Invitations
By invitation only. Public registration is not available.
The target audience for Homeward is qualified ministers, as defined below. If a minister is invited, their immediate family will also be invited, subject to English fluency requirements. All guests must be fluent in English. Homeward programs run in English.
Meeting the criteria does not guarantee an invitation. Invitations are issued at the discretion of our Guest Relations team. Because Homeward is intended for a very specific audience, invitation decisions should not be interpreted as a judgment of the candidate personally or their work generally.
To avoid disappointment, please review our qualifications carefully before applying.
Generally
A qualified minister is a full-time a missionary, evangelist, or essential outreach staff (each as defined below). Though we value all ministers and ministries, other forms of ministry or roles in ministry are not the focus of this event.
We are especially focused on identifying those who have deeply invested their lives in reaching unbelieving communities. Most qualified ministers we invite do not devote substantial efforts to itinerant speaking, Christian conferences, social media, book publishing, tuition-charging programs or personal businesses. We are looking for who devote substantially all their ministry effort on the unreached.
Qualified
Ministers
Missionaries
A missionary has a long-term commitment to preaching the gospel to a people group which is different from their own.
A missionary typically lives full-time among the people to whom they are ministering and engages day-to-day with their target people.
We consider evangelism central to missions. Most humanitarian work is not considered missions for qualification purposes.
All services and programs run by a missionary should be freely given, not sold for payment (except businesses necessary to maintain a visa in closed countries).
Experienced missionaries will have developed deep relationships among their target people and demonstrate fluency in the language and customs of their target people.
We typically do not extend invitations to those who target communities which are either a) more Christianized or b) wealthier than their own.
Work which is tangential to but not categorically missions - such as evaluating grants, working as a missions pastor at a church, staffing a ministry school or training program, managing other missionaries, etc. - does not qualify.
Evangelists
An evangelist has devoted substantially all of their ministry efforts to proselytizing unbelievers.
An evangelist is someone who is continuously engaged in trying to convert unbelievers to the faith.
Evangelists who are effective in conversion will typically refer their converts to other ministries for discipleship in order to devote themselves to other unbelievers.
Evangelism may be conducted in conjunction with business efforts or other income-generating activities if such activities are necessary for the evangelist to access the evangelist’s target people group.
Ministers who engage in evangelism as one part of their overall ministerial efforts - for instance evangelizing part-time in their local community while serving as pastor of a church - will not qualify.
Essential Outreach Staff
An essential outreach staff works at a missions organization with qualified missionaries but not in a spiritual role. Nevertheless, their labor is indispensable to the evangelistic efforts of the ministry.
To qualify, the candidate’s services must be sufficiently essential that the ministry’s evangelistic efforts would be critically impaired without their service and the staff’s skills and devotion are difficult to replicate through secular employees or contractors.
Staff whose duties do not specifically support evangelism will not qualify. For instance, accountants, office managers, development/giving managers, web designers, vehicle mechanics, and similar roles will not qualify.
Candidates who apply as staff members will be assessed independently of missionaries or evangelists whom they work with.
Status &
Experience
To receive an invitation, a qualified minister must either be active with substantial experience, qualified retired, or a living martyr (each as defined below).
Active With Substantial Experience
An active minister is continuously engaged in their ministry work full-time. The minister should devote substantially all of their vocational labor to ministry, supported by donations, without income from employment or businesses (except as needed to maintain a visa). An active missionary should live full-time among their target people group.
To have substantial experience, an active minister must have served for 4+ years (though preferably 10+ years) and commits to remain indefinitely in the field. We do not count time spent on sabbatical, training programs, or travel away from the minister’s primary field in calculating experience. We also do not include internships or short-term commitments.
Missionaries who meet our threshold for substantial experience will typically:
Be fluent in the language of their target people group.
Be deeply versed in the culture and history of their target people group, with keen insight into the opportunities and challenges of ministry therein.
Acquired expertise in the customs, foods, and cultures of their target people group.
Have developed friendships and ties in the communities in which they live and minister.
Demonstrate a willingness to make personal sacrifices for the sake of preaching the gospel.
Qualified Retired
A qualified retired missionary or evangelist is one who has retired from the ministry after at least 25 years of full-time service and is at least 62 years old.
Living Martyr
A living martyr is no longer able to work due to suffering, persecution, or sacrifices made for the sake of being a witness of Jesus Christ. The following are some examples of living martyrs:
A former missionary or evangelist who is disabled, injured, or faces long-term medically incurable illnesses as a direct result of persecution, beating, imprisonment, an accident, or because of other similar sacrifices for the sake of the ministry.
The widow/widower of a martyr.
The separated spouse of an evangelist or missionary who is currently imprisoned or otherwise persecuted.
A former missionary or evangelist who faces extreme poverty, hardship, or isolation as a direct result of their ministry work.
Immediate
Family
A qualified minister’s immediate family is eligible for an invitation. Immediate family members include:
The minister’s spouse, if the spouse is fluent in English.
All biological children under age 18. Biological children ages 18 - 22 may be invited if the child is enrolled full-time at an accredited university and is presently financially dependent.
Adopted children may be invited if the adoption is legally final and permanent under the laws of the child’s home country.
Children adopted prior to age 12 will be treated as biological children. Children adopted after age 12 will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Due to the possibility of unintentionally violating laws protecting children from human trafficking, we will not invite any child under the minister’s temporary care or whose adoption is not legally finalized.
The qualified minister may ask us to consider additional dependents, such as elderly parents, if the dependent currently lives in their household.
If you are a qualified minister as defined above and have children ages 13 - 18 years old, we welcome your children to apply to Homeward Youth Camp.
Additionally, only for Youth Camp, even if your ministry circumstances look slightly different from the criteria outlined above, we also encourage you to apply. The Camp is intended for teenagers who have grown up under similar ministry backgrounds to the ones we target for Homeward Conference.
For more information about the camp, please see the Homeward Youth Camp page.
Homeward Youth Camp
I am very committed to my ministry, but my situation looks different from the program qualifications. Will you make exceptions?
Exceptions are very rare, but our Guest Relations Team will review requests.
Will you consider exceptionally qualified missionaries who cannot speak English fluently?
Because the program runs in English and we do not have enough staff fluent in any other language, our primary application process requires invitees to be fluent in English. From time-to-time we invite specific members of foreign ministries when we can provide translation services specifically for them, but this is not typically offered.
I attended Homeward 2022 and would like to attend again in 2024. Do I need to apply again?
Yes, please apply with updated information. Please note that previous attendees are not guaranteed an invitation to future programs. We sometimes do not invite past attendees to every event in order to serve families whom we have not been in touch with before.
I meet all of the qualifications. Am I guaranteed an invitation?
No. Our Guest Relations Team carefully considers every family’s ministry context.
I/We can’t stay for the entire duration of the program. Can I still apply?
We are only accepting applications from individuals or families who can stay for the entire duration of the program.
Are there special accommodations for invitees with mobility restrictions?
Absolutely. Our host resort and conference center is fully accessible, with modern elevators and wheelchair ramps throughout.