John Powell Institute:
Care. Resiliency. Retention.

What is JPI?

Cross-cultural messengers of the Gospel need comprehensive care throughout their service, yet high attrition rates highlight gaps in support. MTI’s expertise in training, debriefing, and collaboration uniquely equips us to address these challenges.

In honor of Dr. John Powell’s contributions to worker health and resilience, the John Powell Institute (JPI) has been established as a think tank dedicated to supporting cross-cultural worker retention. JPI fosters collaboration to meet evolving needs, integrate healthy routines, and provide effective care at every stage of service.

If you are interested in joining the John Powell Institute team, please check here for any available jobs postings!

Lone tree in a green field under a cloudy sky

At JPI, we will be following a process to gather data related to current realities and experiences, as well as current research. This will help us refine our questions to discover new and reliable ways to address holistic care of the cross-cultural worker. This research will occur in four cycles throughout the calendar year, each lasting seven days.

In each cycle, we will spend:

  • Three days gathering information, from both existing research and organizational experience.

  • Two days of synthesizing and analyzing the gathered data.

  • Two days polishing our conclusions to refine and prepare for the next cycle.

How does it work?

Close-up of scattered jigsaw puzzle pieces on a table with a shallow depth of field.

Current Projects: The Shared Foundations Initiative

As part of the People Care & Development Track at this year’s Missio Nexus Leader’s Conference, we will collaborate to create a shared vision for the future. Our goal is to develop a resource outlining essential outcomes designed to enhance coordination and care. The result will be an evidence-based document that captures the collective wisdom of member care professionals, students, leaders, and cross-cultural workers.

Your input is crucial in identifying key factors for thriving on the field. Prior to the conference, please share at least one “Thrive Outcome” by following this link.

 FAQs

  • We are excited to be building our team! Our initial advisory committee includes:

    • Mark Case

    • Julia Watson

    • Tim Smith

  • Join us as a policy researcher. To learn more, please contact us.

  • Feel free to contact us with any questions you may have!

  • We will share our findings with MTI's partners throughout the year through blogs and articles. After completing the fourth research cycle, we will prepare the year's work for publication. This will be used in consultation with our partner organizations, agencies, and churches to personalize best practices and healthy policies to meet the specific needs of each agency.