From inception NEXT has had at our heart a love for, and a desire to serve the local church. Most of our staff spent many years in student ministry. Like yourselves, we had so much on our plate on a weekly basis, and we didn’t always have the connections or the bandwidth to plan and administrate all the details for our students to go to the nations. We also realize that not everyone has the connections to put together an effective missions experience.

NEXT provides a vehicle to do just that. Our organization doesn’t exist if we can’t work through the church at home and the church on the mission field. Our mission is expressly focused on church planting missions and leadership development. We are praying for ‘workers for His harvest’ (Matthew 9:38) to help us share the gospel and establish new churches among the nations.

Before: You will be provided video-based training to take your students and adult leaders through that will prepare them specifically for the church planting mission on which they will participate.

During: NEXT Worldwide has partnered with Leaders Summit, a world-class leadership training organization that trains leaders in business and ministry. We have tailored leadership training that not only motivates, but also gives students ‘tools for their leadership toolbox’ that they will be able to use the day they get home, as well as for the long haul.

After: We offer follow-up material to be used, as you see fit, to continue to fan into flame the work that God began in the lives of the students and adult leaders who went on mission.

You got into student ministry to minister to and with your students. Obviously, trips like these contain hundreds of details. NEXT Worldwide’s desire is to serve you, the leader, by taking care of every detail so you can do what you signed up to do – minister to and with your students.

We ask that you do four simple things:

1. Host a Student & Parent Info Meeting (SPIM) in late summer or early fall. We will provide all the info and do the meeting for you (with as much input as you like).
2. Keep the registration and payment deadlines in front of your students. They will register and send payments through NEXT (so you can focus on your weekly ministry). 
3. Take your students through the video-based pre-trip training. NEXT provides the videos and corresponding worksheets (we recommend you watch a session each week before you show it to the students to be prepared for the training). 
4. Show up at the airport on time.

Leaders are at their best when they are placing others in a position to use their gifts for God’s kingdom advancement. We believe that the highest calling of leaders is to develop other leaders – to accomplish a shared vision – not to use people just to accomplish their goals.

We recommend utilizing resources that will not just infuse students with more information, but release them to lead. There are many good resources out there. Here’s what we currently provide that can be used to develop and release leaders:

• Use The Catalyst Leadership Experience that you go through on the mission field. Your students will be taught specific ‘hard skills’ (what a leader DOES) and ‘soft skills’ (who a leader IS). Skills cannot and will not be developed without repetition and consistent use. Take students back through the training and have each of them write out specific ways that they are leading, then utilizing the skills as they lead.
  
  
• Use the post-trip discipleship material to continue to encourage and hold accountable the students who went on mission.
  
  
• After taking students through these practical training resources, have them take others through the same training. You will see your students flourish like never before.