My current writing project, It’s Tuesday. Now What Do
I Do? is a guide for first term missionaries. Often new missionaries are not really sure how to get
into culture and begin ministry when they arrive on the field. Tuesday gives tips on what people
can do their first year overseas. In one chapter I discuss what NOT to do. One thing I suggest a missionaries not
do is spend all their time with people from their own culture. An expatriate who is always with
people of their own culture will have a hard time learning language and making
friends with people of the host culture. I am not suggesting they never visit people from their
own country, but moderation and discipline needs to be applied if the
missionary hopes to adjust to their new surroundings.
One trap missionaries get into that keeps them from getting
into culture is team activities.
“Teams” are a popular concept in missions today. Some organizations spend a great deal
of effort in putting teams together believing that a team is more effective in
ministry than individual effort.
Jesus had his disciples, Paul had his Barnabas, Silas, Luke and
Timothy. No one person has
all the gifts for ministry and there is wisdom in developing teams to maximize
efforts on the field. I have
observed, however, that sometimes team activities are so numerous that there is
little time left for actually doing the work. Because learning language is a chore and making
friends with people who are not like you is challenging, it’s pretty easy for some
people to just hang around the team, in fact team becomes THE ministry. There are team meetings, team retreats,
team prayer time and team dinners.
To have good teams there are team leaders, regional team directors and
even team pastors.
Adapting to new surroundings and adjusting to a new culture
is not an easy task. The
enculturation process is hampered if we spend too much time with our
colleagues. The team should be in
place for support in ministry.
Team activity can too easily become just busy work that keeps us from
actually doing ministry.
