Questions for Evaluating On-Field Partners

This resource is designed to help sending churches and potential missionaries assess alignment with on-field partners (ministries, missions teams, indigenous leaders, local churches, etc.) before committing to long-term partnership. It provides a structured way to develop and categorize key questions related to theology, vision, team dynamics, values, strategy, and more—helping churches and missionaries discern whether a particular partnership is a good fit. It may be utilized alongside the complementary “Spreadsheet for Evaluating On-Field Partners” to organize insights and compare partners.

Have you ever had a job that looked great in the beginning but turned out to not be the best fit? While the problem may have related to your skill set, it also could’ve had something to do with your supervisor or the people you worked with. 

For a season, you may be able to endure a job that isn’t a great fit for your passion and gifting. You can possibly even endure a job with a difficult supervisor because you can go home at night and have weekends off. 

Working as a missionary is not the same. The missionary life is not contained to office hours. Their work, location, passion, and relationships are all tied together. Teammates are co-workers, classmates, friends, confidants, fellow church members, and often the only ones to hang out with on a Friday night. These relationships are incredibly significant for the thriving of a missionary. If they are not life-giving, they can be destructive for a missionary already living in a state of heightened stress.

A Critical Step in Missionary Success

That is why it is so important for a potential missionary, with the support and wisdom of their sending church, to discover the right on-field partnership (ministry, missionary team, indigenous leader, local church, etc.). This is difficult to do merely over emails or video calls. It should not be left to a missions organization to determine for the missionary. It is ideal to get an in-person experience with the on-field partners with whom the missionary will potentially work. 

The cost of assessing, training, and establishing missionaries can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The emotional and spiritual cost of returning home sooner than intended cannot be quantified. It’s worth it to spend a few thousand dollars to go with your potential missionaries on a vision trip to observe potential on-field partners and ask the important questions.

As you meet with potential on-field partners, review your vision, values, and strategy for missions as a church. Work with your potential missionary to craft their criteria for a fitting team. Differentiate between necessities and desires in a team. This will help you, as the missions leader, by providing a valuable reference point for future care and support.

Before you call and meet with potential on-field partners, begin cultivating a list of questions that you would like to ask. Consider using our complementary “Spreadsheet for Evaluating On-Field Partners” to start ordering and categorizing these questions for evaluative purposes. There are two tabs on this spreadsheet. The first is a place to add a running list of questions that you would like to ask potential on-field partners. The second is a comparative scorecard. 

Categories of Questions

As you start to come up with questions for on-field partners, you’ll start to see some categories of questions develop. It is unlikely that you will ask every question you have to a potential on-field partner. Nevertheless, you want to make sure you can evaluate them in your most important categories. The following are some key categories along with questions that we would encourage you to consider. 

You will see that some of these questions and categories are similar to what is found in the Upstream resource, “Questions for Evaluating Missions Organizations.” We have made this a separate resource because you should not only evaluate missions organizations but also their on-field partners. Not all on-field partners are closely aligned with their missions organization. Therefore, evaluating on-field partners is an important step to take for any new potential on-field partner, even if you have already evaluated the missions organization.

1) Church & Team Relations

As a church, you want to partner with teams that will involve you as a sending church. Ask, questions like:

What ways can we, as a church, be involved in caring for the missionary and speaking into their daily life?

Look for on-field partnerships that desire relationships with the church.

What relational rhythm will we have with you as the team leader?

While this doesn’t need to be every month, shoot for a couple of times a year as a base.

What role can we have in speaking into their strategy?

On-field partners may not desire to connect with the sending church of every team member regarding strategy. Consider if this is an area of delegation and empowerment of the team leader, or if it is an area you want to play a role in. Neither are right or wrong.

2) Theological Alignment

A missions team is likely to have more theological distinctives than the organization. Over time they may take on their own theological and philosophical identity. It’s important to understand that identity. Ask questions like:

Are there any theological categories that define your team? 

Do they view themselves as charismatic, reformed, conservative, moderate, or theologically liberal? While it is not necessary to fall into a box, it is good to have an idea of their theological boundaries.

What are you reading as a team or as individuals? 

Hopefully you’ll add a book to your reading list from what they share. What they are reading can help you understand if they fall into any theological camps that you might disagree with or that give you pause.

3) Vision 

Discern if the team’s vision will support the vision of your potential missionary. Ask questions like:

What is your vision? What does your team exist to do?

Having an articulate and clear vision is a right expectation of an on-field partner from a sending church. 

Would you consider the people you are focusing on “reached” or “unreached?” Who are the particular people you are reaching out to in your vision?

It is important to clarify the partner’s target group. In a metropolitan area, the majority people group may not be the group they are reaching. 

4) Values

Sharing similar values are where deep relational bonds are forged. Having the same interests is not necessary for partnership, but similar values are vital. Ask questions like:

What are your team’s values in relation towards one another?

The team leader needs to be able to articulate a high value on teaming. Look for a team that can articulate their vision and practices for valuing not only the work, but also the team of workers.

What are your team’s values towards indigenous people?

The team should treat the people of the culture they serve with respect and dignity. Spending time with a team leader and team members will allow you to observe how they treat and feel about indigenous people. A low view of them should give the sending church pause.

What priority does your team place on language and cultural acquisition? What are the rhythms that display this commitment?

Find out the specific rhythms of that team for language and culture in relation to ministry. Determine if this fits your values as a church.

5) Strategy

Strategic initiatives need to complement the vision of the team. Ask questions like: 

What are your key strategic initiatives? What is the state of those initiatives?

A strong team will be able to clearly articulate their key strategic initiatives that drive their time and attention. Ask questions to discover if these initiatives align with where the missionary is passionate and gifted. 

Ask some specific questions around strategic initiatives that matter to you. This could include but is not limited to:

• What are your mercy and justice initiatives?

• What are your disciple-making practices? Would you consider them fast or slow?

• With new believers are you connecting them to existing churches or starting new churches with them?

• What does partnership with indigenous people look like?

• Do you have a vision to send out believers to the world’s unreached and unengaged?

Do you involve the church in the formation and recalibration of the missionary’s strategy?

Sending churches differ on their desired level of involvement in the strategy of their missionaries. Whatever your vision, gain clarity with the organization on how churches are typically involved in setting and reforming strategy.

6) Team & Supervisory Structure

Churches do well to place their missionaries on healthy teams. Often this is undervalued. It is well known in missions circles that one of the most common reasons missionaries return home is team conflict. Because of this, take a deep dive into understanding the team’s structure and culture, as well as how your missionary will fit on the team. Ask questions like:

What is your team’s purpose in working together? 

This is different from the vision. This is more specifically trying to discern how and why they work together as a team. Being on a team does not mean that ministry is done in teams.

What are your team’s daily and weekly work schedule? What are your rhythms of rest, vacation, Sabbath, and time stateside? How do you promote hard work while staying healthy?

Look for a team that has healthy rhythms of ministry and rest. The mission field is an easy place to get burned out.

How does your community promote growth and sanctification amongst the team members?

Do they lead toward what you would describe as legalism or license? Ask team members their view of how ongoing spiritual growth is handled on the team. 

Does your team have any parameters or values around confrontation?

What is the culture of how they handle conflict? Do they avoid it? Are they argumentative? This can be a good question for team members. Are there any areas of discussion that are off limits because of the unwillingness of a team member to go into those discussions?

How do you recognize, value, and utilize the unique giftings of team members?

Missions teams and organizations can sometimes try to fit people into a job description rather than fitting a job description to the unique giftings and skills of that missionary. Get an idea of how the team leader values the identification and utilization of one’s gifting. 

What is your team’s personality? What personality traits and spiritual giftings are missing from your team?

This question has been helpful in understanding the team’s current needs. Will the personality traits and the gift mix of your church’s potential missionaries complement the existing personalities and gift mixes on the team?

Do you have a personality test or system that your team is versed in and utilize?

Certainly this would not be a requirement, but healthy teams generally employ a test or system that they utilize to build greater understanding of one another among team members.

Have you had examples of team members leaving your team? Why did they leave?

While these can be painful events to recount for team leaders, they are important for you to understand as a missions leader. This will take discernment as you are only hearing one side of the story. Ask what lessons have been learned. Look for ownership on the part of the team leader. While the parting team member may bear a great deal of the responsibility, it is never completely their fault.

What are some of the struggles team members are facing? 

Team leaders should be able to mention these. If they cannot, they may not be in tune with their team.

What are the rhythms of discipleship and mentoring of the team members?

The team leader should have a rhythm of meeting in groups or a one-on-one basis with team members. Find out if the women on the team are being shepherded and given opportunities to develop their skills and gifting as well.

How does your team prioritize time and space for learning, making mistakes, and trying new things?

It will be important for your missionary to be on a team with a culture of grace for trial and error. 

7) Short-term Trips 

If your church is interested in sending short-term trips to the location where your missionaries are going to be, confirm with the on-field partners that hosting short-term trips is a part of their strategy. Ask questions like: 

Are short-term trips a blessing, a curse, or both for you on the field? Why?

Find out the overall disposition of the team leader and team towards short-term trips. They might love them. They might find them to be necessary for partnership, but do not love them. Some may really dislike them. This is an important area of alignment in order to partner well.

Have you received short-term trips before? What went well? What didn’t go well?

While never hosting short-term trips may be a deal breaker for your church, experience with short-term trips is a great positive for partnership. Those with experience will be able to better empower your missionary in hosting trips for your church.

What part do short-term trips play in your overall vision?

Each church will need to gauge how important this is for their vision. If it is a vital part of your vision or the vision of your missionary, you will want to make sure the team leader values it. Hosting short-term trips takes a lot of time. Without the blessing of the team leader, your missionary will not be able to host short-term trips.

8) Success and Failures

In all your questions you’re discerning if the culture of the team is one that you would want your missionary to partner with. Asking them to share their successes and failures is a great way to gain an overall understanding of the partner. 

What are some stories that you can celebrate as a church?

It’s an important aspect of team culture to be able to celebrate what God has done and is doing. Are they able to celebrate that?

What are your biggest pain points at this time?

It is also an important aspect of ministry to be able to authentically identify challenges, weaknesses, and areas of growth. Are they able to do that transparently or do they downplay their challenges?

Questions for Potential Missionaries to Consider

The questions above are important for a church to ask alongside their missionary candidates to help them discern fit with a team. The missionary candidates should also ask some personal questions regarding living and working with the team. Some of these include:

Do I want to share life with these people? Am I excited about doing a small group or church with them? Would I thrive partnering with them in ministry? Do I want to spend my Friday nights with them?

As a missionary, these people will become your fellow church members, co-workers, friends, confidants, and much more. As you’ve gotten to know these people, will you honestly thrive around them?

Is there a significant role for me on the team that utilizes my giftings and passions? 

God has given you particular passions and giftings. The on-field team should have a vision for utilizing your passions and giftings for you to join them. While they may not be able to articulate the specifics of how you will fit into their vision on the front end as you learn language and culture, is there a culture of utilizing other team member’s giftings for the mission?

What am I not going to enjoy doing as a part of this team? Can I accomplish these tasks and thrive personally?

Every job in the world is going to have aspects that you do not enjoy. That is part of living in a world after the Fall. Are those aspects of the work something you can continue to do on your hardest day?

Is the city and/or area in which we would live a sustainable location for myself and my family?

Ideally you will find a place that you can sustainably live and minister in for a long period of time. While it may be appealing to go somewhere considered extremely difficult, you need to be realistic about what you can do—especially if you have a family. Don’t go for the hardest place because you feel like you should. Go where you are called and where you know you can sustainably live and work.

Meeting with Organizations and Evaluating Them

With those categories and questions in mind, we encourage you to visit the “Spreadsheet for Evaluating On-Field Partners” and go to the “Scoring Sheet” tab. Enter in the potential on-field partners that you want to evaluate on the horizontal row. Then enter in the categories that you want to evaluate on the vertical row. After your conversations with the on-field partners, give a score to each category. Start with scoring them 1-5, but feel free to weight the score differently.

At the bottom of that spreadsheet it will total up the score for each on-field partner. Analytically this will help you see which on-field partners are rising to the top of whom you may align with most closely. 

While analytics can be helpful in the evaluative process, ultimately they are just a tool to help you get started. We encourage you to follow this work with conversation and prayer among your missions leadership team. 

As a sending church you have a great opportunity to help your potential missionaries determine where God is leading them. As you ask these questions and sift through all the information, submit all these things to the Lord and lean on him for guidance and discernment.

Next Steps

The journey toward sending well happens one step at a time. Here are three ways you can continue moving upstream:

1. Reach out to some missions organizations that you have identified as potential partners and ask them to point you to two or three healthy missions teams that may align well with your church. Securely initiate contact with them to begin the process of exploring partnership. 

2. Download the complementary “Spreadsheet for Evaluating On-Field Partners” to write up your own categories and questions for evaluating on-field partners.

3. Watch the Upstream training, “Six Critical Components for Local and Global Partnerships.”