Crosslinks - Pastoral care for mission partners |
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Thank you for entering into a mission partnership with Crosslinks. We echo Paul's words, "I always pray with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel." (Phil 1.4-5).
Pastoral care of mission partners is shared between the Church to which they go (exercised by the bishop or other superintendent), the local Church from which they come, and Crosslinks. We acknowledge the part you play as a supporting Church and look forward to working in partnership with you. But please be aware that particular pressures are experienced by those who work in cross-cultural situations, so care and support need to be offered sensitively. Hence these guidelines for us all.
Pastoral Contact
Crosslinks' Mission Department will maintain pastoral contact with mission partners by correspondence and on occasion by telephone and staff visits. The Pastoral Director holds chief responsibility for planning these. We hope that each supporting Church will keep up regular correspondence and Oven provide someone to whom a mission partner can write in complete confidence. A visit from a member of a supporting Church can be a great encouragement preferably after the first eighteen months of service. Before that, a visit might be unsettling and even hinder effective adjustment to the local culture. Crosslinks will be pleased to brief any visitors beforehand and to discuss the visit afterwards. But please remember that the primary responsibility for the pastoral care of mission partners in their place of work always lies with the Church leadership in that place.
Not all supporting Churches need, or should, take pastoral responsibility for their mission partners, but we recognize that 'sending' Churches (i.e. those from which mission partners come) have a legitimate role in such pastoral care.
Leave
Crosslinks takes responsibility for each mission partnerand organises their programme when on leave. Crosslinks also arranges interviews with Mission Department staff and provides for medical examination, counselling help, in-service training and retreats as appropriate. Loving and sensitive care from supporting Churches is particularly welcome.
Mission partners may be glad of help in finding accommodation and a vehicle for their leave period. They usually have about half their leave for holiday and half for building relationships and promoting mission in supporting churches. We'll be pleased to discuss any of these matters with you.
Prayer
Crosslinks publishes Prayer News four times a year, and circulates mission partners' prayer letters to their partner Churches three times a year. We try to mail prayer material directly to individual supporters as this helps to increase a personal commitment to the mission partner and the work they are doing. We expect a supporting Church to pray regularly and specifically, because of their close personal contacts - and the supporting Church is invited to share its own prayer needs with their mission partner and the receiving Church. If there is an emergency or other urgent need involving the mission partner, we will phone all supporting Churches and ask for their prayers.
There is also PrayerLine, a recorded telephone message
on (020) 8692 5321 to keep you up to date. Prayer news on this web site is also frequently updated
Terms of Service
Crosslinks will consult with the receiving Church and the mission partner to decide on the placement, work, further training and leave periods of the mission partner. Similar consultation will take place in the event of illness or any other personal or local emergency. In all these matters we hope that supporting Churches will feel free to make comments and suggestions. When you contact us we will consider your concerns seriously and sympathetically. If you feel any anxiety about your mission partner's welfare, please take the matter up with the Pastoral Director.
Confidentiality
It is of the first importance not to share with others anything which the mission partner shares with us in confidence. This is equally true of personal matters and of matters concerning relationships with the local Church, or its policy and leadership. In no circumstances should comments be made on these matters without prior consultation with Crosslinks. Any breach of confidentiality is inexcusable within Christian ministry and could result in long-term damage.
Finance
Crosslinks relies mainly on donations from churches and individuals, and hopes supporting Churches will be able to contribute a realistic proportion of their mission partner's costs. Crosslinks is normally responsible for funding mission partners' allowances and other expenses, including travel, medical care and education of children. The majority of your giving in connection with your mission partner will be for such budgeted expenses.
Crosslinks also recognises the obligation to provide mission partners with necessary and appropriate resources for their ministry. You may feel your mission partner could use a special item of equipment and decide to collect money for it. However, a very expensive gift might prove inappropriate in terms of the local culture and could be counterproductive to Christian witness in the local community. It might raise difficult questions about ownership (does it belong to the mission partner or to the local Church, and can it easily be taken over later by the Church?). So please consult with the Finance Department before sending such gifts.
Occasional small gifts, not exceeding £50, are another matter - but remember they may attract customs dues far in excess of their value to the recipient! Money for approved equipment, and for personal gifts, may be sent via Crosslinks. Support for specific projects involving your mission partner's work is also welcome. Details can be obtained from the Finance Department
Family
Your mission partner may be grateful for the Church's sensitive support of members of their family who may live in your neighbourhood. But please talk this over with your mission partner first.
For further reading:
A Task Unfinished, Michael Griffiths, Monarch, £5.99, ISBN 1 85424 313 6 (especially chapters 2, 5 and 7)