Lausanne World Pulse – Overview of Missionary Training Resources
By Rob Brynjolfson
Integral training intentionally balances the whole program of study, redistributing allotted course hours and budget so that needed skills and character/spiritual qualities are not relegated to a role of peripheral learning, which may or may not occur. In this way, the knowledge components (cognitive learning) are merely instrumental and must lead to the intentional development of objectified skills and character/spiritual qualities. Knowledge is not an end in itself, neither is it assumed that an understanding of a subject equals an acquired skill or the formation of some character quality. Learning is transformed as programs embrace some more strategic learning contexts. Skills are learned by practicing. Character is transformed by creating self-awareness through the rub of significant relationships while living in community.
Missionary Training Programs and Resources
In 1995 Ray Windsor edited a WEA publication entitled the World Directory of Missionary Training Programmes providing a catalogue of over five hundred missionary training programs from around the world. Apart from contact information, the catalogue provides descriptions of the teaching staff, (Western, non-Western and cross-cultural experience), language of instruction, learning styles (percentage of formal and nonformal), courses offered (programs, degrees, etc.) and training ethos.
Creating this list was a monumental effort, but after Windsor’s initial effort, no one has taken up the challenge of maintaining this list. Today, another project based in England is attempting to develop a registry of training programs. The Evangelical Training Database is offered in English and Spanish and serves the evangelical community by providing a searchable list of training programs. Institutions can submit information and list degrees, diplomas, certificates or even individual courses.
The International Missionary Training Network (IMTN) has encouraged its members to use and register with this database and is working in cooperation with that ministry to provide searchable criteria identifying the formal, nonformal and informal elements in the training programs. Although the World Directory of Missionary Training Programmes provided the service of describing the teaching style, it was not really designed to distinguish between formal and non-formal training or between academic and integral (or holistic) training.
E-learning does not look like the well-weathered correspondence courses of old.
What the World Directory did was create an awareness of the rapidly expanding world of missionary training. The 1995 list accentuated the geographical proliferation of missionary training by listing sixty-four countries. Anecdotal evidence leads us to the conclusion that this number would be in the hundreds today. Some regions of the world enjoy very active networks focused on strengthening and multiplying missionary training centers. The COMIBAM movement in Latin America has a training coordinator, Dr. Omar Gava, who promotes holistic missionary training in the region. The diverse continent of Africa is challenged by language and cultural differences, but both Francophone and Anglophone countries offer missionary training for cross-cultural workers. Asia, Southeast Asia and China all rose to the challenge of sending missionaries and provide formal and nonformal missionary training. Bethany International’s “Go100” ministry has established a large network of missionary training schools in Africa and Asia.
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