Single men in missions, 6

This is a continuation of my posts on the topic of singles in missions, and particularly single males in missions.

1. Have a significant number of single males have entered the mission field, and later married, thus giving rise to the current “snapshot”? It is possible. My collection of statistics are “as at” roughly 2012/13. Those who are in the statistics now as “married” could very well have been “single” when they entered the field. I know anecdotally of several cases where this has happened. This is a piece of data that needs to be gathered from agencies. Still, I doubt its probability: I’ve heard too many reports from mobilizers and recruiters of the dearth of single men for me to think this is what happens. No one is telling me, “Oh–it’s not that there’s not any single men in missions, it’s just that they all get married within a year or two and so don’t show up in the statistics as single.”
2. One counselor suggested that I need to talk not just to single men who are in missions, but single men who are not. He noted that, at Urbana, an roughly equal percentage of men and women filled out the commitment forms. So, why the imbalance in those who make it onto the field? It would be useful to talk to a sampling of people who filled out the forms (but have not [yet?] gone), or perhaps a sampling of people at seminaries.
3. I suspect one of the big drivers – and I have noted this before – is that men have more ministry opportunities closer to home than women do, particularly in more conservative evangelical circles. When I’ve been at colleges (which isn’t frequent, since I’m an introvert, and colleges are known to have large concentrations of people) talking to young people, most of the males’ eyes glaze over – they are headed to pastoral ministries of one variety or another, by and large. Women, on the other hand, don’t often have those opportunities. So, if called to minister, they head abroad where they can.
4. Another note I have been given: many women, when talked to by this particular recruiter, indicated that they were going to do missions for a few years – but that they desired to get married. There are then several scenarios which we can envision.

• They could marry someone within the mission, and stay in the mission.
• They could marry someone outside the mission, and perhaps bring that person into the mission.
• They could marry someone in another mission, and switch agencies.
• They could marry someone off the field, and go home.
• They could marry a national.

While it is more common for single men to marry a national, most of the reports I’ve heard suggest it’s very rare for a woman to do so. However, marrying and staying in the mission with their new husband is also an improbable scenario. The most likely scenario is that the woman, upon marrying, will leave the mission, either for her husband’s agency, or to return home from the field.

This, of course, complicates the perspective of an agency on a single female seeking to enter missions.