The Importance of Pre-Field Cross-Cultural Training

“The task is too urgent … forget about training, let’s just get going!”

“These training schemes are not biblical … you don’t see Paul doing that.”

“You can’t learn these things in a classroom … best to work it out as you go along.”

“The money is far better spent on your on-field living costs.”

“The gospel is all you need. If you can talk about Jesus, you’re ready to go!”

Have you ever encountered any of these in response to a proposal to devote time, energy, and finances to pre-field cross-cultural training?

To be honest, I sympathize with all those opinions. The task of sharing the good news of Jesus is indeed a profoundly urgent one, and there isn’t an explicit biblical precedent for formal training for that task. Cross-cultural training in a classroom can indeed seem dry, irrelevant, and even at times counterproductive or confusing, and it is usually expensive. And yes, witnessing to Jesus will always be the primary missionary task and doesn’t in and of itself require specific formal training. 

So why am I writing about the significance—or perhaps even necessity—of pre-field cross-cultural training? My honest answer is this: Pre-field cross-cultural training is, at its best, a God-given, God-glorifying gift that leads to longer, deeper, more fruitful cross-cultural gospel ministry. Let me briefly justify each of those descriptors. 

Pre-field cross-cultural training is, at its best, a God-given, God-glorifying gift that leads to longer, deeper, more fruitful cross-cultural gospel ministry.

Longer

There is some evidence that cultural stress factors such as honor-shame dynamics, apparent gender inequity, and working at a different life pace than one is accustomed to can significantly reduce intercultural resilience and in turn increase preventable missionary attrition. In short, culture-stressed missionaries come home sooner. Pre-field training can help anticipate potential areas of short-term culture shock and long-term culture stress and equip missionaries with strategies and skills to respond with knowledge, patience, self-awareness, humility, and even good humor. For example, we Brits see queueing as a crucial foundation for an equitable and orderly society (English celebrity sporting megastar David Beckham queued for thirteen hours to see the late Queen Elizabeth II lying in-state). When living in Uganda, I would have felt disappointed and disgruntled had I not understood why social hierarchies and differing understandings of the value of time mean that queuing is not always considered respectful and fair like in the U.K. Being equipped to identify and adapt to these “below the surface” cultural values can reduce cultural stress, increase cultural resilience, quicken cultural adaptation, and usually lengthen cross-cultural service. 

Deeper

Cross-cultural ministry always takes place in the context of cross-cultural relationships. And cross-cultural relationships almost always require significant cross-cultural awareness, appreciation, and adaptation in order to flourish. Pre-field training in how to sympathetically and humbly read and respond to cultural differences can massively reduce, though never eliminate, those cringe-inducing (at best) and relationship-destroying (at worst) cross-cultural blunders. Having this skill will help deepen relationships and open space to live in and for Christ alongside one another in mutuality and partnership.

Cross-cultural ministry always takes place in the context of cross-cultural relationships.

For example, a culture-crossing gospel worker trained to recognize and relate to patron-client-oriented social networks will build deeper relationships more speedily and smoothly than one who spends their first term living out Western values of equality and independence in a context that doesn’t share or appreciate them. Unfortunately, such cross-cultural interpersonal blunders are not always quickly forgotten by those on the receiving end. Crossing a cultural boundary in ministry will normally be more beneficial and blessed when it follows a period of pre-deployment cross-cultural training. Missionaries who ignore this step can easily find themselves spending years in shallow, casual, passing relationships with little evidence of godly transformation on either side. 

More Fruitful

Have you ever noticed how Paul’s three sermons to non-Christian audiences in the Book of Acts are so beautifully shaped by and for the culture of the crowd he’s speaking to? This is explained well by U.S. missiologist Dean Flemming in his book Contextualization in the New Testament. In Acts 13, Paul uses abundant Old Testament Scripture references to demonstrate to the synagogue Jews in Pisidian Antioch how their shared history is fulfilled in Christ. In the next chapter, Paul engages a polytheistic gentile crowd in Lystra by connecting with them through their common humanity and witnessing to the shared blessings they enjoy from the living and unique creator God who sustains and provides. In chapter 17, Paul speaks to elite Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in the Areopagus in Athens about the revelation of the true God using concepts and rhetoric familiar to that group. There is evidence that Paul has prepared carefully for such conversations and proclamations in order to ensure that his proclamation of the good news of Christ connects as clearly and cleanly as possible with the cultural framework of the audience (see, for example, Paul’s careful investigation of Athenian religion in 17:23). Pre-field cross-cultural training today can likewise equip gospel message-bearers to better connect the good news about Jesus with the lived cultural realities of the hearers, leading in God’s mercy to the Spirit-led fruit of faith, worship, and obedience. 

If you’re considering long-term cross-cultural ministry, don’t overlook God’s provision of top-level training opportunities to equip you to do so.

The precise form and shape of any pre-field cross-cultural training will be determined by individual circumstances, and, of course, such preparation will normally be part of an assortment of carefully curated theological and missiological education. There will always be direct costs and opportunity costs associated with devoting finite resources of time, energy, and finances to such endeavors. However, testimonies abound of the abundant blessings and benefits of doing so. So if you’re considering long-term cross-cultural ministry, don’t overlook God’s provision of top-level training opportunities to equip you to do so. By God’s grace longer, deeper, more fruitful ministries may await!

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Chris Howles was Head of Theology at Uganda Martyrs Seminary Namugongo between 2011 and 2023. He has now returned to the U.K. with his wife, Ros, and three children where he serves as Director of Cross-Cultural training at Oak Hill College (London) in Jan 2024. He has a doctorate in intercultural studies and is founder of the mission resources website From Every Nation.