Missionary Mode: Episode 925
The Boundless Show
Focus on the Family
4.7 • 772 Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What it takes to be a full-time missionary, plus creative ways for women to find friendship, and should you be involved in a church plant?
Featured musical artist: Aaron Shust
Roundtable: Are Overseas Missions Meant for Me?
All Christians are called to fulfill the Great Commission, but not everyone is meant to be a missionary in a foreign country. How can you find out if you are? This week’s panel features seasoned missionaries, a missions agency leader, and a prospective missionary to share their journeys toward serving overseas, plus the unique temperament and qualification needs of a missionary, and what to expect in the preparation and candidating process.
Culture: Finding Great Friendships as a Woman
How do women, and especially single women, find meaningful friendships in church and beyond? Melissa Zaldivar has creative ideas that focus on being intentional, asking questions, meeting needs, and being open to women in other stages of life. She’ll also list some qualities that are necessary for a real friendship to thrive. Men, next week we’ll have ideas for you!
Get Over Here: A Single’s Guide to Building Meaningful Community
Inbox: Should I Help Plant a Church?
How do you know if you’re supposed to join a church plant? Pastor Mark Bates weighs in.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | God is at work and he's calling his people to rise in truth. Truth Rising is a powerful new documentary from Focus on the Family and the Colson Center. See how ordinary Christians choose courage in a culture that needs truth. Watch Truth Rising today and find out how you can become an agent of restoration and hope. |
| 0:24.1 | Visit truthrising.com today. |
| 0:26.9 | That's truthrising.com. |
| 0:30.1 | Bowenless shows. |
| 0:47.6 | Thank you. |
| 0:52.5 | What do we have coming up later in the show? Well, for our inbox, we're answering the question, should you be part of a church plant? And if so, |
| 0:56.0 | how do you know if it's the right move? We're going to ask our pastor friend, Mark Bates, to answer that |
| 1:01.1 | question, and he has some great insights. For our culture segment, Melissa Zaldivar spent years as a single |
| 1:07.4 | woman. She is just now getting married, and she's going to talk about how women in |
| 1:12.7 | particular can build healthy relationships in creative ways right where you are. All right, here we are |
| 1:19.5 | for our roundtable. We recorded this conversation on how to know if you're called to the |
| 1:25.4 | foreign mission field, so important and something that I think |
| 1:29.1 | a lot of young adults are like, man, this is a scary step. What does that look like? |
| 1:33.0 | So let's go ahead and listen to that now. |
| 1:40.4 | We're going to talk about this because this is really fascinating and it's fascinating that later on we're going to be talking about this same type of vibe or question in terms of church planning, because it is one of those things of like, hey, are there certain people that are just meant for some things and other people aren't meant for them or whatever? Well, you all have kind of had experience in this. |
| 2:02.7 | Wendy, I know you and your husband, you've in fact been on the show before, |
| 2:07.1 | kind of talking about some elements of this. |
| 2:10.3 | We're in a pretty remote area of the Philippines as missionaries |
| 2:14.3 | and saw a lot of stuff, experienced a lot of stuff. |
| 2:17.9 | Rich also in the Philippines with you and your family, more near Manila and surrounding areas. |
| 2:24.3 | But then you are also regional director for Mission to the World in Latin America and the Caribbean, right? |
| 2:32.9 | Okay. |
... |
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