In 2002 SEND North renewed its emphasis on church planting in rural Alaska and Canada. With this renewed church planting focus, there grew a strong need for specialized training focusing on northern ministry skills and cultural understanding. From approximately 2005-2008, SEND North utilized Missionary Development Program (organized by InterMission Cooperative Outreach, of which SEND was a member) for pre-field, long term missionary training. MDP was an 8-week program in Canada that focused on both content and holistic ministry readiness. As IMCO disbanded, SEND North began to look for other options to prepare its missionaries for the unique challenges of the North.

In 2011, several SEND North members organized Northern Ministry Training on the Kenai Peninsula in order to equip new SEND North missionaries. NMT is a 4 week, content-oriented program spread out over 4 years of 1-week classes. Like MDP, it is taught by people experienced in northern ministry. One of NMT's strengths is its accessibility to a wider variety of people (summer interns, church leaders, teachers, etc), and its ability to enable these people to network and collaborate with one another. Eventually, it is our hope to see many more organizations and churches take ownership of NMT so that it is a true partnership like IMCO once was.

The first few years of ministry are a critical time of developing healthy cross-cultural relationships and ministry habits. While NMT is an excellent program, we recognize that training needs to happen more than one week per year if we hope to be effective in ministry. Furthermore, as SEND North continues to expand across Northern Canada, we are once again refocusing on what our organizational training needs are. While NMT is an excellent program, we are realizing we need a more flexible, comprehensive training paradigm that does not require new missionaries in northern Canada (ie. Nunavut, Northwest Territories, etc) to travel to Soldotna, Alaska multiple times. NMT will continue to remain one of our primary equipping resources.

This new training paradigm will be defined by the following core values:

• Spiritual Vitality Focused - Ultimate ministry effectiveness is dependent upon Christ working through us. No matter the subject, a common thread of spiritual disciplines, relational and emotional health, and relationship with God must be emphasized. Without this ingredient, all other aspects of this training paradigm will fall short.

• Competency-Based - Previous pre-field training models focused on attendance at an event. While this is often a beneficial and necessary method of equipping, it assumes that all attendees who complete the training will be “ready to go”. Considering the many factors involved in pre-field and on-field preparation, event attendance simply is not a sufficient benchmark for ministry readiness. By identifying core ministry competencies and required skills, missionaries and their team leaders are able to personally evaluate what their unique training needs are.

• Mentor-Led - Only part of equipping happens while attending a conference or reading a book. A key to developing lifelong competency in a subject is to include a mentor in the pre-learning, learning, and post-learning phases of training.

• Flexible - Equipping needs to vary depending upon team assignment, expected length of service, and ministry stage. With SEND North missionaries spread out over 1500 miles, another key to effectively equipping our people will be designing a flexible guide with many paths to growth.

• Growth Emphasis - All of our people have a continued need for growth. No one has arrived, and no one is “finished” training. Our hope is to provide a path to continued growth not just for new missionaries, but for all of our missionaries. Also, growth cannot be forced into a small time table. This means that it is better to engage in one or two competencies at a time under the guidance of a mentor than to try and “complete” a host of training objectives in order to jump through administrative hoops.

1. Once a candidate is nearing acceptance into the mission (ie. prior to becoming an appointee or once short term application & references are received), the Regional Ministry Director will evaluate the unique training needs of the appointee (with input from Team Leaders or other members of the Lead Team as appropriate).
2. This unique training plan will be recorded in the Northern Ministry Preparation Grid excel document (see the Northern Ministry Preparation Guide home page for the latest version).
3. The preliminary training plan (and its associated costs and time table) will then be forwarded to the appropriate sending office to be shared with the missionary directly.
4. Mentor(s) and pre-field assignment(s) will then be given to the appointee with a time table for completion.
5. Upon arrival on the field, and annually for the first four years of service, training needs will be re-evaluated and a new Northern Ministry Preparation Grid will be completed. Each new grid will be designed in conjunction with the missionary and Regional Ministry Director as appropriate.

Go back to the Northern Ministry Preparation Guide main page.