ministry in the assignment is to the receiving bishop (or other comparable authority) and the supervisor designated by the bishop (or other comparable authority)
- A supervisory structure is clearly identified and maintained
- A missionary is accountable to the sending agency for general effectiveness in ministry and for fulfilling the responsibilities determined by the agency in relationship to the agency and the home community
- The sending organization is responsible for clear communication with the missionary, the missionary’s sending church, and the receiving bishop
- The sending organization seeks to develop an understanding in which the receiving bishop and institution is responsible for transparent communication with the missionary and sending agency
- A missionary is expected to maintain integrity in all personal, financial and church relationships, avoiding misconduct, which may include financial and sexual, and any appearance of misconduct. The missionary forms accountability relationships to stay encouraged in the maintenance of this integrity
- The sending agency seeks to address missionary misconduct promptly, pastorally and firmly in consultation with the receiving bishop or other receiving partner, as applicable, taking into account the welfare of the missionary family and the receiving church
- The sending agency staff is accountable to its governing board
- The sending agency is accountable to AGMP for compliance with the Missionary Sending Standards
Financial Support of Missionaries
AGMP organization adhere to the following principles in assisting with the financial support of missionaries:
- Financial policies are understood mutually by sending agencies and missionaries
- Organizations ensure that missionary budgets are designed to provide adequate financial support, whether the source of funding is a centralized budget, deputation by missionaries or a combination
- Missionary standard of living reflects solidarity with the ministry setting in which the missionary works
- Missionaries are transparent with their ministry finances, including resources, needs and expenses
- Organizations are transparent with their budgets, including resources, needs and expenses
- Budgets for missionaries include support for: food, housing, children’s needs, clothing, hospitality, transportation, communications, insurance, continuing education, vacation, pension, and re-entry
- Organizations are members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA)
- Organizations provide for an annual audit by an external auditor or, if financial resources do not permit a formal audit, provide for a credible financial review by an outside party
- Missionaries understand that funds they raise for their support are contributions to their sending agency
- Missionaries understand that funds raised for projects are contributions to the sending entitity
- Organizations exercise responsible stewardship of gifts designated for missionaries’ support and projects
Insurance of Missionaries
AGMP organizations will assess the risks associated with international mission assignments and develop appropriate insurance provision, which shall include not less than the following:
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Disability insurance
- Medical evacuation, crisis evacuation, repatriation of remains
- Liability insurance for individuals and the organization
Version 3.1, as approved by the 2004 AGMP Annual Meeting, (reviewed by steering committee), Dallas, Texas, May 20-22, 2004