I have watched more young couples than I can count sit across a table from me with a list of missionary qualifications between us. The paper usually has soft corners from being read too many times. The husband clears his throat. His wife studies the tabletop.

Then one of them says what both are thinking. "I don't think we measure up."

That fear makes sense to me. I felt it myself before I ever set foot in Peru. So let me tell you what I wish someone had told me back then, and then let's look honestly at what a sending church needs to see in the people it sends.

The List Is Not a Ladder

Here's the most important thing first. A list of qualifications is not a ladder you climb to earn God's approval. You already have His approval. Jesus settled that at the cross, long before you ever filled out an application.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

2 Corinthians 3:5

The Father doesn't send people because they finally became impressive. He sends people He loves, and He keeps shaping them as He sends them. A good sending church knows that. When it writes down what it looks for, it isn't building a wall to keep people out. It's describing what grace tends to look like after it has had time to grow.

Read the list that way, and it stops sounding like a verdict. It starts to look like a portrait of Jesus taking shape in an ordinary life.

It Starts With a Changed Heart

The first question any church should ask is the simplest one. Has God actually saved this person?

A missionary needs a clear testimony of God's saving work and a life that backs it up. That doesn't mean a flawless life. It means a steady one, where people can watch the fruit of the Spirit grow over time.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Notice Paul calls it fruit. Nobody has ever stood in an orchard and heard an apple tree grunting. Fruit grows because a branch stays connected to the vine. Jesus said it plainly:

"without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).

When I sit with a candidate, I look for six marks of Christ's own life showing through.

• Servant. He picks up a broom without needing a title.
• Sacrificial. She gives up comfort without keeping score.
• Industrious. They work hard when nobody's watching.
• Team player. He shares the load and shares the credit.
• Tolerant. She can live alongside people who do everything differently. This one matters more on the field than anyone tells you.
• Prayerful. They run to the Father first, not last.

None of us carries these perfectly. I certainly don't. The real question isn't whether you've arrived. It's whether Christ is growing something real in you, and whether the people around you can see it.

Known by a Church Before You're Sent by One

Many sending churches ask a candidate to be a member and active in ministry for at least two years. Some people hear that and feel like they've landed in a waiting room. I see it differently.

Look at how the first missionaries left home.

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. Acts 13:2-3

The church at Antioch didn't send strangers. Barnabas and Saul had taught there for a whole year (Acts 11:26). People had watched them serve, heard them teach, and prayed beside them. When the Spirit spoke, the church recognized what He was already doing and laid hands on men they knew.

Two years gives your church that same gift. It's the time it takes for people to know you well enough to stand behind you for the next twenty.

That relationship doesn't end at the airport, either. A healthy missionary stays close to home by writing letters, answering questions, and welcoming a periodic review of the work. That isn't a leash. It's family. Over the years, missionaries who stayed connected to their sending church weathered the hard years far better than those who drifted off and tried to carry everything alone.

Proven at Home Before You Go Abroad

An airplane has never turned anyone into a soul winner. If you aren't telling your neighbor about Jesus, crossing an ocean won't fix that. Salt water doesn't make anybody bolder.

That's why a sending church looks for proven ministry experience. It wants to see someone already sharing the gospel and already discipling new believers. Ideally, it hopes to see a short-term trip overseas, or real cross-cultural ministry right here at home.

Timothy is a good picture. Before Paul ever took him along, Timothy had a reputation in two towns.

Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Acts 16:2

Jesus put the principle this way: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10). The field won't create faithfulness. It only reveals the faithfulness that's already there.

Here's the good news. You don't have to leave town to start. Many of our cities include people from dozens of nations, and some may live on your street. Love them well, and you'll learn more about cross-cultural ministry than any classroom could teach you.

Trained for the Work You're Walking Into

Loving Jesus is essential. It isn't the same thing as knowing how to plant a church in a culture you don't yet understand.

A missionary needs solid Bible training, because the Word is the only seed that grows a lasting church. He needs cross-cultural preparation, because the gospel has to cross real barriers of language, custom, and worldview. Sometimes he also needs professional training for a specific ministry or for access to a specific country.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

Paul said he became "all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). That takes work. I made plenty of mistakes in Peru that better preparation would have spared me, and spared the people I was trying to reach.

Many churches also walk their candidates through a mentoring program before sending them. Think of it less as a test and more as a long conversation. Older believers pour into younger ones. You get your questions answered before the stakes get high. Best of all, the candidate leaves knowing a whole church has invested in him.

Character That Holds Under Pressure

Paul described the kind of men who should lead God's people. A sending church wants to see those same qualities in its missionaries. You'll find them in 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:6-9.

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; 1 Timothy 3:2

Read those passages slowly, and you'll notice something. They don't describe a superhero. They describe a man at rest: sober, gentle, not greedy, not quick-tempered, respected even by people outside the church.

The field doesn't create cracks in a person's character. It finds the ones already there and leans on them. Loneliness, money, and cultural stress all press in at once. A man quietly resting in Christ holds up. The man who has been holding himself together by sheer effort usually doesn't.

If reading those verses makes you feel disqualified, don't run. Take it to the Father. He isn't looking for people who never failed. He's forming Christ in people who keep coming back to Him. Just don't rush the forming.

Fit for the Long Haul

Mission work is hard on bodies and hard on minds. I've watched strong people wear down from altitude, parasites, grief, culture shock, and the steady ache of being far from family.

That's why a sending church asks for physical, emotional, and mental fitness, and why many churches and agencies require psychological testing. Nobody means it as an insult. It's care. I'd much rather a counselor find a crack in a quiet office than have the field find it in a village days away from help.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

God has always used clay pots. He isn't looking for unbreakable people. Still, a church that loves its missionaries will want to know how the vessel is holding up before it sends it halfway around the world.

Your Home Is Part of Your Ministry

The field won't fix a struggling marriage. It will test a strong one.

Paul asked a pointed question about leaders:

"For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?" (1 Timothy 3:5).

A missionary family lives in a fishbowl. Nationals watch how a husband treats his wife and how parents speak to their children. Often they learn more about the gospel from that than from any sermon.

So a sending church looks for strong marriages and healthy family relationships. It wants to see husbands and wives who are genuinely one, and children who feel loved rather than dragged along.

For single missionaries, the church looks for something just as important: a settled acceptance of singleness.

But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. 1 Corinthians 7:7

Singleness isn't a consolation prize. Some of the most fruitful missionaries in history went to the field single and served with a freedom married people rarely have. Accepting singleness doesn't mean you'll never marry. It means you aren't going to the field hoping it will cure your loneliness. You're going because Christ is enough.

Nobody Goes Alone

Two final qualifications keep a missionary from heading out as a lone ranger.

First, the proposed work should fit the sending church's missions strategy. If a church believes in planting indigenous churches and training national leaders, it shouldn't send someone who plans to build a ministry that depends on him forever. That mismatch frustrates everyone.

Second, a mission agency the church trusts should accept the candidate. A good agency brings field leadership, accountability, and practical help with everything from visas to finances.

Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. Proverbs 11:14

Some candidates chafe at all these voices. I understand. But every one of them is another pair of hands holding the rope while you go down into the well.

You Were Never Meant to Be Enough

Look back over the whole list. A changed heart. A church that knows you. Proven faithfulness, solid training, and tested character. A body and mind fit for the work. A healthy home. Wise counsel.

Here's the honest truth. Nobody I've ever sent checked every box perfectly. I didn't either. The faithful ones had a Father who started something in them and fully intended to finish it.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1:6

So if that stirring in your chest won't leave you alone, here's one simple step. Take this list to your pastor this week. Ask him where he sees grace growing in you, and where he thinks you still need room to grow. Then go serve right where you are, with the people in front of you.

If you're a pastor, use a list like this as a map for discipling, not a gate for keeping people out. Your future missionaries are probably sitting in your pews right now, waiting for someone to believe God is at work in them.

"Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

 The One who called you isn't nervous about whether you'll measure up. He never asked you to be enough. He asked you to trust the One who is.

I write letters like this for pastors, missionaries, and the churches that send them. If you'd like to keep thinking through these questions with me, subscribe to Ministry by Mercy, and I'll send the next one straight to your inbox.

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