Lausanne World Pulse – Education and Training for Missions and Evangelism
By Kumar Abraham
A missionary carries the formidable stress of adjusting to culture, learning a language and relating not just to nationals but to expatriates as well. Missionary cross-cultural skills are vital, along with a willingness to be a servant of the national Church. There is no room for feeling racially superior. Probably the most humbling role on earth is being placed in a foreign culture with no rights to claim. Often, expatriate missionaries stay with their own countrymen in their “missionary hideouts” to help avoid this pain. Learning a simple lifestyle will help immensely in preparation: a disciplined Hudson Taylor submitted himself to this lifestyle in his teens. John Wesley points to character as the primary qualification of church leaders:
Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be trifling employed. Never while away time. Be serious. . . Avoid all lightness, jesting and foolish talking. Converse sparingly and cautiously with women, particularly with young women. Take no step toward marriage without solemn prayer to God and consulting your brethren. Believe evil of no one unless fully proved…Speak evil of no one…Tell everyone what you think wrong in him, lovingly and plainly, and as soon as may be, else it will fester in your own heart. Do not affect the gentleman…Be ashamed of nothing but sin; no, not of cleaning your own shoes when necessary. Be punctual. . .Do not mend our rules, but keep them . . .You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore, spend and be spent in this work.2
II. Knowledge
The Apostle Mark records that Jesus “appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they may be with him” (Mark 3:14; Luke 8:1). It is from this verse that we get the “with him” principle. The disciples had to first be “with him” before they could be “sent out to preach” or do ministry. Leroy Eims discovered in his experience the very significant difference between “with him” training and mere classroom type instruction. In his words,
I have made mistakes in this regard. I have tried to train men by gathering them together in a quiet basement once a week to discuss the Christian life and then supplement this with occasional seminars or special meetings. It didn’t work. But men who have ministered with me in the push and shove of life, out where we face victory and defeat daily, out in the world of real living, are today productive for Christ. I have watched them bear fruit that remains.3
For Jesus, life was the classroom. As situations developed, it was an opportunity to teach theology, display and teach character or demonstrate a skill. Then after some time, he gave them instruction on evangelism, and they were ready to go (Matthew 10:5-20; Luke 9:2-6). How did Jesus achieve his goals of evangelism so fast? He was training his disciples right alongside himself. Every moment of being “with him” was an opportunity to observe how he ministered to a myriad of needs. Because he associated with the disciples, they observed all his methods. According to Robert Coleman, “Evangelism was lived before them in spirit and in technique…His training classes were never dismissed.”4
Jesus is what we might term a “playing coach.”
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Dr. Kumar Abraham is a Sri Lankan national living in Melbourne, Australia and has served as a missionary in the Philippines for twenty-one years. He is an evangelist, a trainer of evangelists, equipper of Christ-followers in evangelism and a Bible school lecturer. He can be reached at: [email protected]. |