Preparing For Your Mission
Posted by C. Holland on Dec 16, 2009I get a lot of emails from people considering missions work. If you have already determined your field and are in the process of going, Kevin over at the Life.Outpoured blog has a great series about how to prepare and learn about your mission field’s culture in “Scoping Your Mission”. Each of the posts are a wealth of information, especially if you are not being sent or prepped by a mission agency (like myself). Navigating the differences between cultures (even within same-minded Christian cultures in different countries) is probably the most important thing I’ve learned as a missionary. As someone who “scoped” our field in a similar way, I can strongly recommend these suggestions. Take a look at each:
“Read Their News” (I still do this in the field, even several years into our mission)
Additionally, I think these suggestions are equally important for anyone in ministry (especially church planters) who may be beginning work in another part of their home country. It may not technically be a “foreign country”, but states (and areas within states) can be considerably different in certain cultural habits, focus or issues. As a native Californian, I learned this when befriending a co-worker of similar age who was originally from Louisiana; our life experiences and expectations could not have been more different, and most of this was inherent to the local cultures in which we grew up. Even Californians can be on different extremes depending on their city or county.
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December 16th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Thank you for including church planters in your analysis of this topic. The fact is, even in a country like America, vast differences exist in different parts of the country. As a sailor, I have been in many different cities all over the world, and if I were to become a “missionary” to any of those places, I would need to learn the culture, history, and “read up” on the area. Great post!
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December 18th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
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