Pastors Beyond is an affiliation of Pastor-wife couples whose common ethos consists of doing ‘all things pastoral’ for missionaries on their own turf. It is our belief that all believers need a pastor as friend, encourager and one who will bring the Word to them regardless of where they may be at spiritually or where they may reside geographically. Missionaries are no different than other Christians in terms of their needs, except that they are spread out all over the world because of their calling from GOD. As a result many do not have anyone they can call upon or look to as their pastor. Specifically the role of Pastors Beyond couples is a ministry of presence with missionaries on the field along with the doing of all things pastoral… this would include encouragement, preaching, teaching, counseling, prayer, friendship, conducting workshops on specific topics of interest & acts of service.

The Presenting Need - We’ve known firsthand that many Missionaries are often found to be very weary, ‘beaten down’ and discouraged through a multitude of factors that they face on the front lines of their ministries. Among the factors that lead to these conditions are: great distances from family and friends; cultural & language isolation because their home culture & mother tongue often radically differ from their host culture; significant financial stressors; the presence of varying levels of conflict in family & team dynamics; and the strains and stresses of everyday marital and child-rearing issues. Further, the dynamics of most mission entities is that they are often devoid of: ‘a safe person’ to speak with or be counseled by when a missionary is hurting over some issue/s; They are not often able to come under the hearing and challenge of regular preaching and teaching from the Word, etc. We seek to be those ‘safe people’ and bring a dimension of the above ethos to mission groups and individual missionaries and their families on their turf.

• Quick Details... Pastors Beyond Couples
• ...this is a ministry that includes BOTH the pastor & his wife on their deployments because of all that she will bring to their ministry as well
• ...must have 10-15 years of pastoral experience here in the USA; international ministry experience is very helpful
• ...raise all of their own support for life & living in the USA and for all travel/ministry expenses
• ...are vetted, trained, approved, accepted and helped in their initial deployments by the Dir of Pastors Beyond
  • This includes - References / Personal Interview with Dir of Pastors Beyond / Spiritual Gifts assessment / Submission of sermon tapes / Myers-Briggs Test Instrument OR DISC / Agreement with the Pastors Beyond Memo of Understanding & the Manual of Understanding
    
• ...are deployed for short term pastoral ministry sojourns... usually from 2 wks to 3-4 mos depending upon factors present