Why Elan?
Being a missionary is a challenge, especially those first few years, when you’re trying to adapt to a new culture, learn a new language, build new friendships, and set a course for ministry. Designed to complement your vision, Elan comes alongside new missionaries in France to offer structure and support during your transition to the field. Working in conjunction with your sending agency and French partners, we’ll equip you to build on your pre-field training and experiences to establish a solid foundation for an effective and sustainable ministry in France.
The Opportunity
Elan enables missionaries to thrive by creating intentional communities of learning and collaboration. While you are learning language and getting oriented to ministry opportunities, Elan will provide a place for you to process and evaluate your experience, network with missionaries and French partners, design a ministry plan of action, and benefit from the wisdom and insights of others. Through online interactions, face to face meetings, and annual retreats, Elan participants will be equipped to engage in fruitful ministries in France.
I discover the relevance and usefulness of an association like Elan. This is remarkable! Now, I would have trouble imagining a missionary who arrives in France without being accompanied by ELAN.
Eric Waechter, RéseauFEF President
My first year as a missionary in France was the most difficult of my life. As a mother of four young children, trying to be on mission as a family and integrate into a foreign culture, I was drowning trying to hold everything together. ELAN helped me to discover that my self-denial would cause me to self destruct, and that in knowing myself better, taking time to sabbath, and leaning into the things for which God has designed me, helps me know Him better and that is really what matters. God wants my whole heart, my whole self, not just my dirty, tired, hands. Giving God your whole heart is easier said than done. For me Elan helped guide me through some of this process of liberation and grace. In this second year, Elan is set up to build my cultural muscles. I wouldn’t have moved to France if I didn’t have a heart for its people, but I feel that being a part of Elan has really pushed me to try understand and plant myself more deeply in the French soil.
Joanna Appel, training participant
Program overview
Encouragement
through monthly meetings with an Elan partner
Refreshment
at an annual 4-day retreat designed for missionaries in transition
Feedback
through regular debriefings with an Elan representative
Community
through weekly engagement in an on-line forum with other first-term missionaries
Collaboration
through the creation of a ministry plan of action that will receive input from and validation by both your sending agency and a French partner
1/year
4-day retreat
1h/month
skype meeting with Elan partner
3hr/week
reading and online forum
Program Overview
Year 1
Theme: Spiritual formation aimed at helping missionaries abide in a transforming relationship with Christ and strengthen spiritual habits that are critical to missionary sustainability and effectiveness.
Guiding Verse: “Now Jesus went up the mountain and called for those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve (whom he named apostles), so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach…” Mark 3:13-14
Participant time commitment:
- Four day retreat in February
- Reading and Reflection – 2 hrs/wk
- Spiritual Formation Group (online forum) – 1 hr/wk
- Spiritual Accompaniment – 1 hr/month
Key collaborator : Anne Meynier-Schweitzer
Year 2
Theme: Cultural adaptation tailored to the ministry calling of each missionary. Working with a French mentor the missionary will develop a contextualized ministry action plan that reflects the vision and mission of their sending agency.
Participant time commitment:
- Four day retreat in February
- Reading/Reflection – 1 hr/week
- Mentoring Group (online forum)- 1 hr/week
- Meeting with Mentor – 1 hr/month
Key collaborator : Alain Stamp
Year 3
Theme: Ministry effectiveness. As the missionary begins to work through the ministry action plan they created in year two of the program, an Elan coach will provide support, accountability, and timely input.
Participant time commitment:
- Four day retreat in February
- Reading/Reflection- 1hr/wk
- Coaching Group (online forum) -1hr/wk
- Meeting with Coach – 1 hr/month
- Quarterly Self-Assessments – 3 hr/quarter
Key collaborator : Matthieu Ducrozet
Key Dates
Registration Deadline for the cycle beginning in January 2023: November 15, 2022.
YEAR 1, Spiritual retreat: from 15 to 18 February 2023
YEAR 2 & 3, Coaching or Mentoring retreats: to be confirmed
Cost
- Year 1: 1200€
- Year 2: 1200€
- Year 3: 600€
Prices include the annual retreat and materials.
For registration before the 15th of September 2022, registration fees are offered, however after the 15th of September 2022 there are of 100€.