Is ‘Marketplace Missions’ Sustainable?

Mark Silvers shares how a new approach to mobilization is helping workplace professionals find their calling as disciple-makers.

Increasingly, Millennials and young people are redefining “long-term” missions. At the same time, fewer are willing to raise missionary support. Is recruiting marketplace missionaries—many of whom are short-term tentmakers—a sustainable solution? And if so, how do we get the word out to professionals that the Great Commission isn’t just for full-time religious workers?

This week we go back and forth with Mark Silvers, Director of Mobilization for Crossworld, on the pros and cons of using marketplace missionaries alongside long-term church planters. Mark Silvers served with Crossworld in the Philippines for 10 years and joined the home office staff in 2009. Mark’s driving passion is the goal of reaching the 2.9 billion people in the world today with no access to the gospel.

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Alex Kocman & Scott Dunford

Alex Kocman is the Director of Communications and Engagement for ABWE. He serves as general editor for Message Magazine and co-hosts The Missions Podcast. After earning his M.A. in Communication and B.S. in Biblical Studies, he served as an online apologetics instructor with Liberty University and a youth pastor in Pennsylvania, where he now resides with his wife and three children. Read his blog or follow him on X/Twitter.

Scott Dunford is the pastor of Western Hills Church in San Mateo, Calif. Previously, Scott served as Vice President of Mobilization and Communications for ABWE and as a missionary in East Asia. Scott graduated from Northland International University (B.A. in Pastoral Studies), earned his M.A. in biblical studies from Central Baptist Theological Seminary, his M.B.A. from Cornerstone University, and is currently enrolled in Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s D.Min. program with an emphasis on missions.