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Global Worker Opportunities
Long-term
A Long-term Worker is generally committed to cultural immersion, language acquisition, and has a specific ministry aim that can be clearly articulated, even if it may take decades to fulfill.
The role of a long-term evangelist, campus ministry leader, or disciple-maker will be recognized as a strategic need by a local church. If specifically campus ministry, the ministry center will be a healthy local church that intends to commission some of its members to targeted campus outreach as an extension of the church’s ministry. In other cases, the long-term worker will work alongside the church to meet a designated need.
In most cases those who are interested in church planting labors among unreached language groups will be advised to attend Radius or Radical or some similar missionary training program to acquire the linguistic and cultural skills that will be necessary for engaging pioneer settings. Likewise, RTIM will expect that those who are intending to plant churches among unreached language groups will plan to go with other sent-ones with whom they will be able to form a church in their second context.
These are settings where Reaching & Teaching has identified the need for a healthy local church. Theological training and pastoral ministry experience is typically expected. In some cases, cross-cultural training at Radical may be advised.
In settings where a church has been established but has identified the need for a lead pastor to give themselves to the full time shepherding of the church before it is capable of raising up its own local pastors, an RTIM global worker may be deployed to meet this need.
In settings where a church has been established and has identified a need for a supplementary pastor to serve in a specific ministry capacity that it lacks internal ability to meet, an RTIM global worker may be deployed to meet this need. Examples of this type of a role might involve pastoral/elder training, developing and overseeing discipleship programs, leading biblical counseling initiatives, etc.
Pastoral training roles typically involve working through a local church to train, equip, and deploy elder-qualified men for ministry in a local setting. Typically, these are distinguished from seminary training insofar as the training and equipping work is not oriented towards earning a degree but toward being prepared to pastor churches toward health. They may also serve multiple churches in an area in contrast to an associate pastor role that would typically be primarily concerned with a single church.
These roles typically require a terminal degree, though some formal seminary teaching can be accomplished with an MDiv. These opportunities exist in a variety of settings – externally-accredited church-based seminaries, unaccredited seminaries, and accredited seminaries. Teaching and mentoring of students is at the core of the daily work, though the expectation of all RTIM employees is that the teacher would center ministry in and through a healthy local church.
In contexts where Scripture has yet to be translated or where revisions of Scripture are needed, an RTIM worker may be deployed with the task of Bible translation as a part of a church planting team. In addition to Scripture, there may be places that would benefit from the translation of other theological resources that an RTIM worker might be tasked with overseeing.
Apprenticeship
An Apprenticeship role supports local church ministry and typically lasts 1-2 years. It is ideal for candidates who are still exploring their desires and qualifications for long-term work. It is also ideal for churches that have time-bound needs for which they are recruiting.
A Pastoral Assistant role is a time-bound opportunity to serve a pastor in a given context while gaining experience, exposure, and expertise in ministry. Pastoral assistants may serve additional roles such as developing targeted ministries that can be handed off to national church members upon their departure. Such ministries may be related to music and worship, college ministry, youth ministry, etc.
In many places it is strategic for global workers to establish businesses such as English as a Second Language schools to gain access and identity within a given context. Many of these businesses benefit from having teachers come to participate in the ministry for a time-limited duration. While teaching English or working in administration of the school will be involved, the ministry will function through the local church, so discipleship and evangelism efforts will be embedded in the church context.
In places where churches are located near college campuses, it is often advantageous for churches to engage in targeted outreach to college students. When churches desire to develop such ministries but lack the personnel to give intentional attention, an apprentice might be tasked with developing inroads and structures and teams from within the church to carry on a college campus outreach as an aspect of the church’s ministry.
Various churches have various needs for how to strengthen and develop their members to support the ongoing ministries of the church. Occasionally there will be opportunity for RTIM apprentices to be deployed to meet these needs by engaging in training of nationals, developing diaconate-type ministries, and establishing structures that can serve the church beyond their apprenticeship term.