Frequently Asked Questions (Going)
Short Term (one week to six months):
Avant's short-term ministries are designed to provide exposure to other cultures and needs, allowing you to see where you might fit if God were to lead you to pursue longer term ministry down the road. Opportunities for meaningful ministry and outreach are built in to short-term experiences.
Ministry teams of various sizes spend anywhere from one to three weeks making a difference. EMERGE summer internships of 4, 6 and 8 weeks go deeper, and academic credit is often available.
Mid Term (six months to two years):
The Avant mid-term program is designed for those who have a desire to serve between six months and two years, including those who may be contemplating serving longer term in the future. This length of time lets you go deeper in the language, culture and ministry impact than is possible in a short-term assignment.
The mid-term assignment is a mentorship process, allowing the missionary to work alongside and learn from a long term missionary or team. Serving as a mid-term missionary provides an excellent opportunity to make a significant and real impact on the field while also focusing on discovery of God's will and plan for your life over the long haul.
Long Term (greater than two years):
Much of the ministry vision of Avant requires cross-cultural servants who are in it for the long haul. While real impact can happen in short time frames, the bigger picture of the transformation of communities, cities, and nations requires a commitment to time; time to build trust, time to establish healthy churches, time to train leaders, time to see Biblical maturity take root.
Most long-term missionaries point to a shorter-term experience as key to their process of discovering God's will for them to expand their service. Long-term members of Avant are generally confident of their call to serve for an extended season, often vocationally, in cross-cultural ministry. A long-term assignment requires careful prayer, preparation, and commitment. Applicants must demonstrate maturity and Christ-likeness in their character.
Where possible, our goal will always be to place missionaries in teams. In some cases, we will deploy a team together. Collaboration and community are two of Avant's deeply held core values.
We send individuals, families and teams in several different ways.
- We send people to places where we already have other missionaries established
- We send people where we have partnerships with national churches, pastors and/or organizations.
- We occasionally send experienced individuals to isolated places, with the goal of building a team around them in a short time frame.
- We create new teams of individuals and families to new fields, or to new areas in existing fields.
- We also sometimes send an entire team from a specific church (or a network of churches who partner together). This is a specific kind of team called Joint Venture.
The exact amount to be raised is dependent on a variety of factors including the cost of living in your specific field, your family size, type of ministry assignment, anticipated travel needs, etc.
We are confident you will experience God provide for your ongoing financial needs, and will be blessed by the relationships you develop with those who become part of your support team.
The local church is a primary link in our sending process, and therefore plays a key sending and partnership role. We ask churches to affirm the call of each applicant, provide opportunities for discipleship and ministry, help assess in the readiness of the applicant, and partner with them on their journey once deployed to the field.
We believe that having a home church is of utmost importance for the ongoing spiritual development for all believers. We will require a pastoral reference which includes affirmation of your intent to serve cross culturally. If you don’t have a home church, we encourage you to find a church that is a good fit and spend some time serving locally before applying.
- Can you articulate a clear call to go to the nations?
- Are you involved with a local church? Have you discussed your desire to be a missionary with the pastor or missions committee?
- Have you read and understand our doctrine?
Some field positions, such as theological education, do require higher education. Requirements vary.
Yes! Training and coaching happens before you go and throughout your time on the field.
Before you Go:
- Avant Start and Avant Go: Avant Start is a one week program for missionary candidates focusing on affirming your call, confirming your fit and providing an orientation to the mission, vision and culture of Avant. As new members get close to field depature, Avant Go provides another week of focused training and pre-field orientation. Both weeks of training are designed to prepare you to survive and thrive in your cross-cultural ministry assignment with Avant.
- Pre-field care: Member Care, mentoring, coaching, training and discipleship before you get there.
- On-field: Language training, ministry team development, conferences and workshops are just some of the components of ongoing training and development resources available for missionaries on the field.
- Leadership Development: Avant provides ongoing training and coaching opportunities to help prepare many field missionaries for field and other leadership roles.
While having debt does not automatically disqualify you from membership, it will be a point of conversation and coaching as your pre-field plan and support needs are worked out. At a minimum, a clear plan for debt management and reduction must be mutually understood and developed. Depending on the nature and amount of debt, we may ask you to reduce debt to a certain level before leaving for the field.
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