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Greater Europe Mission

Organization Description & Goals:

Our mission is to reach Europe by multiplying disciples and growing Christ's church. There are short term, internship, and full-time opportunities to use your gifts in evangelism, discipleship, camp ministry, teaching, music, serving refugees, and more all to see God's kingdom expanding through the peoples of Europe to the world.

Organizational Principles

Purpose & Mission Statement:

GEM's Mission Statement is, "Reaching Europe by multiplying disciples and growing Christ's Church."

Doctrinal Statement:

We believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible and authoritative Word of God. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return to power and glory. We believe regeneration by the Holy Spirit is essential for the salvation of lost and sinful human beings; salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost. The saved will be raised to eternal life with God and the lost will be raised to face judgment and eternal condemnation. We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in Christ.

Core Values:

Organization Provided Benefits:

medical, retirement, dental, and workman's comp

Training Required for Service:

The extensiveness of training is dependent upon how long the volunteer will be serving. Everyone gets training in raising financial support, living cross-culturally, and discipleship. Those serving long term will receive more pre-field training.

Training Provided by Organization:

Yes, those serving short-term will receive an abbreviated version of the training long-term servers will receive. While the same quality, this abbreviated version is more appropriate to their length and is more customized for their program.

Long-Term Missionary Accountability Practices:

GEM is committed to leading, developing, and caring for the missionaries on our staff. Each missionary reports to a field leader. Together, they create an annual Missionary Action Plan and a Development Plan. Monthly, the missionary provides a written update on their progress which is used as the foundation of a conversation with the leader. Missionaries receive written feedback from their leader and 2 peers on a quarterly basis. GEM requires that people are fully funded before going to the field, and provides on-going training and coaching to help maintain that support. All new missionaries attend a Disciple Multiplication Training after completion of language and mentors are available to facilitate continued growth in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. GEM’s Spiritual Life team provides regular retreats as well as spiritual direction. Our Member Care department is made up of counselors who are available to our staff for preventative mental health checkups as well as counseling, personal growth, and team building.

Application Process:

GEM has 3 main processes: Short-Term Team (missions trip for a couple of weeks), short-term service (1-12 months), and long-term (2+ years). Short-Term Teams are processed by a group within GEM, GEM Teams, who handles organizing all of our trips. They walk with each participant through the paperwork process and give ministry training before or at the beginning of their trip. Short-term service has a more detailed process. The applicant starts by submitting an inquiry through the website (www.gemission.com). After receiving this inquiry, the inquiry is assigned to a First Step Caller who will reach out to the participant to complete a First Step Call (FSC). An FSC is an opportunity for GEM to learn more basic information about the applicant as well as the applicant to ask questions. After the FSC, the applicant is sent the Getting to Know You form. After this form, the applicant will complete an interview with a coordinator. After their conversation and the applicant is approved to serve, the coordinator will send them a background check. Next, the applicant and coordinator will work to find a placement that will work well for the applicant's requirements as well as where they feel God leading them. From this step, the applicant will work on support raising as well as other logistics such as getting a passport, visa, travel insurance, etc. The long-term process is very similar and includes everything the short-term process does. The long-term process is more extensive and adds more interviews, a trip to Colorado for Candidate Orientation, and more training.