This past week, one of our field workers brought up a great question. On a Zoom call with me, he asked, “Doug, are there any markers that help us identify people who won’t quit when the going gets tough?” What he was asking was – how do we find and affiliate happy people? How do we attract hardy people? He wanted his team members to be resilient in the face of stress. Are there indicator tests that predict (with a fair amount of certainty) how hardy a particular prospective team member will be? If so, we ought to convey those to our Mobilization or Training teams so they can help us scout out hardy people.
But what about “calling?” Even if a person or family might not score high on a “hardy” profile indicator, what if they’re certain of their calling? If their calling is sure, can they overcome stress simply because they feel they have a God-sized reason for being there?
This conversation left me searching for answers. But I don’t even know if I’m asking the right questions?
To help people think through their calling, I recommend Scott Morton’s worksheet on calling that can be downloaded from his website: https://www.scottmorton.net/downloads and titled “The Mystery of Calling”.
I highly recommend this book, by Laura Mae Gardner: Healthy, Resilient, & Effective in Cross-Cultural Ministry
https://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Resilient-Effective-Cross-Cultural-Ministry-ebook/dp/B07BFQNNX4
https://missionexus.org/healthy-resilient-effective/
I conducted a large research project on this very question—how do global workers become resilient. What I found really surprised me, and completely reframed how I understand resilience.
You can download the preliminary findings at http://www.ResilientGlobalWorker.org. Though I really want to encourage you to attend the live workshop I host on zoom each month that unpacks the research findings and shares my go to stratigy I use when I’m needing missional resilience right now.
https://calendly.com/geoffwhiteman/workshop-resilience
We use the resilience rating scale from Horsfall and Hawker ‘Resilience in life and faith: finding your strength in God’. The scale is available free in 5 languages at https://www.resilientexpat.co.uk/publications.html# under ‘resilience’. The book helps with applying the scale.
As the Executive Director of an independent member care ministry serving missionaries from over eighty different mission organizations, I have a unique vantage point on missions, missionaries, and resilience. I commend Geoff Whiteman’s work as the most recent, comprehensive, in-depth, insightful, and practical work on missionary resilience today.
Dr. Gardner, noted in a comment above, also has a 5 page “Hardy Personality” that is likely a brief version of her book.