Journey Training 2026: Renewed and Equipped for Gospel Access

From the remote villages of Mongolia to the urban streets of Spain, people across our world live in spiritual darkness with no access to the gospel and the hope found in Jesus. In some places, people have never heard about Jesus. In other places where Christianity once flourished, secularism is now deeply rooted in society.

Assemblies of God World Missions, through its global workers, is establishing the Church among all peoples everywhere, with a vision to ensure every people group has access to the gospel and opportunity to respond to Jesus. Training and spiritual renewal are a major part of sending aligned missionaries toward the Gospel Access vision.

From June 7 through June 25, AG World Missions held its annual summer missionary training and renewal. This was a time for education and refreshing, but also a crucial, intentional piece in the process of bringing gospel access to the world.

Veteran missionaries from each AG World Missions region — Africa, Asia Pacific, Eurasia, Europe, and Latin America Caribbean — gathered in Springfield, Missouri, for refreshing and renewing. New missionary candidates who will minister in one of those regions attended training sessions and gained practical mission skills. AG World Missions leadership then commissioned them for missionary service.

Each worker who gathered in Springfield, new and veteran alike, plays a unique and important part in the vision to advance the gospel to those without access — specifically to the 2,074 unengaged people groups around the world today.

JOURNEY TRAINING

AG World Missions’ summer training has gone by many names, including School of Mission, Pre Field-Orientation, and Missionary Training/Missionary Renewal. This year, an expanded vision for missionary training launched under the title Journey Training and Missionary Renewal.

Journey Training is led by Tammy Lashway, AG World Missions’ coordinator for global training and development.

“We’ve been dreaming for a few years of what we could do to meet the needs of today’s global workers,” Lashway says. “In Journey Training, our guiding principle is what does the new global worker need, and when do they need it? We try to deliver that in active, participatory ways.”

Lashway and her team structured the Journey Training’s model around preparing missionaries with knowledge and tools to succeed on the field.

Explaining one of the key takeaways from Journey, Lance McLeod, a missionary preparing to serve in Estonia, says, “God showed us this month how important it is to empower the Church to go — that it’s not just about me and my mission, but it’s for everybody to be a part of that mission.”

During Journey Training, two commissioning services take place: one for missionary associates (MAs), and one for career missionaries. This year, AG World Missions commissioned 71 MAs and 84 career missionaries who will work to establish the Church among all peoples everywhere. These new workers will go to advance gospel access in 37 nations.

During the career missionary commissioning service, Pastor Shane Wilson reminded the candidates: “God’s grace will be sufficient. His power will carry you. His call will propel you, His favor will provide for you, and His anointing will cover you. His anointing will open nations before you.”

MISSIONARY RENEWAL

One of the most meaningful parts of Journey Training and Missionary Renewal is the interaction between veteran missionaries and new workers. As the next generation of global workers prepare to go to their missions assignments, they sit with these veteran missionaries. They have meals with church planters on the verge of breakthrough in Eurasia, worship alongside families who have spent decades building schools in Europe, and they pray with ministry pioneers from Africa.

And while Journey Training is preparing and equipping new workers, veteran missionaries return for spiritual renewal and community fellowship. This missionary renewal included messages from spiritual leaders such as pastor Joelene Taylor, pastor Sam Rijfkogel, AG World Missions Executive Director John Easter, and AG U.S. General Superintendent Doug Clay. Each of these worship services provide intentional time in God’s healing presence.

One veteran couple serving in Argentina, Ben and Belu Grams, say, “It’s been a time of remembering and refreshing why we’re doing what we’re doing. A time of resting in God and His presence, and a time of seeing God renew those calls on so many people. Just saying, ‘Here I am, I’m exhausted, and that’s okay.’”

FULFILLING GOD’S MISSION

Of our world’s over 8 billion people, nearly half are still unreached by the gospel, living without adequate Christian witness among them. Every AG World missionary is working to change this reality. This includes the 155 new workers and 300 missionary kids commissioned in June.

As AG World Missions Executive Director John Easter shared with the missionary family during renewal: “It is the gospel that we are so proud of, that we proclaim, that we advocate for, that we give our lives to, because we know what has changed us can change the world. God’s redemptive story is longer than this chapter. It’s time to dream again.”

As these new workers prepare to launch to the mission field, and as veteran missionaries return to their countries of service, AG World Missions becomes closer to fulfilling the Great Commission. With every new ministry, AG World Missions steps closer to advancing the gospel to those without access and completing its mission of establishing the Church among all peoples everywhere.