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Equipping Stages

Providing relevant mission equipping training for churches is not a simple matter.

The experience and training of the church itself, the details of the country or people group being considered, and the focus of the intended missional activity itself all come into play and need to somehow be recognized. We recognize that each church partner we have is unique, and as such, there is no "one size fits all" model that we would try to force churches through. To address this reality, we have developed a series of equipping steps which include direct consultation, equipping seminars, field training, overseas relational connections, and free helpful information.

Our approach combines structure (needed for consistency), with flexibility (to best meet your church's experience, needs, and mission vision).

Here is an overview of the four steps of our Equipping process:

Relationing Stage (introductory stage)

• SIM offers our Global Outreach mission mobilization training seminar. This seminar is geared towards communicating to your congregation the "who" and "why" of Missions. The attendees will come away with a foundational understanding of their church's role to play in mission work, and hopefully, will begin to develop a passion for being involved in it themselves.
• Depending on circumstances, basic vision trips or simple short term team opportunities will be available to instigate vision and passion.

 Equipping Stage (basic stage)

• SIM provides the "Design Your Impact" mission training seminar, which is geared to take your congregation from where Global Outreach finished, to understanding how your church is uniquely gifted, talented, and positioned to have missional impact.This step includes a good deal of consultation and dialogue.

Mobilizing Stage (intermediate stage)

• Once your church has embraced its call to be a mission force, and has developed its missional vision and direction, it is now equipped to engage in what we call "easy to attend" short term mission opportunities.

  These opportunities have two simple purposes in mind:

  1. mobilize your congregation by offering a wide array of short term mission opportunities to engage as many people in the congregation as possible.
  2. provide further cross-cultural training and exposure in preparation for longer term engagements.

Empowering Stage (advanced stage)

• One of our desired goals is to connect your church with one of our partner churches (or projects) overseas so that you can begin to build a ministry relationship directly and put your vision and goals into practical action.
• When your church is at the point of being ready for direct, long term cross-cultural relational engagement, we will assist you in making connections and establishing self-directed partnerships with our national church partners and project leaders overseas.

We hope you will see how this flow of equipping and preparation can be a powerful tool to preparing your church to effectively engage in cross-cultural missions with a high degree of success. Contact us today to learn how SIM USA can help connect you to what God is doing around the world! Call 1-800-521-6449 or email us at: simusa.churchpartnering@sim.org.