Worth Keeping

Missional Preparation and Implementation

Joining the global mission movement means investing in people, seeking their well-being, and challenging them to grow. People are central to God's mission, and we must not exploit them for personal gain. Yet, if we're not careful, we can neglect the needs of the missionaries who serve around the world. It's easy to forget that missionaries are people too. High rates of attrition often signal that we've overlooked this point, that something is out of balance, and we need to look for better practices of missionary retention.

Worth Keeping is a comprehensive resource on attrition, retention, and best practices in sending missions teams. It presents research findings from a two-year project conducted in 22 nations and offers a comparison between older and newer sending countries. The book includes case studies, addressing a range of mission challenges, and is designed to be a working tool for church and mission leaders, missionaries, and those involved in member care and mobilization.

When we do not identify and promote best practices, we settle for second best and that may mean that people are lost unnecessarily! Worth Keeping examines the best strategies to ensure missionary retention. We not only want to discern between bad and good; we also need the courage to choose to go for the best rather than simply do what is mere customary.

This useful book helps those working in missions to understand how mission ethos and cultures can promote healthy relationships and personal growth. It utilizes research data obtained from 40 percent of the world mission force, and should be required reading for everyone involved in world mission.

Dr. Marjory F. Foyle, WEA Mission Commission MemCa, UK
There can be few more urgent issues than recapturing the importance of long-term, whole life-investing, mission service: long enough to learn a language properly, to get inside an alien worldview and to make real friendships, without which mission is superficial and deep-level conversion rarely happens. If we care about the God-honoring quality of world mission, then we will want to recruit and keep godly men and women. This book will help us do just that, under the grace of God.

Rose Dowsett, OMF WEA Mission Commission Coordinator Global Missiology Teams, Scotland
If we long for a harvest of “fruit that will last” around the world, then we will implement the recommendations contained in this book. It is easier to keep things the way they are. But we will honor God by taking seriously the formidable research described in these pages.

Dr. Debbie Lovell-Hawker, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Researcher, InterHealth, UK
The global missionary community is once again greatly indebted to the writers who are a part of the WEA Mission Commission. There is no doubt that this key book on missionary retention and best practices will challenge and change not only the mode of our member care, but also training as well as the entire process of sending of our. missionaries.

Dr. David Tai-Woong Lee, Global Missionary Training Centre, Korea
Worth Keeping marks a significant milestone in the crucial work of the WEA Missions Commission. Th is seminal work should be read and re-read by all of us who are engaged in this exciting epoch of evangelical missions.

Rob Martin, Executive Director, First Fruit, Inc., USA
All too often research is just left on the shelf to gather dust and doesn’t produce the results its conclusions commend. The is research has the potential to be different. It contains hard truths alongside many practical recommendations, and we ignore its message at our peril. Study it, see what changes need to be made, but above all don’t let it gather dust.

Martin Lee, Executive Director, Global Connections, UK