Stephanie Goggin: A Front-Row Seat to the Great Commission
Teacher, Missionary, and Coordinator
From IWU to the Nations
Stephanie Goggin came to Indiana Wesleyan University as an Intercultural Studies major with a minor in Spanish. During her time at IWU, she experienced a great deal of spiritual growth, but also a season of spiritual drought.
Throughout her college career, Stephanie was able to give her faith deep roots as she came to know Jesus Christ better and made her faith her own. At the same time, this also caused lots of questions to develop regarding her childhood faith, leading her to rethink some of the things she had been taught about God.
Beginning Missionary Work
Seeking to find answers to her questions, Stephanie searched for them at Indiana Wesleyan University and was led down new paths as she followed Christ.
While she spent her semesters doing work to benefit her career after graduation, each summer was spent going on mission internships or immersive cross-cultural trips, for the purposes of getting hands-on experience in her field and spreading the gospel.
A New World of Missionary Efforts
As a college student, Stephanie appreciated what she learned during her international experiences. Through charitable work amongst different people groups, Stephanie and other American missionaries were able to spread knowledge of God's word to others, bringing Christianity to a variety of people.
Far away from home in a foreign country, Stephanie’s experiences were placing her in new contexts directly related to her chosen field, but which also took her out of her comfort zone. Living on mission, Stephanie experienced life-changing events which both helped to send her down her immediate career path of education and also laid the foundation for her later work in the mission field.
From Teacher to Coordinator for Christian Missionaries
Graduating after just three years at Indiana Wesleyan, Stephanie went into teaching. For the next five years she served as an elementary school teacher.
While this was what she had been studying for, and while she was good at it, eventually she felt God’s call leading her back to missionary work in a bigger way. In 2021, Stephanie left teaching to join Global Partners.
Global Partners
Global Partners is an international organization dedicated to missionary work by protestant missionaries. While based in the United States, the organization's work is not limited to American missionaries and has extensive operations across the world. Because more than four out of every ten people do not have access to the gospel, Global Partners is devoted to the mission of evangelism to every person and community possible. Given her own heart for missionary work this was a natural fit for Stephanie.
NEXT
Since then, Stephanie has served as the NEXT Program Coordinator, working with young adults who are actively pursuing the mission field and discovering their calling in God’s global mission.
While she enjoyed teaching, she has especially loved serving in this role. Despite not having been part of the NEXT team when this program first began in 2018, by joining when she did Stephanie was able to help with rebuilding in the aftermath of the COVID epidemic.
The Great Commission
Since joining NEXT, Stephanie has witnessed the program grow and take on new life across college campuses and churches. Excelling in her role as Program Coordinator, Stephanie plays a direct and active part in the branding, marketing, and promotion of the program, finding great joy and fulfillment working as part of the NEXT team.
Stephanie wholeheartedly believes the Great Commission is something which all Christians are called to - regardless of profession, vocation, or church membership.
When Christ first gave this commission to the apostles, to preach the good news of God's Son to every people group, this was not meant to be just for some Christians to do, but rather for all Christians to engage with.
Seeing Missionary Efforts Across the World
Stephanie's mission work experiences have benefited her in many ways, including helping to make her aware of how God is moving around the world - something she thinks is crucial to our Christian lives.
Through her role, Stephanie has engaged with a great number of Christian missionaries, allowing her to see how many missionaries are evangelizing across the world, creating disciples in Latin America, Asia, Europe, and more - helping to spread the Gospel to all tribes and communities.
As someone who has taken an active role in praying, giving, and serving since she was a child, Stephanie feels her current experience gives her a front-row seat to what God is doing in the world among the unreached. Stephanie believes countless opportunities to make a difference for Christ have been and continue to be open to her, and these experiences have shaped her faith, allowing her to grow more fully alive in Christ than ever before.
