In the Fall of 2007, FamilyLife and Campus Crusade for Christ sponsored a independent and confidential survey of expatriate missionaries. The survey was designed to assess the health of expatriate missionary marriages and families, reveal how a missionary’s home life affects their ministry, and describe how their sending agencies and the Missions community as a whole can help strengthen the missionaries’ marriages and families.  More than 3,400 missionaries from 17 different agencies responded to the Internet-based survey.  These 17 agencies received a comprehensive report showing how their agency’s specific results compared to the overall findings.

The results of the study may be accessed HERE in a sample report format.

The Missionary Marriage and Family Survey consists of an online quantitative and qualitative survey of US expatriate career field missionaries and their spouses, with approximately 200 questions regarding attitudes, behaviors, resources and needs in regard to marriage and family – both inside and outside their ministry assignment. The survey was designed through close cooperation between FamilyLife, Global Mapping International and Campbell Rinker.

The Missionary Marriage and Family Survey offers valuable feedback for individual mission sending agencies and for the mission community at large. Participating agencies will receive results that indicate:

1. How well-equipped and supported their missionary families feel.
   The agency-specific survey report includes average ratings from the agency’s missionaries in several areas, as well as how those average ratings compare to aggregate ratings from all participating agencies. This reveals each agency’s relative strengths, as well as realistic opportunities for improvement.
   
2. What mission agencies are doing to sustain and strengthen families.
   As missionaries respond, a profile will emerge of the types of actions that sending agencies take to support families, and (potentially) how relatively important those actions are in promoting marriage and family.
   
3. Ideas to help agencies support families and promote long-lasting, effective service – directly from the mouths of missionaries.
   Open-ended questions will enable missionaries to provide input in their own words, yielding actionable ideas to benefit agencies and their missionaries. The confidential nature of the survey enables missionaries to express themselves freely and open-ended responses allow agencies to hear missionaries’ compliments, criticisms and ideas in their own words.

CLICK HERE for answers to frequently asked questions.

CLICK HERE for project materials, including the letter of agreement, list details, and sample email invitations.

CLICK HERE to contact us to participate, or with questions.