Missions21 was started to help pastors and churches connect with missionaries easier and more efficiently.
Using specific filters, pastors and church leaders can sort through our growing list of independent baptist missionaries by country, continent, missions agency, type of ministry and even support level.
We’ll dig into that a little more later.
Every missionary knows the time and work that goes into contacting churches in hopes of scheduling a meeting. And most pastors understand that not every missionary that calls or emails them is a good fit for their specific ministry.
Often it’s a question of another church recommending a missionary or knowing another preacher who already supports a particular missionary.
With new missionaries joining M21 every week, church leaders can look over all of the missionaries that have partnered with Missions21. Without giving up contact information or any other details, a pastor can view specific profiles of missionaries they want to learn more about.
Instead of visiting multiple mission agency websites and contacting various colleges for a list of missionaries on deputation, pastors can simply register with Missions21 for free and start sorting through qualified missionaries in one place.
*Missionary profiles are only accessible to registered users.
Viewing missionary profiles on Missions21
Every missionary’s profile will contain basic but vital information. This includes:
- Country of ministry
- Missions agency name
- Ministry type
- Sending church name and location
- Sending pastor’s name
- Field status (deputation, furlough, on field)
- Current support percentage
- Recommendation letters
- Family picture
- Ministry video
- Missionary packet PDF
If a pastor is interested in contacting a missionary for more information he can privately message the missionary right from the missionary’s profile page. Then the missionary can respond through the messaging system within the website without either party giving up an email address.
Since only missionary profiles are searchable within Missions21, a pastor cannot be contacted by a missionary until he first messages that missionary.
What if a pastor wants to learn more about a missionary but isn’t ready to send a message yet? With our new bookmarking feature a church leader can simply bookmark a missionary from their profile card in The Finder or on a missionary’s profile page. By clicking on “My Bookmarks” at the top of the page users can then see an updated list of all the missionaries they want to keep on a list.
That list of bookmarks is only viewable from that individual’s profile. Some use the My Bookmarks page to easily keep track of missionaries with whom they wish to follow up or correspond with in the future.
A Deeper Dive with m21 Questionnaires
Every missionary on M21 is encouraged to fill out an extensive questionnaire. This list of questions consists of dozens of important prompts that range from personal lifestyle to doctrinal matters.
Here are the main topics covered in the Missions 21 questionnaire:
- Personal and Family
- Salvation Testimony
- Preparation
- Mission
- Methodological
- Financial
Under these different categories missionaries answer questions like:
- How many children do you have?
- What is your salvation testimony?
- Have you been ordained? If yes, who ordained you?
- Where did you attend college?
- Can you describe your call to the field?
- In what year do you plan to arrive on the field?
- Would you consider yourself an independent Baptist by conviction?
- What is your desired amount of monthly support?
- How often will you correspond with your supporting churches?
Sorting and Bookmarking
But what about finding the missionary you are looking for in the first place?
At the very heart of Mission21’s website is “The Finder”. This where you will use a list of filters to find and sort the kind of missionary that best fits your ministry’s vision.
With several filters to choose from, you can narrow down your search to a specific country or continent, and a list of missionaries will display below. Every pastor and church is different in what they are looking for. If you want to select a specific mission board or type of ministry you can do that as well.
Some users like to search by support level. The Finder uses a slide bar to select a support level range if you’d like to sort missionaries by this feature.
By default The Finder is always listed in order of users who most recently logged into Missions21. This way you always see the most active and recent missionaries at the top of the page.
If you’d like to see missionaries who most recently joined up, you can sort by “New Users First” and you will see the latest missionaries to join our website.
The rest is up to you
Missions21 provides churches with just about all the information they need in order to make the next step. We don’t get in the way of that.
Our goal is to connect churches and missionaries in a way that is easy and effective for both. The rest is up to you. Missionaries and pastors can use M21 to correspond back and forth, schedule meetings, keep in touch, etc.
This service is free to use, and we’re excited to use this tool as a ministry to help further the gospel around the world.
If you have any questions we’ve love to hear from you.
