Lausanne World Pulse – Overview of Missionary Training Resources
By Rob Brynjolfson
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Schools and training programs are blooming in a colourful kaleidoscope of diversity in models, methods and practice. |
When the majority world mission movement was emerging and we still spoke of “new sending countries,” a prevailing attitude was mildly perceptible: “We won’t make the mistakes that Western missionaries made because we know what it is like to be the receiving field of missionaries.” Yet, mistakes were made and who among us would dare suggest they are not still being made by us all? In one case, a national mission movement was challenged to provide adequate cross-cultural training for their outgoing missionaries and the response was “we have the Holy Spirit and that is enough.”
After a generation of workers plied the fields of mission, they are returning with the wisdom of praxis and national mission movements are enthusiastically promoting the development or improvement of pre-field training. Along with the wisdom of praxis, the dissemination of significant research and analysis has produced a broader recognition of the need for missionary training. Schools and training programs are not just budding, they are blooming in a colourful kaleidoscope of diversity in models, methods and practice. The question for many is, how can we do training that ensures the development of effective cross-cultural servants of God?
A Look Back—The Road of Specialized Missionary Training
Specialized missionary training schools are recent inventions. The task of training missionaries was mostly delegated to additional courses added to the curriculum of pastoral training schools; that is, seminaries, and later Bible schools. This approach is efficient, but tended to reinforce the prevailing attitude that all one needed to take to the field in way of training was the Bible and the Holy Spirit.
Along with the wisdom of praxis, the dissemination of significant research and analysis has produced a broader recognition of the need for missionary training.
Victorian England provided a context where the need to train women for missions emerged. The Faith mission movement embraced the service of women and Mrs. Tottenham established the YWCA Testing and Training Home in London, where in 1892 it became one of the first specialized missionary training schools. The purpose was to break down some of the barriers for single women impeding their reception into missionary agencies. From this home, Redcliffe College eventually emerged and now trains both men and women.