80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached peoples, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

Articles

Authors

You already signed this document

You need to sign the document to continue in the process

Something went wrong

Thank you for signing the document

Fetching data from DocuSign...

You already signed the Partnership Agreement

You are not registered for Facilitator Training

Thank you for completing Step 2: Sign Partnership Agreement

Thank you for signing the Partnership Agreement

Schedule

Give to Teams or Projects

Your partnership will help us reach the nations through the nations.

Partner with our staff

Give to a Training

We are always on the lookout for ambitious and talented people to come and join Via. If you are passionate about the bringing God's glory to the nations and want to help mobilize the global church then we would love to hear from you.

Open Roles

Careers & Internships

Total Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges to UPGs

Regional Access to UPGs

Religious Freedom

Prosperity

Current Sending Abroad

Mobilization Potential

Custom Mobilization Potential

Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges

Strategic Access

Religious Freedoms

Current Sending

This infographic provides a visual score for seven data points ranked on a 0 to 100 scale. Faded icons show scores for other countries on the mobilization index. See below for actual scores and country-specific insights.

ADDITION

FINANCIAL DEPENDENCY

INACCESSIBLE

LIMITED MISSION FORCE

DISTANT AND FOREIGN MISSION FIELD

THE WORLD IS THE MISSION FIELD

Show Notes

Interested in printing in your country or translating these into your language?

to get the conversation started! We want to make these resources available to all in a way that honors everyone involved in the work.

Filter

Tools

Search

Team Profile

If you are reading articles to better understand campus ministry, chances are high you already place some value on growing in your ministry expertise and fruitfulness (or you have been directed here by a leader or peer who wants that for you). My hope is for you to grasp a personal vision for leaning into the intentional work required for our own development, while also holding the truth that our results are tied to God&rsquo;s work in and through us.&nbsp;

Ministry as Both a Calling and a Job

Compared to other professions, the work of ministry is unique in many ways. Many of us have a salary that is funded in some way by donors. We don&rsquo;t work for promotions or new job titles, though our level of responsibility and the roles we take on can grow and change. And the work environment is often more family-friendly than a traditional job. I don&rsquo;t know of many other workplaces that would let me bring my six-month-old baby along to all of my meetings and appointments, but I loved getting to push her stroller across campus and give students a glimpse into the &ldquo;mom&rdquo; part of my life.&nbsp;
Arguably, though, the most unique aspect of our job is that the success of what we are doing is not solely tied to our efforts.&nbsp;
Ministry fruitfulness goes back to what God is doing in the hearts of the students we are meeting with &ndash; praise the Lord it is not all up to us. We may get our hands dirty planting and watering, but God is the one who produces the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). We partner with God as laborers gathering the harvest he has already prepared (Matthew 9:37-38). What an amazing privilege it is to enter into conversations and relationships with students knowing God has already gone before us!&nbsp;

The Role of a Growth Mindset in Ministry

At the same time, though, there is value for us as campus ministers to recognize the &ldquo;job&rdquo; aspect of our ministry role.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s easy to get wrapped up in what we may see as the &ldquo;real&rdquo; work of ministry - meeting with students, sharing the gospel, leading small groups, planning missions trips, etc. Areas like development can be pushed to the back burner for later, while students are on break or you have a random lull in your schedule. Without a clear growth plan, though, a full week of appointments is one of the few things in our control, so it may be the primary way we define a &ldquo;successful&rdquo; week.
I think this is only partially helpful. To some extent, we can evaluate if we are stewarding our time well by creating opportunities for God to work through our planned-out schedule, but I would argue there are better ways to measure &ldquo;success.&rdquo; And there are better ways to think about a long-term view of our success in ministry, though this may look less tangible than a fully blocked out Google calendar.&nbsp;
The concept of a &ldquo;growth mindset&rdquo; was developed by psychologist Carol Dweck. She spent years researching how people respond to failure, and she sums up her own findings this way:&nbsp;

After reading this, I&rsquo;ve been pondering how we might translate this into our context as campus ministers. We may expect to grow on our own, simply through experience over time, but when we embrace a growth mindset, we take a proactive approach toward cultivating both our natural gifts and our developed skills.&nbsp;

Beyond Natural Gifting: Growing in All Areas of Ministry

Some of us are naturally &ldquo;good&rdquo; at different aspects of ministry. I work with a couple of staff members who are gifted in the area of evangelism. Students are often trusting Christ as a result of their conversations with these staff, which is amazing to see! There are other staff on my team who excel at challenging students and having hard conversations related to sin struggles. For some reason, students tend to tell these staff things they haven&rsquo;t told anyone before. As a result of these conversations, students are moved toward conviction and life change!&nbsp;
However, being good at only one or two things isn&rsquo;t a well-rounded approach. While we may be able to emphasize certain areas of ministry, we can&rsquo;t neglect other responsibilities we have been given. Beyond this, when we function within a team, we may need to step in to fill natural gaps based on what is needed within our team makeup and the goals our team is pursuing.&nbsp;
Our effectiveness in ministry&ndash;and, I would argue, our resulting satisfaction with and longevity in ministry&ndash;will be limited by our own pursuit of growth.&nbsp;
I remember feeling shaky as a new staff member trying to initiate spiritual conversations with students I didn&rsquo;t know. I felt a little silly at 25 being afraid of the opinion of an 18-year-old, but I second guessed myself and dreaded initiative evangelism. But after a couple of years on staff, initiating spiritual conversations and sharing the gospel felt so much more enjoyable because I had grown in my experience and in my proficiency. I read a couple of books about reaching this specific generation, and I watched more experienced staff share their faith. Through these intentional steps to cultivate my ability to engage in evangelism, I figured out what questions I wanted to ask, what stories I wanted to share, and how I could connect with the heart of the student I was sitting across from. While these conversations still don&rsquo;t come as naturally for me as I wish they would, a combination of repetition and development has helped me grow in this critical area of ministry.

Stewarding Your Gifts and Time Wisely

When it comes down to it, I believe cultivating growth in our jobs is a stewardship issue. You are stewarding your talents and gifts as you learn new ideas for how to get better at those things you naturally enjoy. You are stewarding your time to not only invest in students, but to also invest in opportunities to read and listen and expose yourself to new ideas. And you are stewarding your own faith and sanctification as you trust God to change you in the places that are more of a stretch or that you most often avoid in the breadth of ministry.&nbsp;
A caveat to consider: putting together a tangible growth plan doesn&rsquo;t guarantee results, but it will allow us to walk forward in obedience as we trust the results to God. In the next article we will discuss how to practically develop a growth plan, setting goals that will give us specific ways to pray and trust God working through us in our campus ministry context.

Developing a Growth Mindset in Ministry (Part 1): Growth Matters

In This Article

Samantha Barnes