Training Missionaries

Missionaries must know God, be able to relate well to other people, understand and engage with another culture, and be able to use the Bible in a way that informs all aspects of their lives and ministries. Missionary training must address each of these areas if it is to help Christians to be effective in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Effective training has been shown to prevent people from prematurely leaving the field. It also reduces the danger of cross-cultural workers uncritically exporting culturally bound forms of Christianity. This book details four key areas that every missionary training program, whatever its context, must focus on developing. It shows how these can be holistically addressed in a learning community where trainers and trainees engage in cross-cultural ministry together.

Today, the world mission has unprecedentedly become a task of every national churches and believers on earth. Missionaries are being sent out from every nations to every nations! Strategists have previously noticed that Africa, along with East Asia, would emerge as the key fulcrum for world missions in the 21st Century. 2010 Lausanne Congress held in South Africa proved that to be true. Along this path, Evangelical Alliance for Preacher Training/Commission (EAPTC) opened their missions training schools in Kenya and South Korea, using this book as their training text. It was through the efforts of those missionary trainees that their work expanded into over 200 new church plants in 11 countries today. This book was put together mainly for Two-Thirds World missionary candidates who often find themselves limited with sound missions training opportunities around, while the lessons in this manual apply to all who are mission-interested. Going as a missionary or sending a missionary without proper training is quite reckless. The principles of cross-cultural mission presented in 11 chapters of this book are field-tested nuggets that can certainly equip anyone aspiring for missionary work. The training has been scientifically validated effective through research and used in Africa, Asia, Americas and Oceania. This manual is also available in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Amharic.

In this timely book, Cho provides mission scholars, sending churches, and mission agencies with an understanding of Korean missionaries' burnout recovery process. Her study of Korean missionary burnout recovery included thirty-nine research participants who had experienced burnout in missionary service and who subsequently recovered. Participants reported a variety of physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms, as well as relational difficulties experienced during burnout. Cho describes how their self-help approach, characterized by independent, religious self-effort, brought only temporary relief. Through self-care, however, they experienced genuine recovery. Self-care that leads to lasting recovery is holistic and grace-based, characterized by a correct understanding of the roles of God and others in their lives and engagement in authentic community for interdependent care. This study also gives insightful recommendations to missionary member care systems, mission agencies, and other sending organizations in an Asian cultural context about how to care for Korean missionaries. It is also intended for counselors of home churches so that they can provide better member care for burned-out missionaries. Lastly, this study advances research into contextually appropriate paradigms and strategies helpful to cross-cultural missionaries in the area of both Korean missionaries and non-Western studies in missionary member care.

Trauma, from the fall of Adam and Eve forward impacts human lives in overpowering ways. A review of the lives of biblical personalities and missionaries reveals shared traumatic experiences. In addition to the stress of cultural adjustment, missionaries often live in contexts of violence, political unrest, economic instability, natural disasters, and relational conflict. The examined biblical personalities faced similar issues, yet a majority coped with trauma in ways that led to well-being. The proposed biblical theory of well-being assists missionaries to move deeper in their trust of God by utilizing the coping skills of the biblical personalities including asking God for help, lifting up their praise and worship to God, standing on a sense of call, working with God, lamenting/venting to God in healthy ways, embracing a theology of suffering, and accepting assistance from friends and family. The adherence to the constructs of this theory protects missionaries from the ravages of psychological trauma by avoiding negative coping and developing positive coping skills that lead to trusting in the only One who gives hope in seemingly hopeless situations.

The author's study of missionary training has taken him all over the world. In this work, he shares lessons learned from both Western and non-Western missionary training regarding training, clear objectives, getting started, the profile of a trainer, selecting trainees, the marks of effective training, holistic equipping, contextualized curriculum, and careful assessment of the entire training process.

This manual is an invaluable resource for anyone from the global evangelical community who is involved with training people for ministry. As a textbook, it presents a biblical and educational framework for holistic training as well as a context-sensitive process for the design of new programs and the evaluation of existing programs. Packed with practical examples and aids, it is a tool trainers will keep handy and use often in their course planning and implementation. This book was published in partnership with the World Evangelical Alliance.

Mormon Mission Prep: A Practical Guide to Spiritual and Physical Preparation takes a unique look at missionary preparation by focusing on the practical as well as the spiritual side of preparing to serve the Lord. The book provides details on the application forms and estimated timelines of when to start and how long steps should take. The book helps young people, their parents, and leaders to know the mission call process in order to relieve stress and help prevent unnecessary delays in getting the mission call. The book also discusses how to become an effective missionary by knowing and using the scriptures, maintaining your worthiness, understanding the gospel, and developing a testimony. Author Jimmy Smith addresses these issues and more in this book that is full of tips on preparing both spiritually and physically for an LDS mission.

For missionaries in the twenty-first century, change is necessary in order for them to continue to be strong and viable. Growing Missionaries Biblically takes a fresh look at Christian missions and proposes a comprehensive, biblical missionary training program for short- and longterm missions. Its objective is to produce an effective, cross cultural ministry for Africa and, with some modifications, globally. The goal is to provide a postimperial, post-colonial model for training missionaries by looking to biblical guidance on the subject. Author Dr. R. Zarwulugbo Liberty is a native of Liberia, Africa, with biblical, theological, and practical insights for prospective and seasoned missionaries and their supporters. The information he provides can successfully launch and sustain these missionaries in the course of their mission work. In order to accomplish his goals, he proposes the use of bicultural missionaries. A bicultural missionary is one who has studied both his own culture and the culture of the people to be served. This missionary will not equate his or her culture with Christianity and will know and understand the practices of the culture he or she serves that can easily be incorporated and assimilated into Christianity. Growing Missionaries Biblically proposes a vital curriculum for missionary preparation for cross-cultural missionary service.