When you are serious about formalizing your application download the full Application Form and send it to us so we can review it.  The application form is designed to help you think through the various commitments we ask for.  When we receive your application form, we will make an initial assessment of your suitabilty for working with Servants and let you know whether you can proceed further.  If successful you will officially become an Applicant and you will be assigned a mentor to help guide you through the rest of the process, beginning with contacting your references. 

In Servants we are passionate about serving the church. We believe that the Church is the body of Christ (Eph 1:22, Col 1:18). To join Servants you need to be in a credible relationship with a group of believers. We recommend that you discuss your thoughts about mission with the leadership of your church as early as possible, asking whether the pastor or church leadership would be willing to recommend and support you in overseas mission. When you have met with your church leadership, someone from Servants will also arrange to speak with them in order to answer any questions they might have and begin building a relationship. 

You will need to download and pass these reference forms on to the appropriate people: 2 Christian references should be filled out by Christian leaders in your church or ministry who know you well and 1 work reference should be filled in by an employer.  Ask these references to send their responses directly to us.  Once we have reviewed your application and references we will make a recommendation to you about continuing with the psychological assessment or not.

Being asked to see a psychologist and undertake an assessment can be a new experience for many people. However, this is a unique opportunity for growth and self-discovery.  The assessment is designed to assist you in considering the issues you might face on the mission field or in other high-stress situations, discover what settings and roles would be best for you to work in, and to ensure that you reach your maximum potential. This is useful whether you end up joining Servants or not.  For an accurate assessment, please be sure to disclose any relevant issues, including past struggles or abuse.  The report will only be seen by Servants leadership and discussed confidentially with you to help us best prepare you for the situations you may face.  We may recommend further counselling or work on certain issues, but again this should be seen as an opportunity for growth.

 

What happens in an assessment?

The assessment has two main components, the completion of psychometric tests, and attendance at an interview. Two tests are generally recommended, (though your psychologist may wish to suggest an alternative test, in which case please discuss this with Servants):

• The Tennessee Self-concept Inventory measures self esteem using a matrix of three measures of the person’s overall satisfaction with themselves and then more specific measures about how confident they are in six areas of their life. This inventory also provides a screening for past and current emotional problems (including mental health disorders such as depression or anxiety).
• The NEO Personality Inventory is a concise measure of the five major dimensions or domains, of personality and some of the more important traits or facets that define each domain. Together, the 5 domain scales and 30 facet scales of the NEO PI-R allow a comprehensive assessment of adult personality.

 

The test forms will normally be sent by e-mail to you, and will take about 2 hours to complete. Don’t be surprised if some of the questions seem unusual to you, or if you are not completely happy with the answer you needed to supply on any given question. The tests are designed to be quite robust, in that your answers on an individual item will not change the outcome of the test dramatically. The tests look for overall patterns.

 

The material from the tests will be combined with information from an interview. If you are single then the interview will take about an hour and a half. For married couples the process will take about 2 hours, and may involve individual interviews and time spent with you as a couple. Some interviewers will not interview a couple separately.

 

During the interview expect to be asked questions about a wide variety of areas such your family background, your relationships with others, your emotional wellbeing and your Christian experience. Be sure to disclose everything.  Near the end of the interview, your test results will be discussed with you to hear your perspective on what they have suggested.

 

When the assessment is completed a report will be written which will summarise relevant life history information, the test results, and recommendations This report will be sent to you for checking and when finalised, sent to Servants leadership by the psychologist.  Together, we will discuss the recommendations and make any appropriate changes or plans to support you.

 

Arranging an assessment:

You are responsible for arranging and paying for your own psychological testing. Ideally, find a Christian psychologist that you know or has been recommended to you. Servants may also be able to recommend a psychologist nearby so check with us first. Your psychologist may find this Intro Letter and Sample Psych Report helpful to know what kind of report is expected.

You need to arrange with your general practitioner to undergo a full medical examination to check your general health and fitness for working overseas. If you have any chronic or ongoing medical problems let us know so we can discern together with you, the best way to manage it.

 

Download these two forms and return them to your mentor:
Medical Exam Form A (filled in by the candidate)
Medical Exam Form B (filled in by the doctor)

 

The following is a list of the normal vaccinations you will need. Immunizations for children or Western countries may differ, please contact us or your GP:

 

Compulsory
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Typhoid
Rabies
Japanese B Encephalitis

 

Optional (ie. may not be very effective)
Cholera
Tuberculosis

 

Check that you have all your childhood vaccinations up to date, especially:
Polio
Tetanus
Diptheria
Measles/Mumps/Rubella (normally administered together)

NB. Malaria Prophylaxis recommended for areas where Malaria is endemic (varies from city to city)

The decision to accept a new worker is jointly made by the Servants sending office in your home country and the Servants team you hope to join in Asia. You will need to visit the field for a minimum of two weeks before you go long term. Preferably, this will involve a time of living in an urban community with a local family, language learning, involvement in team life and getting to know the Servants team.  Before arrival on the field, you will need to send us the results of a Criminal Record Check (American info here (minimum 6 weeks turnaround), other countries have their own systems listed here).  Please also be sure to fill in the Final Details form before you go and send copies to your sending office and the field team. 

The Orientation Course is a two week residential course (live-in) designed to introduce newcomers to the Servants principles, values and vision.  Orientation Courses are held in different cities, depending on demand, once or twice a year in order to prepare future workers for joining Servants.  Servants will discuss with you the timing and location of the most appropriate Orientation Course for you to attend. At the orientation an interview will be conducted with each participant from which the orientation leaders will produce a recommendation regarding the candidate's ministry gifts and aptitudes, any areas for further growth and development and a preferred field of service.

Servants is a faith mission and all workers raise their financial support from their local churches and friends. Most Servants workers need to raise significantly less than other missionaries because we live simply amongst the poor. The appropriate Servants field team will provide you with a sample budget and an indication of living costs and your mentor will be available to discuss with you how we can assist in your personal support raising. Since we do not work on a pooling system, you raise whatever you need to live on.

 

Friend Raising: Building a Missionary Support Team that will Last (2003: Betty Barnett)

In this highly recommended book on support raising, Betty Barnett discusses four pillars that undergird the process of missionary support raising – friend raising, generosity, communication, and prayer with promises. She emphasizes that caring for people as friends is more important than looking at them as sources of funding; that a lifestyle of giving with friends and supporters is a right foundation for support raising. Communication is God’s design for interdependence, and people really want to be involved in the missionaries’ lives. Her book is filled with practical suggestions the missionary can pursue in support raising.

 

Funding the Family Business by Miles Wilson is an excellent and more recent resource from a British perspective.

 

In Servants we are passionate not just about serving the urban poor but also about prophetically challenging Western Christians to reorient their lives with the poor in mind. This includes everything from the basics of helping Christians understand God’s heart for the poor and what that might mean for them, to mobilising fellow sojourners to serve the urban poor incarnationally in Asia and in the West.

 

Over the years each of us have given sacrificially to see this happen at the home ends and at the international leadership level. We each give a simple "tithe” of ten percent of our support to the pursuit of these ideals. This contributes to the international leadership functions, the administrative support team functions and some of this is also set aside to assist those amongst us who are struggling.

We do not see the tithe as a financial transaction, where a fee is paid in return for a list of services, (although many services are provided sacrificially and on a volunteer basis by home and support team members). Rather, the tithe is an offering towards the collective pursuit of our unique calling as Servants and the advancement of God’s Kingdom amongst the urban poor.

 

A typical budget would include the following items: food, transport, rent, language, medical insurance, flights, holidays, tithe, etc...Most individuals raise between US$500 and $800 per month.

If you have not already filled in this Emergency Details Form (or any details have changed), please fill it in before departure and return copies to your Servants Office and the team you are joining.  It covers important details such as insurance information, power of attorney (who can sign your stuff), what to do with your body in case of ahem...accident or death, a release of liability etc.  Yah! Fun. 

There are a number of books and articles which will help you understand the history and philosophy of Servants.  Read through the books in sections A, B, C, D & E below carefully, noting down any ideas that you find particularly challenging, inspiring or disturbing. Send your personal responses to your Servants mentor by email or even better, discuss face to face over a cup of tea.

 

A. KEY BOOKS ABOUT SERVANTS (read at least 2, including Sounds of Worlds Colliding)

The Sound of Worlds Colliding. (2010: edited by Kristin Jack)
The Urban Halo (2007: Craig Greenfield)
Costly Mission. Following Christ into the Slums. (1996: Michael Duncan)
Companion to the Poor. Christ in the Urban Slums. (1990: Viv Grigg)

 

B. THEOLOGY (read at least 1)

The Upside-Down Kingdom (2003: Donald Kraybill)
The Powers that Be (1999: Walter Wink)
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. (1997: Ronald J. Sider )
The Politics of Jesus (1994: John Howard Yoder)

 

C. MISSION (read at least 2)

Living Mission: the vision and voices of the New Friars (2010: ed. Scott Bessenecker)

When Helping Hurts (2010: Steve Corbett)

Walking with the Poor (1999: Bryant Myers)

Missions and Money. Affluence as a Western Missionary Problem. (1991: Jonathan Bonk)

 

D. SPIRITUALITY (read at least 1, including Compassion)

Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life. (1983: Henri Nouwen)

Freedom of Simplicity. (1997: Richard Foster)

A Spirituality of the Road (2001: David Bosch)

 

E. PERSONAL AWARENESS (read at least 2)

Discovering the Enneagram (2003: Richard Rohr)

Boundaries (2002: Cloud and Townsend)
The Gift of Being Yourself (2004: David Benner)

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (2006: Peter Scazzero)

 

We recommend that you continue to be in conversation with your church family and leadership throughout the preparation process so that your church can be actively involved in your formation and support.

You can also help foster a partnership between Servants and your faith community by connecting us with your church leaders.  Someone from Servants may be able to meet with your church leadership and help them gain an understanding of Servants and ministry amongst the urban poor.

Once you are overseas it will be helpful to have one person who is your "advocate" in the church, who can pass on prayer requests and ensure that you have the practical support you need on the field and when returning home.  Your pastor may be too busy to fulfill this function effectively, so if possible look for someone else who can focus on supporting you as your advocate.

Serving as Senders by Neil Pirolo, is an excellent resource for your church leadership and advocate. Try to pick up a few copies for key people.

Moving into an unfamiliar context can strip us of our usual ways of connecting with God.  Spiritual Direction is a good way to prepare for this and go deeper in your relationship with God. 

Spiritual Direction is the ministry of listening, discernment, and prayer in a confidential setting of encouragement and compassion. The underlying assumption of spiritual direction is that God acts in every area of our lives.

Those in spiritual direction process God's leading with someone who works with them to discern the activity of God in their life. The goal of spiritual direction is that those who enter into direction would grow closer to God and become more the persons God created us to be in Jesus Christ.

You will need to have at least 6 sessions with a registered Spiritual Director and go on at least one weekend retreat. Most of us find it helpful to meet with a Spiritual Director on an ongoing (monthly) basis.  Spiritual Directors can be found in almost every city and your Servants mentor can help you locate one if you are having trouble. Alternatively click here for an online search tool. Also read: What is Spiritual Direction? (Christianity Today)

Understanding ourselves and others is an important aspect of personal development and the spiritual journey. You will need to demonstrate that you have done some significant work in the area of personal awareness. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram are two tools that we have found useful. You will see in the required reading list that we have included books on these.  A vast amount of information is available on the internet and you will need to be discerning.

 

Myers Briggs is perhaps the most widely used personality tool. When scored, it indicates a person's preference for different ways of gathering information, making decisions, energizing and orienting to the outer world. Respondents come out as one of 16 different personality Types. These Type preferences offer profound insight into people's strengths and weaknesses, their impact on teams, their leadership challenges and tendencies and their paths of personal and professional development. (Recommended Reading: David Kiersey (1998) Please Understand Me II.)

 

The Enneagram is about people, how we are the same, how we are different, what makes us tick. It presents a system of psychology, popularized by the Franciscans, that describes nine core personality types that people tend to favour.

There are vast opportunities for significant cross-cultural ministry experience before you even go overseas. An ever increasing number of Buddhist pagodas, Hindu temples, Sikh gurudwaras and Muslim mosques are being built in the West and immigrants from almost every nation are probably living in your city. You will need to demonstrate some significant previous cross-cultural (Asian) experience, preferably amongst the people you hope to serve. Experience in working with an "at risk" group or the urban poor is also essential.

 

In Servants we place great emphasis on our team life and building community with each other and our poor neighbours. You will also need to show that you have successfully worked in a team or lived in an intentional community situation for at least a year.  These experiences will help prepare you for the intense inter-personal struggles and conflicts that you may face on the field.  (Our experience has shown that merely living in a student dorm, does not present adequate preparation, so contact us for further discussion.)

 

In North America, MissionYear provides an excellent year-long introduction to inner city ministry and Christian community. In Australia, Waiters Union runs exposure courses and in New Zealand, Praxis & Urban Vision. Ask your Servants mentor, for more information about how you can gain some experience of living in a Christian community if this is something you have not yet explored.

Another important way of developing personally and learning to understand and relate to others is to gain experience in the workplace. Whilst working, you are likely to gain experience in:

 

• Working together with people you may not especially like or naturally “click” with, in pursuit of a common goal. This is great experience for living and working in a team.

 

• Working under the authority of someone else. Submission to leadership is an important part of any Christian ministry, especially in stressful and perhaps unstable situations.

 

• The disciplines of turning up on time and doing work you may not even like that much. This is great preparation for when the excitement and “novelty” of a new country/new team/language learning or project work wears off and it is time to put the hard yards in.

 

• Learning to deal maturely with the monotonous aspects of a job. Not everyone can have the most “exciting” roles in a team or a project, and even an “exciting” project includes a lot of routine, yet vitally important work, from answering e-mails through to record-keeping and finances.

 

To join a Servants team you should have a significant amount of work experience, for example at least a year of paid employment. From our experience, newly graduated University students are very unlikely to have the life-experience needed to cope with living in some of the most deprived areas of the world. Thus if you are a new graduate we will ask you to find paid employment, usually for at least a year, whilst you prepare to join Servants. There may be cases where full-time voluntary work is an appropriate alternative, but please discuss this in detail with your Servants mentor before committing to this.

Mission is all about relationships and deep relationships cannot be fostered without the ability to converse with the urban poor in their own language. There are some steps you can take even before you arrive on the field. To join Servants you will need to demonstrate significant prior language learning as an adult over the course of at least three months or attend a language learning course such as the six week Summer Institute of Linguistics Language and Culture Course.

 

One of the best books ever written on language learning is called LAMP (Language Acquisition Made Practical) by Tom and Betty-Sue Brewster. The basic idea is that successful language learners learn a little and use it a lot. They get what they need and practice it then use it in conversation with actual people. The book is a highly recommended read before arriving on the field.

Its also important to understand your communication style within a team and develop listening skills that lead to healthier team dynamics.  We ask everyone to complete a listening skills course or preferably a Non-Violent Communication (NVC) workshop before departure.  Read more here.