1. Chapter 10:
Missionary Preparation

2. Chapter Outline
• Introduction
• Why Get Training?
• What Is the Goal of Training?
• Training in Character Traits
• Training in Ministry and Professional Skills
• Training in Specialized Knowledge
• Training in Social Skills
• Types of Training Available
• Conclusion

3. Why Get Training?
Anytime a person gets ready to do a
specialized task, training can help make the
task easier and enable the person who is
trained to do a better job than one who is not.
Missionary preparation is no different. The
reality of crossing into a new culture and
bringing a message that may not make sense
to a group of people whose language and
ways of life the missionary neither knows nor
understands is a complex task.

4. What Is the Goal
of Training?
• Genuine growth toward spiritual maturity
• The ability to carry out one’s assigned task
• The ability to interact well with people in
the new cultural setting
• The ability to adjust well by coping
effectively with culture stress and dealing
with the adaptation process

5. What Is the Goal
of Training? (cont.)
• The ability to facilitate adjustment and
manage stress for family and significant
others
• The ability to develop genuine partnerships
with national Christians in which both
parties have something to offer to each
other

6. Training in Character Traits
• What Character Traits?
• Spiritual Character Traits
• Other Character Traits
• Spiritual Disciplines to Develop These
Traits

7. What Character Traits?
Character traits are those qualities that
characterize how a person sees the
world, responds to varying
circumstances, and is oriented to life.

8. Spiritual Character Traits
• Genuine dependence on God
• Humility and teachability
• The fruit of the Spirit

9. Other Character Traits
• More emphasis on people, less on task
• Ability to withhold unproductive criticism
• Tolerance of ambiguity and flexibility
• Empathy
• Openness in communication style
• High cognitive complexity
• Good personal relational skills in the home culture
• Perseverance

10. Spiritual Disciplines to
Develop These Traits
• These traits are developed through spiritual
disciplines, especially deep immersion in the
Word of God through
• study,
• memorization,
• meditation,
• prayer, and
• praising and thanking God in all circumstances.
• Being mentored by a person or community is
important.

11. Training in Ministry and
Professional Skills
• What Ministry Skills?
• What Professional Skills?
• How Can You Develop These Skills?

12. What Ministry Skills?
• Skills for all Christians:
• Discipling
• Ability to build good relationships
• Leadership development
• Delegating skills
• Mentoring skills
• Be prepared to develop new skills on the
field.

13. What Professional Skills?
• Tentmaking missionaries do their jobs best
when they have high-quality training and
they are linked with people in the field who
have the necessary ministry skills to follow
up on contacts that the tentmaker provides.

14. What Professional Skills?
(cont.)
• Professional skills that are helpful in a
variety of cross-cultural settings include:
• Health
• Engineering
• Computer (hardware and software)
• Specialized teaching such as TESOL
• Writing (e.g., journalism)
• Business

15. How Can You Develop
These Skills?
• Get involved in ministry now; don’t wait to
get on the field.
• When available, professional
apprenticeships can be very valuable.
• Seek appropriate educational work for your
chosen professional field.

16. Training in
Specialized Knowledge
• What Knowledge?
• How Can You Develop This
Knowledge?

17. What Knowledge?
• General knowledge that enables a person to
understand how and why cultures differ
• Culture-specific knowledge—including the
specific social skills necessary to develop
good relationships within a particular
culture

18. How Can You Develop
This Knowledge?
• General knowledge:
• Social science disciplines
• Cross-cultural institutes
• Perspectives course
• Specific knowledge:
• Find a pocket of people from your anticipated
ministry setting and begin ministry now.
• Enroll in on-site language programs.
• Find mentors in your location of service.

19. Training in Social Skills
• What Social Skills?
• How Can You Develop These Social
Skills?

20. What Social Skills?
• Critical social skills are required in the new
culture, including (Bochner and Furnham 1986,
14–15):
• Expressing attitudes, feelings and emotions,
• Adopting the appropriate proxemic posture;
• Understanding the gaze patterns of the people they are
interacting with;
• Carrying out ritualized routines such as greetings,
leave-taking, self-disclosure, making or refusing
requests; and
• Asserting themselves.

21. How Can You Develop
These Social Skills?
• Intercultural communication courses
• Training institutes on site
• Mentoring on site
• Attitude is helpful: recognize that as a
newcomer you lack the basic social skills
that everyone else in the culture takes for
granted.

22. Types of Training
Available
• Home or Church
• Perspectives courses
• Mentoring and discipleship
• If possible, ministering among a chosen
people group at home

23. Types of Training
Available (cont.)
• Short-Term Institutes
• Agape International Training (www.aitusa.org)
• Center for Intercultural Training (
www.cit-online.org)
• Mission Training International (www.mti.org)
• Institute for Cross-Cultural Studies (www.
wheaton.edu/bgc/icct/)
• MissionPrep (www.timcentre.com/missionprep
)
• Residential Educational Institutions

24. Conclusion
While theological training has been available for
centuries, formal mission training did not start until
the second half of the nineteenth century. Though
relatively new, many training opportunities offer
high-quality preparation that will pave the way for a
smoother cross-cultural adjustment and enable a
more effective and enjoyable ministry experience.
Today’s missionary cannot afford to move to a new
culture without some type of pre-field training.