Welcome to ID3, our training process for explorers who are on a journey to discover their role in the worldwide mission of Christ, the Missio Dei. This page will give you a sense of what ID3 is all about, from learning how discovery, development, and deployment work in training, to understanding our goals in training.
Learn what our training is all about and what you can expect in your internship as you walk through discovery, development, and deployment:
Here’s what you can expect during discovery:
- For all of us at MɪssɪᴏSERVE, internships are about relationships. Like in all relationships, we begin by getting to know one another. In our initial meeting, we interview you and we invite you to interview us!
- Once you are accepted as an intern, we do an assessment to look at your current skills and experiences as well as your mission. This helps determine a base line for your training.
- In order to train you properly, you must a clear goal and task for to complete, which is why through discovery we develop a mission plan for your internship.
- We also hope to discover something about your spiritual gifts and how God has used you and prepared you for the work He has ahead of you. That way, if we need to, we can adjust your deployment to best make use of your gifts.
Through development, we work to strengthen you for the task ahead and ensure that you have the tools you need to complete your mission. A portion of your training is tailored to you, your experience, and your needs which we learn through discovery. Then there is training that every intern needs, such as:
- What it means to be a MɪssɪᴏSERVE missionary teaches you how to look at the Missio Dei.
- Spiritual Warfare training is essential for everyone involved in the Missio Dei and you will learn some prayer habits from Scripture that you might not have considered before.
- Dealing with culture shock and how to mitigate the effects of the shock you can’t control.
- Cultural training will help you understand and identify important aspects of your host culture and give you the tools to build trusting relationships across cultural barriers.
- Language learning techniques will help you start to pick up the language of your host culture, or at least enough of it to help you get around during your internship. Even as we develop these skills with you, we will help you deploy them in some projects and tests so you will have some experience even before you hit the field. As you probably have guessed, development leads to new discoveries that will make your deployment better.
Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb to the summit of Mount Everest and return to tell the tale. Years after the successful attempt, it was discovered that an earlier climber likely made it to the summit but tragically died on the way back down. When asked if he felt that that lessened his own achievement, Sir Hillary said, “Well, the coming back down part is rather important, don’t you think?” Our goal at MɪssɪᴏSERVE is not to just get you to the field. That’s the easy part. The important part is that you successfully glorify Christ, grow in your faith, and serve people in a way that has eternal consequences. Once your cross-cultural deployment starts, we continue to help you put your training into action, discover what we could not have anticipated, and develop your weaknesses and maximize your strengths in carrying out your mission.
As you can tell, each part of the ID3 process is dependent the anothers. Discovery leads to development and development leads to deployment, but deployment leads back to the other two. Our whole training system is designed to help you succeed and grow in your faith as you glorify Christ in your mission.
Training Goals
Below are some of the areas we focus on in training and you should develop in as you deploy on mission:
Spiritual Formation
MɪssɪᴏSERVE hopes to instill a servant’s heart in each intern. The interns must be servants of Christ, the people they are going to help, the missionaries with whom they will be working, and their sending church. Our identity is in Christ and He is our leader. He calls on us to serve so that all may come to know Him. It takes hard work to cultivate a servant’s heart and to lead, but at MɪssɪᴏSERVE we believe that Christ has called us to the hard stuff.
John 13:14-16, Luke 22:24-27, Matthew 20:25-28, Mark 10:42-45
Fight the Good Fight in Spiritual Warfare
The Enemy wants us dead, but Jesus has called us to life. The Enemy deceives, tricks, and lures us to sin, but Jesus calls us to discern the truth, speak the truth, and love the good. The Enemy wants us lazy and passive, but Jesus calls for our zeal — in love for Him first and then our neighbor. The Enemy feeds our flesh, but Jesus calls us to live by the Spirit. Practicing these things in the real world is hard, and to do it without training is nearly impossible. ID3 training will equip you to win these battles.
Ephesians 4:14-16Culture Shock & Spiritual Discipline
We teach two different tracks to help you deal with culture shock and the stress it causes. One track is how to deal with the pressure of the situation physically. The other track deals with the emotional and spiritual aspects of culture shock, and it involves the spiritual disciplines. A cross-cultural field is challenging, and you will face things you have never had to face in America before. We prepare you to not only overcome these challenges, but to use them to glorify Jesus all the more.
Philippians 4:12-13Cultural Observation & Evaluation Techniques
To learn a culture, one must observe the culture. MɪssɪᴏSERVE training teaches interns how to observe, take notes, and track trends. Sometimes we must just slow down, check our assumptions, and look truly at what is going on. ID3 Training will teach you to put these things into practice and will serve you for years to come.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23Mission Focus
Every MɪssɪᴏSERVE intern has goals. These goals include personal goals for the internship, mission goals typically given by the missionary for their work on the field, and the main goal in all things which is extending the worship of God and the praise of His glorious grace to all people everywhere. ID3 training is designed to develop your spiritual formation, self-awareness, and ability to recognize the call of God on your life. Whether you are seeking to discover your identity in Christ, or seriously exploring your role in missions for the future, we will help you fulfill your goals.
Still have questions?
Ready to start your intern application?
Meet our Trainers
Brian Wolf
Director of Missionary Development
Brian served 14 years in the Republic of Georgia, where he started a youth ministry, discipled new leaders, and planted over 15 new churches. Brian developed the D3 training process for MɪssɪᴏSERVE.
Parker J.
Missions Specialist
Parker is a graduate of Trinity College of Florida and has served overseas on multiple short-term trips and is currently running the MɪssɪᴏGO ministry of MɪssɪᴏSERVE Alliance.
Working with them are other men and women on staff who have served overseas, had long experience in pastoral ministry, and experience in various missionary training regimes and church service. This diverse background of our team helps us to tailor the training program we establish for a missionary or intern to fit the candidate’s history and the need for the mission they are planning.
