Your Church.
A Named Pastor.
This guide is written to be printed and handed to a missions committee. It explains what ENDS does, what partnership actually involves at each level, what your congregation receives in return, and how to begin. Nothing here requires a vote tonight. It requires an honest reading.
§ 01The Model, In One Page.
ENDS equips and supports national pastors to reach the unreached peoples of their own regions. We are not a sending agency; we do not recruit Western missionaries or plant churches ourselves. We work through established indigenous ministries — the Servant Leadership Ministry Foundation in Thailand (founded by Rev. Dr. Yupho Mathusonsawan) and Mission Impact India (led by David Livingston, whose network includes approximately 250 national pastors) — to find called local leaders, train them through a 24-month competency-gated curriculum, and connect them with churches and sponsors who stand behind them by name.
The arithmetic is the argument: keeping one Western missionary family on the field commonly costs more than $100,000 a year. Training and supporting one national pastor — already fluent, already trusted, already home — costs about $1,020. For the price of one, nearly one hundred. Your church doesn't have to choose between sending and supporting; but it should know that the second option exists, works, and is chronically underfunded.
§ 02Four Levels of Partnership.
| Level | What your church commits | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Pray | Nothing financial | Your congregation adopts a named national pastor in prayer. You receive his region, his current prayer needs, and monthly updates to carry into your prayer meetings. |
| Give | $85–$250/month | Your church sponsors one pastor's full training ($85/mo) or an entire regional cohort of 3–4 pastors ($250/mo), with reporting back to your missions budget line. |
| Send | A vision team | A small team travels to see the work firsthand — training days, village churches, the schools. Trips serve the long-term partnership; they never substitute for it. |
| Own | A people group | Your church adopts a specific unreached people group as its standing Kingdom assignment: sustained prayer, sustained support, and a relationship measured in years, not campaigns. |
Partnership means the field leads and the church stands behind — not the reverse. Our field partners set the priorities; ENDS trains and resources; your congregation prays, funds, and goes as a guest. American churches join this work as partners, not saviors. That single sentence, honestly held, prevents nearly every mistake short-term missions is famous for.
§ 03What Your Church Receives.
- A named pastor, not a program. Your congregation knows who it stands behind — his name (or field pseudonym where safety requires), his region, his language, his prayer needs.
- Monthly field updates suitable for bulletins, prayer meetings, and missions moments — real reporting, not fundraising letters.
- An annual partnership briefing — a call with ENDS leadership walking your missions team through the year: what was trained, what was planted, what it cost, what's next.
- Full financial reporting. Every gift receipted; our stewardship commitments are published at endsinitiative.org/stewardship.
- The curriculum itself. The complete 17-module training your gifts fund is public at endsinitiative.org/curriculum — printable for your committee. You are never asked to fund something you cannot read.
§ 04Questions Committees Ask.
Is this tax-deductible? ENDS is establishing 501(c)(3) status; until it is granted we say so plainly and do not represent gifts as deductible. Does the money reach the field? Gifts flow through vetted, established partners — never to individuals we cannot verify — with published stewardship commitments. How is doctrine guarded? Read our Statement of Faith and the doctrine modules of the curriculum; guarding the gospel is a design requirement, not an afterthought. Longer answers to these and harder questions: endsinitiative.org/faq.
§ 05How To Begin.
- Read this guide with your missions team — and the Vision page, which makes the full case in fifteen minutes.
- Request a briefing. A short call with ENDS leadership to find the pastor, cohort, or people group that fits your congregation. Use the contact page — choose "Church partnership."
- Start at whatever level is honest. A church that begins by praying faithfully for one named pastor is a real partner from day one.