Stepping into a new cultural context for the first time can be overwhelming. The excitement of going to the mission field can quickly wear off as the realities and struggles of cross-cultural life set in. Pre-field cross-cultural training can prepare new missionaries for field life while, at the same time, directing excited energy in healthy and helpful ways. While new missionaries have many options for pre-field cross-cultural training, utilizing a trusted organization has significant benefits.
Institutional Experience
Doing pre-field training with an organization provides new missionaries with the opportunity to gain insights based on decades or centuries of experience. When we combine the years of individual cross-cultural experience in organizations, the total is often measured in thousands of years. The immense cross-cultural experience available within organizations can help equip missionaries for every aspect of cross-cultural living.
Language learning is often one of the earliest stressors that a missionary faces, and organizations have a variety of people who can work with different learning styles and preferences. People have learned every type of language from West European Romance languages to East Asian tonal languages. They have learned different alphabets and how to make sounds that feel foreign in our mouths. Institutional experience can provide a person preparing for the mission field with a vast array of resources from which to learn.
When we combine the years of individual cross-cultural experience in organizations, the total is often measured in thousands of years.
Another area with which organizations can help is culture shock. Culture shock is a universal experience on the mission field, but how we respond to a new culture is as varied as the missionaries themselves. Having the opportunity to learn from many people who have dealt with culture shock in their own ways can help a new missionary persevere and succeed in the work. Sometimes just knowing that others have been through the same experiences is enough to keep us going on the field.
Breadth of Knowledge
Closely connected to institutional experience is the fact that organizations have a breadth of knowledge that cannot be replicated by a local team or training program with a regional focus. This aspect can sometimes be frustrating for a new missionary who is exclusively focused on one people group or place. He or she may wonder why they should bother understanding Context B when they will be serving in Context A. However, even this question reveals the need for cross-cultural training.
First, it is not unusual for missionaries to serve in more than one cultural context over their careers. Many missionaries have to move to different contexts for a variety of reasons outside of their control (e.g., health, geopolitical conflict, natural disasters, etc.). Many other missionaries have felt a call to a new context at some point in their careers.
The breadth of knowledge available from cross-cultural training through an organization can help prepare a new missionary for unexpected challenges.
Second, even if a missionary serves in the same geographical location for their entire career, cultural contexts are dynamic and changing. Migration and immigration play major roles in cultural changes in contexts all over the world. Many places in the world are not culturally homogeneous—you will find South Asians in Kenya and Nigerians in London. Furthermore, partners in the missionary task come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. For example, you may be preparing to go to the Dominican Republic where people do not place an emphasis on social status and hierarchy, but the Korean missionaries you will fellowship with on a regular basis place a very high value on these things. The breadth of knowledge available from cross-cultural training through an organization can help prepare a new missionary for these unexpected challenges.
Vetted Principles and Practices
New fads and trends in missions are constantly vying for our attention. New discipleship material, evangelism presentations, or church planting strategies claim to provide some newly discovered universal secret to missions success. These new trends may have some value to them, but doing pre-field cross-cultural training through an organization often provides a set of vetted principles and practices that are resistant to waves of faddish trends.
Doing pre-field cross-cultural training through an organization often provides a set of vetted principles and practices that are resistant to waves of faddish trends.
Organizations are able to resist these trends by prioritizing principles over methods. The principles taught are often transcultural, while the application of the principles in specific methods and practices varies from one context to another. The organization, due to the nature of equipping people to go all over the world, often has to focus training on principles and then allow field leadership to explain how those principles are practiced in specific contexts. In this way, the principles will guide the missionary towards faithful engagement in the missionary task regardless of where their calling takes them.
Doing pre-field cross-cultural training through an organization is not the only option for new missionaries. Some individuals may prefer other training options that focus on their specific context. Some may be more comfortable preparing fully in their local church. Though it is not the only path to being equipped for the mission, doing pre-field cross-cultural training through an organization has clear benefits for the success and longevity of new missionaries.
Matthew is an Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies at North Greenville University. He has missions experience on three continents culminating in nearly two decades of commitment to making disciples in both frontier and legacy church contexts. He earned his Ph.D. in International Missions from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC). He and his wife, Heather, have served as international missionaries together in South Asia and Nigeria and have trained and equipped U.S. churches to engage their communities in effective evangelism and disciple-making.
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