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Policy Name:Basis of Employment with Reliant
Scope:Field Staff and Associates
Revision Date:February 16, 2023
Last Review Date:March 9, 2023

Field Staff Statuses
General policy: Reliant field staff are ministers of the gospel who exist to support the Great Commission as found in Matthew 28:18-20. "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching  them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you  always, to the very end of the age.” 

Reliant partners with missional churches and Gospel-centered ministries to mobilize support-based workers for the Great Commission.

The basis of a staff member's religious employment and mobilization with Reliant starts in partnership with a missional church or Gospel-centered ministry. That partner organization has reviewed Reliant's Statement of Faith and affirmed the Reliant Memo of Understanding. 

Employment with Reliant requires active oversight by the partner organization and an active role description (job description). 

Partner organizations provide Reliant and its staff with the ongoing supervisory structure that guides the staff's daily ministry. As well, the partner organization has provided clarity for the staff's intended role and participated in the assessment and hiring process for the prospective staff member. 

The roles of Reliant-employed staff are for the primary purpose of ministering the gospel and furthering the Great Commission and Reliant's spiritual and pastoral mission. Therefore, the primary emphases of these staff roles are religious and ministerial in nature to support preaching the gospel, evangelism, teaching, and discipling followers of Christ.  

Staff roles are funded by the support-raising efforts of the staff member.

Reliant-employed staff members accept the privilege and responsibility to trust God to provide the necessary funding for their ministries. Gathering donations for Reliant is the staff's first ministry. Reliant calls this process Ministry Team Development (MTD). Staff should understand that payment of things like salaries, benefits, and other expenses entirely depends on funds being made available to Reliant through their fund-raising efforts. 

Facts of Reliant employment

  • Employment with Reliant is "at will." The Field Manual is not a contract of employment and is not intended to create contractual obligations of any kind. Employment will be on an "at-will" basis unless a specific, written employment contract provides otherwise. Either Reliant or the employee may terminate employment at any time, with or without notice or cause, and for any or no reason. In order to retain necessary flexibility in the administration of policies and procedures, Reliant reserves the right to change, revise or eliminate any of the policies and/or benefits described in this Field Manual at its sole discretion and at any time. 

  • Reliant provides a Equal Employment for its staff.

  • Staff members are employed by Reliant and not the partner organization. 
  • Staff members will receive W-2 tax forms as full employees of Reliant and not 1099s (which are only used for independent contractors).
  • As ministers of the gospel, staff roles are religious and ministerial in nature to support preaching the gospel, evangelism, teaching, and discipling followers of Christ. 

Guiding documents of Reliant employment

The following are documents that guide your employment with Reliant: 

Your job description should be evaluated and updated with Reliant annually.

11 Comments

  1. Tom MaurielloDave Meldrum-Green, this may need a look over.

    Unknown User (ed.courtney@reliant.org) and Sarah Swann, this may be better as part of the landing page for the Field manual or for the missionary manual.  Thoughts?

  2. Mike, I looked it over and added and edited a few areas. 

  3. user-1a794

    With additions and adjustments, the three bases of employment got a bit lost.  So I put key points in headers.  

  4. user-1a794

    Unknown User (ed.courtney@reliant.org) and Dave Meldrum-Green , the note at the bottom seems mis-leading to me.  We do evaluate annually.  But I don't think it's meaningful to comment on that here.  Also, annual renewal of job description sounds like renewal of a contract.  I'm trying to guess what this comment is supposed to be about, but since I don't get it, I think it needs to be removed. 

  5. Mike Swann and user-1a794 I believe the employee's job description should be reviewed and updated annually as a part of the annual employment evaluation process. 

    1. user-1a794

      Dave Meldrum-Green , yes job descriptions need to be reviewed annually.  Keep in mind this is an informational page about the basis of employment.  WE don't put here everything related to requirements for employment.  I started this page to emphasize what is necessary for employment with us (meaning, what starts employment, not what keeps employment.) 

  6. user-1a794

    Reliant missionaries are ministers of the gospel who exist to support the Great Commission as found in Matthew 28:18-20.  "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching  them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you  always, to the very end of the age.”


  7. user-1a794

    i took out these sentences:  The first ministry responsibility of the missionary is to develop their Reliant Ministry Team and gather the financial resources necessary for the expenses of ministry.  These expenses include insurances, salary and benefits, reimbursable expenses, administrative assessments/fees and all ministry related expenses.   The payment of salary and other expenses can only happen when funding is available through the missionary's MTD efforts. 

  8. Unknown User (ed.courtney@reliant.org)

    Mike Swann user-1a794 This page links to two Solomon pages that haven't been published to our missionaries yet: Memo of Understanding and Job Descriptions.

     I'm going to remove them for now and can restore them when the pages are ready for missionaries to view.

  9. user-1a794

    Julie Thomas  - I'm looking at last emails as I unplug for vacation.  I have realized that the second point gets misunderstood periodically.  The key reality is that the partner organization has to offer a missionary a role.  Ie, no one is a "Reliant Missionary" apart from there being a role for which they are raising support.  We have had some situations where people have felt they could come through our staff training, and then find a new partner and a new role.  This isn't a frequent occurrance, but we actually need to emphasize in the process that leaving the partner, and leaving the offered role while raising support nullifies their ability to work with us.  If this doesn't make sense, Mike and i have discussed this a few times, and can elaborate. 

  10. Reviewed on 3/9/2023

    Updated language according to our Language Change project

    The Missionary Status box will also eventually be updated with the new language.