As a sending and developing missional organization, Communitas aims to not only send well-prepared missionary staff, but to continually equip them with the tools and skills they need to be successful in ministry. We are equally concerned about the people we are reaching as well as our staff by supporting them spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
Daphne Fisher and Mike Kuder are part of the Training Team that leads initiatives to support staff. One such initiative is in the area of emotional health. Daphne commented, “Working in staff care and development, I saw so much of the underbelly that we all have—where we’re broken, carrying our wounds, and not getting attended to. I’ve seen enough staff unintentionally wound others because of their own wounds from unhealthy conflict management or other things that come with them on the field. Some thought they could mask over this brokenness which made us realize that we all need extra tools to help us grow.”
Every year Communitas has various cohorts, webinars, and conferences to help pour into our staff, from theological education to information about Third Culture Kids, to attending to our emotional health. “Growing up is a lifelong process, no matter how old you are,” Daphne adds.
Daphne and Mike are leading two 8-week cohorts through Peter Scazzero’s “Emotionally Healthy Discipleship” curriculum. Spiritual and practical tips are included to deal with emotional health and relational skills. Some of the exercises involve looking at family history and values while others provide opportunities to sit in silence for two minutes to listen to God.
“Sometimes we can shy away from those disciplines of silence because we think it’s mysticism, but spending time in silence before the Lord is a good Biblical spiritual discipline,” commented Mike. The tagline for the curriculum is: It’s not possible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. “That really resonated with me because I believe that’s completely true,” adds Daphne. “In the past when I’ve seen damaged leaders doing damage to others, the only response I got was, ‘Well, God only has imperfect people to work with,’ which is true, but it’s also an excuse, and it’s not addressing the problem. This material really helps address the problem.”
Daphne reiterates, “With these cohorts, I want our missionary staff to feel a deeper connection with the Lord that will start healing and expanding into other areas of their lives.” Mike adds, “We see our staff learning the connection between their spirituality and their emotional well-being, as well as about the symbiotic relationship between their emotions and spiritual walks. We don’t always understand these connections, but through the process of digging a little deeper, we have better insight into ourselves and into how God can use us through our stories.”
Through these cohorts and other resources that are available, our staff Training Team desires replication. They hope others will be empowered to use these tools to attend to the health of those they are ministering with and to. One of our staff on the field already has his elder board going through this book and training.
Communitas sends people God has called into mission around the world. Since none of us have stopped learning, we nurture the growing maturity of all our people so they will be poured into, up to overflowing.That overflow of health can easily spill out to others.
