Job Overview
Fundraising Support Position
The Director of Member Care provides leadership and oversight for the care and well-being of missionaries sent through Upstream Sending. This role focuses on cultivating a culture of holistic, proactive, and responsive care—supporting missionaries across seasons of life and ministry, including both ongoing support and crisis response. The Director of Member Care works closely with missionaries, sending churches, and the Sending leadership team to ensure that care structures are clear, healthy, and collaborative. This role helps build sustainable systems of care, equips churches to fulfill their pastoral responsibilities toward those they send, and provides direct care when additional support is needed.
Job Description
Proactive Missionary Care
- Provide ongoing pastoral and relational care to missionaries and their families, attending to spiritual, emotional, relational, and personal well-being.
- Establish regular rhythms of connection with missionaries (check-ins, conversations, care touchpoints) appropriate to their context and season of life.
- Identify early indicators of stress, burnout, conflict, or isolation and intervene proactively.
- Encourage healthy practices related to rest, spiritual formation, relationships, boundaries, and sustainability in ministry.
- Coordinate referrals to counselors, coaches, spiritual directors, or other care professionals when appropriate.
Crisis Care and Response
- Lead and coordinate care responses during times of crisis, including but not limited to health emergencies, conflict, trauma, moral failure, family crisis, or sudden transitions.
- Serve as a calm, discerning presence during high-stress situations, helping assess needs and determine appropriate next steps.
- Collaborate with sending churches, field leaders, and organizational leadership during crises to ensure unified, thoughtful care.
- Develop and maintain clear protocols for crisis response, communication, and follow-up care.
Care Structures and Systems
- Design, implement, and continually improve systems and policies that support missionary care and well-being.
- Develop clear pathways for care engagement, escalation, documentation, and follow-through.
- Ensure appropriate record-keeping, confidentiality, and ethical standards in care-related matters.
- Evaluate care structures regularly and adapt them as the Sending ministry grows.
Partnership with Sending Churches
- Support and equip sending churches in their pastoral responsibility to care for those they send as missionaries.
- Serve as a relational bridge between missionaries and their sending churches on care-related matters when needed.
- Provide guidance, resources, and consultation to church leaders navigating care situations involving their missionaries.
- Encourage healthy collaboration between churches and Upstream Sending, reinforcing a shared commitment to missionary well-being.
Leadership and Collaboration
- Collaborate closely with the Upstream Sending staff to ensure care considerations are integrated across the sending ministry
- Offer training, consultation, or guidance to staff and key partners as appropriate on care-related topics.
- Represent Upstream Sending in external relationships related to missionary care, as needed.