Missionary Apprenticeship General Information
Dates: GFM missionary apprenticeships are seven months long (June-Dec for spring MTS students and Jan-July for fall MTS students). We need apprentices to be fully committed during those seven months as this is our chance to help you find your niche in ministry here. Up to a month of the apprenticeship can be dedicated to traveling and visiting friends, family, and supporters as part of the mentoring we want to offer is in the area of raising support.
Cost: All missionary apprentices are in charge of their own ministry and living expenses. For, singles living in GFM apartments, the cost per month is the exact cost of the rent and utilities divided by the number of people sharing the apartment plus $25/month.
Note: We recommend that single missionaries raise about $1200/month and families raise about $2400/month in missions support to help pay for insurance, travel home, personal items, overseas trips, etc. If you are not getting this much support, you may need to go do friend raising for a month at some point during the apprenticeship.
Coaching: You will be assigned a ministry coach that will help you come up with your work schedule, job description, and keep you accountable to meeting your goals. We are dedicated to training you in your specific area of ministry, developing your spiritual gifts, and seeing you become fruitful in ministry.
Ministry Evaluation: Every two months during the missionary apprenticeship, we will do a performance review to talk about advances/fruit in ministry, to find needed areas of improvement, to determine any necessary changes, and to discuss whether expectations are being met and if the apprenticeship is beneficial to both parties. This two month check in provides an “out” for you and for us if things just were not working out for either party.
Full-time Staff Commitment: In order to become a full-time staff member with GFM, one must have finished the missionary training school, completed a seven month apprenticeship, and made at least a two year commitment to the organization. You can look at our current staff needs.
Involvement with Local People: All Christians are called to make disciples. Consequently, we consider it important for every apprentice even those not joining the church planting team to have as much interaction as possible with the local people. We expect everyone at GFM to play their part in developing relationships, sharing the gospel, and making disciples here which makes all of us a part of the church planting efforts.
Work Hours: Due to the relational nature of much of the ministry, we do not have set work hours at GFM. However, you are expected to work at least a 40 hours per week doing ministry (unless you are tentmaking) and working towards the goals that will be established with your coach. Things like involvement in local churches, personal finances, communication with supporters, and devotional time are a part of your ministry but should be done during your own time and do not count as GFM work hours.
Staff Meetings, Upper Room, and Parties: You are expected to attend and be on time for all staff meetings, upper room times, and fellowship times as these are some of the few gatherings where the whole GFM family comes together.
Base Communication: Working in a team dynamic, communication is very important. Following the protocol below will help us all avoid a lot of frustration by providing clear, timely communication. Basically, your coach is your communication link to the whole organization. Send messages through them, and get official updates from them so that you can know what is really happening at GFM rather than hearing rumors.
o All significant communication about decisions of the organization, important goings-on, etc. is flowing in and out of the Leadership Team. If a decision is made in a leadership meeting, the decisions will be communicated to you at the next meeting with your coach.
o As you keep your local coach updated on important things happening with your ministry, they will pass the updates to the other members of the Leadership team. This ensures all updates are passed along to the other teams as each member of the Leadership team is responsible for updating their own local team mates as to what is happening in other ministries.
o If there is an issue or decision you would like the Leadership Team to consider, let your coach know. It will get taken to the leadership meeting and then brought back to you with the outcome of our discussion. Occasionally, the leadership team will want input from the whole team at which point your coach will let you know what issue is being discussed and encourage feedback.