Missionary Training School by GFM

Interested in Missionary Training? Did you just finish college or Bible school and looking for some practical, hands-on training before going overseas? Are you an empty nester looking to use your "second half" to advance the kingdom of God? Are you a high school graduate wanting to get your feet wet in missions before going to school or choosing a career path? Are you looking for a "gap year" internship or volunteer experience to serve cross-culturally and gain valuable life or work experience? Are you wanting training to help you be more effective in reaching out to refugees, immigrants, and international students that are coming to our country? If so, our missionary training school might be the perfect place for you as we have had people from all of these walks of life come through in the past!

The focus of our missionary training school is on raising up laborers to serve among unreached people groups in the 10/40 window. The MTS is a great missionary training program for people that feel called to church planting and frontier cross-cultural missionary work. It is also a wonderful school for equipping people that want to mobilize other people to praying, giving, and going as well as those who want to reach out to the nations that are coming to us (international students, refugees, and immigrants). The goal of our missionary training is to challenge Christians to embrace God's heart for the nations and to play their part in seeing God glorified among every tribe, tongue, people, and nation whether they are called to stay at home or to go abroad.

We take a non-traditional approach to missionary training and preparation. The disciples were "ordinary, unschooled men that had been with Jesus" and were absolutely used by the Lord to "turn the world upside down". We purposely focus on integral ministry training: head (formal, classroom, theory), heart (informal, community, spiritual), and hands (non-formal, on-the-job, practical). Studies show that this is the best way to equip long-term laborers for the mission field and to help with missionary attrition. So, we want to live as a missional community spending just as much time doing missions as we are learning about missions. As we fall more in love with Jesus by individually and corporately praying, worshipping, spending time in His Word, and seeking first His kingdom, He will equip us with everything we need to go and make disciples of all nations.

The Missionary Training School is like a five-month intenstive missions internship that includes training in the morning, independent reading in the afternoon, coupled with hands-on outreach in the evenings. We read through much of the Bible during the program as well as many other books to help us understand God's Word, missions strategy, and cross cultural communication. The academic side of the school can be a little bit challenging as we usually read one book per week, but we also combine that with group discussions, videos, and guest speakers to keep the missionary training exciting.

A large part of the missionary training is also dedicated to hands-on experience doing cross-cultural missionary work alongside long-term missionaries. While we value the education that can be attained in the classroom, there really is no substitute for practical experience on the mission field. At least twelve hours per week during the missionary training school, we spend time participating in community service, teaching English, learning other languages, doing evangelism, providing discipleship, church planting in apartment complexes, helping with children's programs, doing youth ministry, leading Bible studies, etc. On-the-job training is where the bulk of the true missionary training takes place as you will be discipled, coached, and mentored in the skills necessary to become a successful long-term missionary. This is one of the most unique aspect of our missionary training as you get holistic training by studying cross-cultural principles and missions strategy in the classroom, coupled with hands-on missionary training on the field, and all of this happens while living in authentic Christian community. Most of our students raise missionary support from friends, family, churches, and businesses to help cover their living expenses. While this is a missionary training program, supporters can rest assured that legitmate cross-cultural ministry is taking place and making a lasting impact among the nations.

All missionary training school students will receive a certificate from Global Frontier Missions upon graduation. There is also an option for students to earn a certificate from the International School of Ministry and an associate's Bible degree from Covenant Theological Seminary. We decided to offer this option because many organizations require 30 hours of undergraduate Bible credit to serve with them long-term and this Bible degree would fulfill that requirement. The associate's Bible degree requires reading one extra book per week and a few extra exams. At the completion of the school year, we highly recommend that all missionary training school students venture on a trip to the 10/40 window to further expose themselves to other ministry possibilities.

Current Missionary Training School topics include: New Testament survey, intercessory prayer, spiritual warfare, praise/worship, contextualization, church planting, language learning, relationships, knowing God's will, spiritual gifts, evangelism, cultural adaptation, discipleship, storytelling, oral communication, world religions, community development, tent-making, mobilization, support raising, etc. Feel free to look at the complete missionary training school curriculum to see what topics will be covered.

Missionary Training Schools are currently offered at our Atlanta and Houston locations each spring and fall. Current dates and prices can be found on the right side of this page.