Refugee Ministry Connect

SUSPECTED TRENDS IN REFUGEE MINISTRY:

1. Most refugee workers are part-time, not full-time
2. Those who are full time are raising their own support, and most have lived overseas before
3. People are either definitely not working with agencies – or think that partnering with agencies is a no-brainer…  two extremes
4. Only ¼ of Exchange participants are in discipling relationships with refugees
5. Only a handful have seen someone decide to follow Jesus, but there is a witness in so many refugee neighborhoods and churches
6. Very few refugee workers have ever heard about the North American Refugee Roundtable
7. Most refugee workers have attended a Perspectives class
8. Few attendees have heard of or attended – Common Ground, Crescent Project, Rethinking Forum
9. If the leaders of the organization are men, they have a much higher rate of male volunteers
10. There is a beginning trend toward incarnational ministry in refugee neighborhoods (living among them)
11. Most refugee organizations are doing direct ministry, but few are working to mobilize churches/individuals
12. The most common models of ministry are ESL classes (or tutoring) and International churches
13. Most individuals and organizations are not aware of others doing the same thing, and are not benefitting from networking and communicating with like-minded believers who are passionate about reaching out to refugees

INITIAL GOALS & ASSESSMENT:

A. COMMUNICATION. This was to be established by our ability to clearly communicate tour destinations, times, places, and host (plus provide contact info of particular host).

B. CREDIBILITY. We aimed to find a grip of credible sponsors recognized as distinguished forces in refugee ministry to sponsor our trip. This could be a variety of possible donations: financial, parapherneralia, simply their verbal endorsement and public recognition of the tour’s value, etc.

C. BRANDING/MARKETING. We strove to create a visual brand/title for the tour so people can refer to it specifically and recognize it in the future.

D. SUCCESSFUL NETWORKING. Our goal was to ultimately connect local workers. While maintain connections made will largely rely on individual’s initiative, our goal is to keep record of valuable connections made of people/leaders in the ministry who have a shared vision of networking. We hope to maintain these key relationships in different cities and foster a sense of ‘team’ long-term.

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