CTEN Pastoral Care Application
The Opportunity
This is an exciting full-time opportunity for a husband and wife to serve with a wonderful group of people, caring for some of God’s finest – missionaries. Living and basing out of our home office in the Hill Country of Texas you’ll also travel to visit the missionary families under your care.
Quarterly you will be part of a three-day orientation team where we welcome and train new missionary members of the CTEN family.
As the name implies, the ministry is “pastoral care”, but pastoral experience is not a requirement. This is not a preaching, teaching or counseling situation. It primarily is listening, understanding, caring and being an available friend. We are looking for people who love and care for others, work well with a team and preferably have overseas missions experience.
Key Qualifications
This is a support-based position that involves raising financial support for your salary.
To maintain a cohesive vision and culture, our pastoral care couples live in Kerrville, TX, a lovely Texas Hill Country town of 25,000 near San Antonio.
Both husband and wife must be able to travel (usually 3-4 trips a year; 2-6 weeks per trip). Travel expenses covered by CTEN.
Work well with the team making “every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
Agreement with CTEN Statement of Faith and an ability to value, respect and care for those who come from different theological perspectives – such as Pentecostal/Charismatic, Cessationist, Reformed, Armenian, whatever you are not.
If you love people, love missions and love missionaries, this could be just the opportunity you have been praying for.
THE THING WE DO
Most mission agencies have the “thing” they do – translate the Bible, plant churches, operate orphanages, reach the unreached, etc. The “thing” CTEN does is send and care for missionaries. We help them do what they sense God has called them to do. We coach, advise and pray with the missionaries but trust the Holy Spirit to guide them as to what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. As you browse the various missionaries and ministries on this website, you will see we have many missionaries fulfilling traditional missionary roles and many using “out of the box” methods of sharing the message.
Jesus said, “make disciples,” not just converts. Making disciples takes time. So it is not only important that we send missionaries but also that they can stay - and stay healthy in spirit, soul and body. Our entire team – finance, publications, administration – sees pastoral care as a primary role of CTEN. Our pastoral care couples are “the tip of the spear” in that ministry.
WHAT DO PASTORAL CARE COUPLES DO?
Once an applicant is initially approved, based upon the region of the world where they will serve, a pastoral care couple is assigned to welcome them, walk with them and encourage them as they prepare to go to the field. This is usually not a long process – a matter of a few months is common.
During this time you will encourage them, coach as necessary, and be an available resource to help them transition to the field as smoothly and quickly as possible. This is not a preaching, teaching or counseling role. You are primarily a listening, coaching, encouraging, available friend.
As part of their acceptance process, you will contact their home church to begin a relationship with that church. As much as possible, we work with and through their sending church. As pastoral care, we try to supplement, not supplant, the role of their sending church pastor and staff.
Four times a year we host a three-day orientation for missionaries joining CTEN – whether they are new to missions or experienced missionaries who are just new to CTEN. You will schedule your new missionary family to attend their orientation and you will be part of the host team as we train and welcome these missionaries into the CTEN family.
Once the missionary is on the field, as their pastoral care couple you will stay in touch with them (usually a monthly connection but at the minimum a quarterly contact) and go to visit them periodically. We aim for an on-field visit every 18-24 months.
Office hours and travel
This is a full-time job for both husband and wife but there is great flexibility also. There is administrative office work involved – planning trips, daily staff prayer time, keeping records of missionary visits and contacts, connecting with the other members of the team, staying in touch with your own support/prayer team, etc. But office hours are flexible because, like most positions that involve caring for people, there are times you need to be available outside normal office hours to contact your missionaries in other time zones or deal with emergency situations your missionaries may be facing.
The cost of the travel is covered by CTEN and the planning of these trips is left to you under the guidance of our Director of Administration. We suggest you make the trips no longer than 6 weeks and only spend 1-3 days in each location. But that is flexible depending upon the needs of the missionary.
WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS
While very flexible in most areas, we cannot even consider your application if you do not meet the five essential qualifications explained below.
This is a support-based position that involves raising financial support for your salary.
We offer several benefits to help with this and we cover the cost of the travel but, like the Founder, Directors and all our missionaries, Pastoral Care couples are missionaries that raise their own support. We can help with this but you need to have some experience and adequate support before you start.
You will live and base out of Kerrville, TX.
Our US home office is in Kerrville, a lovely Texas Hill Country town of 25,000 near San Antonio. To maintain a cohesive vision and culture we find it crucial that the pastoral care and other team members actually spend time praying together, working together, collaborating and discussing situations our missionaries are facing as well as just enjoying fun times as families. This can’t be done as effectively remotely. You are joining a ministry family, not taking a job at a non-profit corporation.
Both husband and wife must be able to travel, anxious to connect with missionaries and see this as a calling of the Lord on their lives.
You will provide care for single women, single men, couples and families. This requires both husband and wife to be involved in contacting, visiting and caring for the missionaries under your care. Obviously, it also means you either have no children or have older children who are not dependent upon you for care.
Both must work well with the team making “every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
The primary command Jesus gave was to love one another. The atmosphere at the home office impacts the level and kind of care we are able to offer to those on the field. There is no place on the team for “discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions … and the like.”
Agreement with CTEN Statement of Faith with an ability to value and respect those who come from different theological perspectives – such as Pentecostal/Charismatic, Cessationist, Reformed, Armenian, whatever you are not.
All CTEN missionaries adhere to our Statement of Faith (www.cten.org/statement-of-faith) but beyond these Biblical basics, they come from a wide range of theological and doctrinal positions. Some speak in tongues. Some would call that “strange fire.” Some define “election” and “predestination” one way, some another. Your missionaries might be from the US, Canada, nationals working in their own country or in a bi-cultural marriage.
If missionary applicants are in agreement with the Statement of Faith and the addendum “Board Policy on Sexuality, Marriage and Moral Conduct”, we are delighted to send them to proclaim the message of salvation to the nations.
As pastoral care it is important you are able to not just tolerate, but to value, respect and care for those who come from different theological and cultural perspectives without feeling a need to “correct” them.
WHERE WILL THE MISSIONARIES WE CARE FOR SERVE?
ASIA / CARIBBEAN / CENTRAL AMERICA
Our current opening is to care for missionary units based in Asia, Caribbean and Central America.
WANT EVEN MORE INFO?
If you want to research Commission To Every Nation a bit further you can read or listen to the story of how we came into being in 1994 - almost 30 years ago. Check out a free sample of the book HERE.
Or Purchase the paperback, Kindle or Audiobook HERE.
If you have more questions, email director@cten.org.
READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP TOWARD MISSIONARY CARE?
Complete and submit this information application and we will contact you for a time to meet and discuss the possibility of your future partnership with Commission To Every Nation.