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Further thoughts on why we need Member Care

Following on from Tim Herbert’s helpful December 2014 article “What is Member Care?”, in which he underlines not only the biblical basis for Member Care, but also the fact that people need more psycho-social support the further they move away from their home environment, let’s consider another factor that demonstrates the importance of providing adequate Member Care for those involved in cross-cultural ministry. Back in 1997, the ground-breaking research in Too Valuable to Lose suggested that on a world scale, 5% of missionary personnel leave the field every year, and that 3% (representing 12,000 per year) of the attrition was deemed to be permanent, premature and preventable. That was before the turmoil we have experienced since 9/11, plus the economic crisis in recent years. My guess is that attrition rates have significantly increased since then.

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