How Your Church Can Serve the Missionaries You Send

Whether your church is a veteran sending church or just beginning to look toward the nations, this question is a beautiful sign of spiritual health. It reveals a congregation that desires to link arms with brothers and sisters on the frontlines. 

But our answers can sometimes lack the biblical substance required to sustain a lifetime of labor.

To say the missionary task is difficult is an understatement. Statistics suggest that nearly one out of every two missionaries leave the field within their first three years. This means many spend their most energetic years learning a language and navigating a new culture, only to return home before entering the most fruitful season of their ministry.

Our missionary care must be more than the care package approach, as good as those are. It must be aimed at the glory of Christ as he produces godly endurance in our sent ones. We all have an active role in helping missionaries humbly endure so that we might see, by God’s grace, healthy churches planted and Christ worshiped among the unreached.

To invite your church into this high calling, consider the “Three P’s” of Missionary Care: 

1. PRAYER: THE ONGOING WORK

While imprisoned in Rome for the gospel, the Apostle Paul didn’t ask for a lawyer; he asked for intercession. He urged the Ephesians to make “supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel” (Eph. 6:18-19).

Paul mentions prayer or its synonyms over 120 times in his letters. In a modern culture tempted to prioritize measurable activities, Paul remained convinced that prayer was the engine of the mission. He told the Corinthians, “You also must help us by prayer” (2 Cor. 1:11).

God actually condescends to hear and respond to our petitions. When your church hears of the spiritual warfare or the dry seasons your missionaries face, do you pray? Scripture and church history prove that the Lord works through personal and corporate prayer to strengthen both the goer and sender/supporter.

2. PROVISION: THE GRACE OF GIVING

In defending his ministry to the Corinthian church, Paul noted: “I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need” (2 Cor. 11:9). Later, he described the gifts sent by the Philippians as a “fragrant offering” (Phil. 4:18).

From initial funding to emergency projects, we are called to be a generous people—especially toward those laboring where the gospel is not yet known. Jason Seville, a friend and pastor, once challenged me to count the number of times Paul mentions money in 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, a definitive passage on giving. The spoiler? The answer is zero. Instead, Paul calls the act of giving a “grace” of God and urges the Corinthians to excel in it. 

Why? Because though Christ was rich, for our sake he became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich. How we steward our resources to support the saints is not a cold transaction; it is a spiritual exercise that mirrors the gospel itself.

3. PEOPLE: THE POWER OF PRESENCE

For missionaries able to receive visitors, nothing replaces person-to-person gospel encouragement. Even at the end of his life, Paul pleaded with Timothy to come visit him, bringing friends and even his cloak (2 Tim. 4:9-13). For Paul, even the fallouts and desertions of those whom he once called friends, didn’t harden his heart. He knew the irreplaceable value of gospel friendships.

The heat of frontline ministry is intense. We have seen how the Lord uses short-term visits to provide long-term oxygen for a weary missionary. One couple our church sent out recently wrote: “I wanted to write about our friends visiting so that others may consider doing the same.” 

These visits don’t need to be complex events. Simply coming to share meals, listen to their struggles, and pray together can provide the fuel a family needs to endure another year.

If you want to invite your church into this work, start by casting a vision for biblical, church-centered missions. Don’t try to care for the whole world at once; find one family and commit to going deep in these three areas.

As we pray, provide, and show up, we aren’t passively participating—we are serving in the unstoppable expansion of the glory of Christ among the nations.