In recent years, one church’s global outreach and residency program has undergone a meaningful shift. What once were purely short-term, event-driven trips, have grown into a deeper investment in long-term missions and discipleship. Through intentional training and relational investment, Marty and Grace Bible Church have continued to mobilize Millennials and Gen Z for global mission. In contrast to declining national trends in long-term sending, the church is seeing a surprising and encouraging wave of long-term commitments. In the conversation that follows, Marty, a ministry leader at Grace Bible Church, joins Mike Easton, Reliant’s International Program Manager, to reflect on how their church is navigating the full spectrum of mission involvement. They share insights from a decade-long partnership with Launch Global, discuss the shift from mobilization events to long-term discipleship, and highlight how churches are reengaging college students while creating cross-cultural mission opportunities in their own communities.
INTERVIEW WITH MARTY – GRACE BIBLE CHURCH
Hosted by Mike Easton
Mike: Marty, you and your church have been great partners of Reliant’s fixed-term residency program. Continually raising up future church staff, missionaries, church planters, and young people who go into a vocation with a missional vision. Give us a little overview of your role with the church and why it is a passion for you.
Marty: God grabbed my heart on a short-term trip when I was in college and really challenged me. I had to have bold conversations with my family, who were opposed to me going on the trip. My world was rocked by what I saw, and my eyes were opened to how I could be a blessing to the nations. My passion has become training up the next generation for missional engagement. We do this through a residency program and through sending short-term and long-term missionaries.
Mike: Big picture, what are you all trying to accomplish with your residency program?
Marty: In our residency program, we are aiming to raise up 23 and 24-year-olds for missional engagement. We identify potential residents and give them a vision for how they could devote two years to one of the ministry departments of our church, being trained theologically and practically for doing the work of ministry.
In our program, we see 20-30% of those residents go into long-term global missions. Another 40-50% go into another church or support-based role. The other 20-30% go into a vocational field where they can be a witness for Christ in their vocation, disciple others, and become lay leaders in churches. We are excited about any opportunity that we have to influence others through these residency programs.
Mike: You’re sending quite a few people on short-term trips. What’s the bigger vision behind that?
Marty: As I mentioned earlier, I was greatly impacted by a short-term trip. Before I went on that trip, I didn’t know a lot about global missions. I wasn’t particularly interested in orienting my life around getting the gospel to those who hadn’t heard it. I was pretty content with ministry in the States.
After going on that trip, my eyes were opened to what God is doing around the world. If I hadn’t gone on a trip, I wouldn’t have known that. So, one of my passions is to help others gain that experience. In our church, we want to see our people either go on long-term missions or find a way to be a part of sending through prayer for missions, giving to missions, welcoming internationals in our city, or caring for missionaries.
Because short-term trips are such a critical piece to making that happen, we try to open our funnel pretty wide for short-term trips and get as many people as possible on those trips. We do about 20-25 short-term trips a year. Each team has 6 to 12 people on it. We have trips for high school students, college students, and adults.
Mike: That’s a lot of trips! How do you manage all the logistics and ensure each one has the highest impact possible?
Marty: Logistically, we partner with Reliant and some other organizations to help make those the least amount of work for ourselves as possible. One of our former residents now has the specific role of coordinating short-term trips. We also try to have our residents or staff be the leaders of the trips so that: a) they get that experience of leading; and b) the trips have a strong team leader.
We are working to have all our trips go to where our long-term sent missionaries are focused. This has been a bit of a shift for us, because most of our long-term missionaries are doing evangelism, church planting, or equipping of national pastors. They aren’t doing the typical work that a short-term trip would do, like building a building or working with orphans. But we have wanted to connect the work of short-term to long-term because: a) we want to support our long-term missionaries, and b) we want those who go on the trip to catch a vision to potentially move long-term to that location.
Mike: You have 60 career missionaries overseas. How many people do you have in the pipeline? Are those people looking at more mid-term opportunities, like 1-2 years or more of a career opportunity?
Marty: We have 12 “units” (single or married couples) that will be launching in the next 18 months. Out of those, 11 are considering a career opportunity, and just one is doing a mid-term opportunity.
Mike: That’s incredible! It seems like a lot of Gen Z is leaning more toward mid-term opportunities these days, so it’s really encouraging to see long-term sending happening. What do you think has helped make that possible?
Marty: A lot of it has to do with trying to follow up well from short-term trips and having relationships with the people who are going. We work hard at having conversations with people after their short-term trip about pathways towards going long-term or being senders from our church.
We talk about the value of spending not just a short-term stint, but having a long-term vision for missions and the impact of that. Learning languages and cultures takes a good amount of time to become impactful. With that, we encourage patience and preparation. Some will choose to do the residency while they are getting prepared.
We have everyone considering doing long-term work with a group called Launch Global. Through a 9-month cohort, our missionary candidates are trained in the rhythms of being a missionary both personally and professionally. Some missionary candidates will jump right into this, and some will do the residency, then do the 9-month group.
It often takes intentional conversations and strong relationships to help Gen Z consider waiting and committing to something long-term. But inviting them to think beyond the cultural trend toward short-term commitments can lead to a deeply meaningful and lasting impact on their mission.
Mike: It seems like you all consider the role of the sending church to be very important in long-term sending. How does that play itself out in sending missionaries long-term vs. short-term?
Marty: Yes, we believe that the church should be highly involved from a biblical standpoint, for sure. We also see this as fairly practical as well for Gen Zers. Previous generations were mobilized more through conferences or through large-scale vision casting. Gen Z is mobilized better through conversations and relationships. They want to know what role they can play in the vision.
Many Gen Z individuals are eager to make an impact quickly, which often draws them to short or mid-term opportunities. That’s why it’s so important to cast a compelling vision. One that highlights the value of training, the beauty of patience, and the lasting impact of long-term missions.
One of the challenges we occasionally face in sending is when someone chooses an internship with a parachurch organization they discovered online. This often happens through social media, without first exploring the opportunities their church has been investing in and offering. While those outside opportunities can be valuable, it can feel like a missed connection when the church’s long-term vision and support aren’t part of the process. That’s why it’s so important for us to stay deeply connected relationally, so we can walk with potential missionaries early on and help guide them toward opportunities that align with their calling and the church’s mission.
Mike: This has been a really good, insightful conversation. Marty, thanks so much for what you’re doing in your church to raise up the next generation of missional leaders. We’re thankful to play our deacon-role in helping you all accomplish your vision. Thanks for partnering with us!
