Questions about Using Your Professional Skills

Wondering how you can use your skills, degree, or career overseas? Curious about tentmaking or business-as-mission? Missionaries describe the vast ways to use your God-given talents and experience to expand His Kingdom.

Questions Professionals Ask

What training do you recommend for a future tentmaker?

What are the ethical implications of going into a closed country as a professional but with the ultimate goal of doing something that may be illegal, like preaching the gospel?

I’ve graduated in a professional field. How much theological training do I need to serve in missions?

I have a heart for both my profession, in medicine, and church planting. How do I choose between these? Or can I do both?

Can I serve in an NGO or the Peace Corps and still do lifestyle evangelism?

Using Your Art Skills

I am an art major and I want to serve overseas. Will my art be helpful in church planting among the unreached?

How can God use writing, photography, or journalism in missions?

How can a music degree be used in missions? Are there any unique opportunities for musicians?

Are there opportunities to use fine art skills in mission? Are ministry jobs in the arts hard to find?

Doing Business and Missions

What could I do with a business degree in missions overseas?

What are tentmaking, business as mission, and business for transformation all about? Are they all the same thing?

How can I use my marketing degree in missions?

How can I learn more about using microenterprise projects for missions in developing countries?

See also “Apprehensive Parents” under Singles/Family

Medical Mission and Healthcare

As a licensed massage therapist how might I serve overseas?

How do overseas healthcare missionaries find others to care for their patients when they leave for home assignment?

Can medical missionaries self-support through a telemedicine job or some paid shifts while back in their home country?

I’m just beginning university and I’m interested in healthcare. How could I use overseas physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, community development, or public health?

English and Education

To teach English overseas should I get a master’s degree or a certificate?

I want to teach English (TESL). I am fluent but I am not a native speaker. What training do I need?

How could I use an education degree in missions?

Social Work and Counseling

Science and Engineering

I work in the sciences and am wondering about positions for scientists in missions. How can someone use their training as a chemist, biologist, or pharmacist as part of a ministry overseas?

I am in engineering. How could I use this in missions?

How can providing clean water fit with missions?

Other Fields and Skills

What kind of opportunities are there for pilots, airplane mechanics, and other aviation specialists to serve in missions?

My son is pursuing a degree in computer science. Is there a need for this in the mission field?

Is there a mission organization that can use my experience as a police officer?

Other Questions in

Discerning the Call

Raising Support

Mission Agencies

Singles and Family

Mission Training

Daily Life Overseas

Great additional resources about Using Your Existing Skills