The
Missionary Cycle (28-29)
Good
preparation necessitates 13 steps onto the mission field. (Gailyn Van Rheenan, Introduction
to World Evangelization, Class Notes, ACU, 1997, p. 33.)
These steps may not always be in this exact order. They are approximately
sequential but not sequential.
Step
#1: Motivation and Initial Interest
a.
Searchers grow to believe that God's mission must be reflected in their life
(John 20:21). Because they believe, they must speak (2 Cor. 4:13).
b.
Exposure to others’ experiences alerts our curiosity.
c.
We see the brokenness of the world and the need for reconciliation in Jesus
Christ.
Step
#2: Receiving the Call of God
a. Like Isaiah, searchers, while praying and
seeking God's will, receive a call (Isa. 6:1-10).
b.
God might speak through a mission experience, a teacher, a fellow student, or
in doors of opportunity that are opening. At times God calls his people
directly, like Isaiah (Isaiah 6) and Paul (Acts 9). Story of
my call.
Step
#3: Finding Others with Missions Commitment
a. Ex. Barnabas went to
b.
Missions Fellowship meetings, European Vision, World Missions Workshop,
Campaigns.
Step
#4: Seeking General Training for the Task
a.
Trainees now ask, "What is missions all
about?"
b.
They are led by counseling and advice to some of take the core missions courses
as preparation for the task.
Step
#5: An On-the-Field Missions Experience
a.
Extended internship (from two to six months) under the guidance of an
experienced missionary or national church leader.
b. Ex.: My year in
c.
Jesus taught through such discipleship relationships. Paul spoke of such
learning from ministers when he wrote Timothy, "The things you have heard
me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also
be qualified to teach others" (2 Tim. 2:2).
Step
#6: Finding Co-Workers who Share Our Commitment
a.
Barnabas and Saul were yoke fellows on their first missionary journey. Paul and
Silas were yoke fellows on their second journey. Paul subsequently teamed with others
to accomplish God's purposes (Acts 20:4; Col. 4:7-14).
Step
#7: Commitment to a Specific Continent or General
a.
Should a continent or general mission site be selected because of its
receptivity?
b.
Should a continent or general mission site be selected because it is a frontier
of unreached people?
c.
Should I go to an area because of the interests of possible teammates?
Step
#8: Developing Co-Worker Relationships
a.
A team must become a body with a commitment to a common mission and to one
another.
Step
#9: Selecting a Specific Area with the General Site Area
Step
#10: Equipping for God's
a.
Types of upper level courses which prepare missionaries to contextualize their
message and form strategies for their area of the world. Message
formation or Ethnotheology.
b.
A survey-research trip helps the future missionaries focus on their anticipated
mission site.
Step
#11: Finding an Overseeing, Supporting Church (or Agency)
a.
This is done by dreaming God's dreams and communicating these dreams to
local-church leaders.
Step
#12: Bonding with the Overseeing/Supporting Church
a.
Goal: to develop a prayer support group who are praying for you, your ministry,
and your team
b.
During this time of initial bonding, you model ministry within their local
congregation. A time of evangelism in your own culture.
c.
This is also a time of goodbyes.
Step
#13: Arrival on the Field
a.
Language learning
b.
Orientation
c.
House keeping
d.
Documents
e.
Launching evangelistic efforts.
What will be your ratio of time
between evangelism to new contacts and nurturing young Christians?
Stages of the On Field Missionary
Cycle:
1)
Glamour (honeymoon)
stage—Everything is wonderful, exciting, and exotic. It’s a great
adventure.
2)
Anxiety stage—You begin to notice that below the
surface, not all is well in your new culture. Culture shock: Cultural confusion and disorientation due to moving
from one culture to another. Comes from loss of familiar signs and symbols of
social intercourse—familiar props have been knocked out from under you.
Symptoms: 1) Excessive preoccupation
w/cleanliness. 2) Fits of anger over delays and minor frustrations. 3) Fixed
idea that “people are cheating me” (sometimes they are). 4) Fixation on the
difficulty or the primitiveness of the new language. 5) Excessive longing or
thinking about home. 6) Withdrawal. 7) Excessive exhaustion.
Effective training can reduce culture shock
to culture stress—We never felt that we completely got
over culture stress.
3)
Adaptation or rejection stage
The missionary will
either: a) Go home, b) Withdraw, c) Go native or d) Adapt
Going native represents an unhealthy rejection of one’s home culture. Adaptation, or becoming truly bi-cultural, is the healthy response.