Whether
looking to serve short term or for a life time, or want to support
others well in the process, you should find some of these resources and
training opportunities helpful in equipping you to be ready.
Preparing to Go
An easy to navigate website to help someone get started in the preparation process. Provides links and information about a number of preparation opportunities.
Perspectives on the World Christian Movement
This 15-week college level course is second to none in getting a foundations in missions. The course covers the biblical, historical, strategic, and cultural elements of missions and is taught by specialists in each area of study. Taught at dozens of locations around the United States (at 10 sites in Houston alone), this course has a high probability of changing the way you think for the rest of your life. To find a class near you, click on the link above.
INSIGHT
INSIGHT is an acronym for INtensive Study of Integrated Global History and Theology, and it is just that. Rather than treating each subject separately, students will study history, social sciences, world religions, missiology and theology in an integrated fashion. Affiliated with Trinity International University, this unique year of study provides the student with 36 hours of undergraduate credit, and is offered at four locations around the U.S.
World Christian Foundations
Just like INSIGHT, World Christian Foundations is an integrative program developed by those at the U.S. Center for World Missions that covers global history, theology, missiology, world religions, and even biblical languages. This a graduate program that is done fully at distance along side a qualified mentor.
Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies
If you are looking for training to minister in the Muslim world, the Zwemer Center provides a number of great graduate level courses and seminars. As part of Columbia International University, you can takes courses on campus and even complete an M.A. in Muslim Studies.
TOAG
TOAG stands for Training Ordinary Apprentices to Go and is a 10-month internship program that places teams of interns in walking distance to unreached people groups in the U.S. Participants don't earn any degrees or take any exams, but do those things they must do to survive and succeed overseas. This includes learning ways to personally treasure Jesus, building a repertoire of Jesus stories, meeting regularly with a team to reflect and grow, building relationships with unreached neighbors, testing contextually appropriate ways to share the gospel. The internship is done "after hours" to allow participants to maintain a normal job and requires about 15 hours a week.
Encountering the World (EWI) of Islam Course
Students in the EWI course learn experiences from around the Muslim world. The course has moved students around the US and beyond from an awareness of Muslims to sharing in God's compassion for them. EWI is a twelve-lesson course which combines typical learning assignments with experiential activities and on-line interactions for an integrated multi-disciplinary learning environment. Each course lesson is taught by a different Muslim or Christian expert. This course is engaging and life-changing as a result of the rich combination of methods of instruction. The course textbook itself has more than 80 authors providing a broad range of perspectives on Islam. The course is available at different locations around the US; in addition there is an online option.
Center for Intercultural Training
This North Carolina training center helps prepare both adults and children for cross-cultural service. Their full program involves nine weeks of training, but individual modules can be attended. Topics include stresses of moving overseas, culture shock, language learning techniques, conflict resolution skills, facilitating church planting movements, and spiritual formation.
Missionary Training International
Located in Colorado, this center has trained over 14,000 in cross-cultural ministry, in practical and relevant cross-cultural and language acquisition skills. By using training methods that engage the mind, the heart, and the body, MTI avoids the traditional use of lecture-only presentations which usually go in one ear and out the other. Learning occurs in a community context and is designed for every member of the family, through the special training for both parents and their children. MTI also offers debriefing and renewal opportunities for those returning from the field.
H.E.A.R.T. Missionary Training Institute
For those heading to developing nations, H.E.A.R.T. offers a 15-week hands-on training ground that has students living in simple housing with no electricity and water. Participants will learn everything from basic technologies, to raising poultry, to sustainable gardening practices, to primary health care, to cross-cultural communication.
Global Mission Handbook: A Guide for Cross Cultural Service
by Steve Hoke & Bill Taylor
For those who wonder how to go about finding their next step in missions, there is no better book than this. It covers everything from a person's spiritual walk to schooling to courting mission agencies to hands-on training and provides pointed and helpful next steps to take.
To Timbuktu and Beyond: A Guide to Getting Started in Missions
by Marsha Woodard
Each year hundreds of Christians are joining the vast force of cross-cultural missionaries flung around the globe. To Timbuktu and Beyond serves as a practical, step-by-step guide for those getting ready to go into missions. It begins with the basic question of knowing and confirming your calling, working through the various steps of preparation, training and logistics, and carrying you through your first few months on the field.
Ask a Missionary: Time-Tested Answers from those Who've Been There
by John Mckay
Rather than just give people a how-to book, John McKay has gathered responses from over 100 missionaries regarding everything from choosing where to serve to picking an agency to avenues of training to fund raising to serving with a family and has given readers their answers in a concise easy to read book.
Mission Smart: 15 Critical Questions To Ask Before Launching Overseas
by David L. Frazier
"It costs a lot to train, send out, support and care for people in cross-cultural ministry; however, the costs are immeasurable when these workers don’t learn the language and culture well, fail to be effective and return home in trouble spiritually and emotionally. Mission Smart addresses serious gaps in the mission mobilization process and offers fresh solutions for seeing less missionary attrition. Mission Smart is for overseas ministry candidates, church leaders, and mission agency staff. The goal is to send the right people who know their callings, can thrive overseas and be effective in cross-cultural ministry."
Cultural Intelligence: A Guide to Working with People from Other Languages
by Brooks Peterson
Cultural intelligence is an asset that can be learned, and Brooks Peterson does an excellent job of showing the reader how. In addition to leading you to understand your own cultural style, Peterson explains how to better approach management, planning, communication, and reasoning issues with those of different cultures. If I were to give one book to people as an easy-to-read, practical primer to intercultural relationships, this would be it.
Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures
by Gert Jan Hofstede, Paul B. Pedersen, Geert Hofstede
Geert Hofstede's five dimensions of a culture present a great gird by which to compare one's home culture with the one they now find themselves in or heading to. Through excellent stories and exercises, the reader comes to understand how people from different cultures do far more than eat different foods and speak a different languages, they view the whole world differently.
Screams in the Desert
by Sue Eenigenburg
Participate in one woman’s cross-cultural journey and the lessons she learns along the way. Eenigenburg’s poignant and humorous accounts of trips to the zoo, bouts of illness, landmine fields, miscommunications, and other everyday experiences of life in a foreign country provide insight into issues that many women encounter in the mission field.
Writing Exceptional Missionary Newsletters: Essentials for Writing, Producing, and Sending Newsletters that Motivate Readers
by Sandy Weyeneth
Writing Exceptional Missionary Newsletters shows anyone who writes personal ministry newsletters how to captivate readers. The revised edition offers more ideas for better online communication like e-mail and Facebook. It shows how to increase your letter’s impact and provides tips for how often to send your newsletters, e-newsletters, and posts. It is for seasoned and new missionaries, church leaders, mission organizations, mission boards, and any person encouraging missionaries to communicate well.
Serving as Senders
by Neal Pirolo
Those who go and those who serve as senders are like two units on the same cross-cultural outreach team. Both are equally important. Both are dynamically integrated. Both are moving towards the same goal of the fulfillment of the Great Commission. And both are assured success, for those in God’s work are on a winning team. Serving as Senders helps you become part of that winning team.
Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence
by David A. Livermore
Those heading to the field long-term usually spend some time understanding the culture they are going to live in and are ready on some level for the cultural differences they will encounter. Short-termers, however, often just get on a plane and go. That's a pity because often that means that they will interpret what things in very skewed ways and them come home and share what they thought they saw. Livermore's books helps uncover some of the more common misunderstanding and sets up the short-termer for a much richer experience.
Holding the Rope: Short-Term Missions, Long Term Impact
by Clint Archer
"Holding the Rope gives an insightful look into the preparation, philosophy, and application of short term cross-cultural ministry. Archer addresses the issues with candor, humor, and most importantly, grace. He provides viable solutions to common problems, and encourages churches, pastors, and volunteers to adopt a biblical and practical approach for engaging in short term missions. 'Holding the rope' is more than a catchphrase. It articulates an entire philosophy of ministry. Christian missions is too daunting an enterprise to attempt alone, but the synergy of combined efforts can accomplish untold advancement for the kingdom of God. This book is a tool for those serving the servants, a guide and celebration of those who hold the ropes."
Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Kids
by David C. Pollock & Ruth Van Reken
If you are planning to take children overseas for the long haul or are bringing them back to your "home" culture, Third Culture Kids is perhaps the most important book you can read. TCKs are a special breed that bring with them special giftings and challenges that will shape the way they view and interact with the world for the rest of their lives. Understanding this as a parent or relative or even a friend is critical.
Preparing to Go
An easy to navigate website to help someone get started in the preparation process. Provides links and information about a number of preparation opportunities.
Perspectives on the World Christian Movement
This 15-week college level course is second to none in getting a foundations in missions. The course covers the biblical, historical, strategic, and cultural elements of missions and is taught by specialists in each area of study. Taught at dozens of locations around the United States (at 10 sites in Houston alone), this course has a high probability of changing the way you think for the rest of your life. To find a class near you, click on the link above.
INSIGHT
INSIGHT is an acronym for INtensive Study of Integrated Global History and Theology, and it is just that. Rather than treating each subject separately, students will study history, social sciences, world religions, missiology and theology in an integrated fashion. Affiliated with Trinity International University, this unique year of study provides the student with 36 hours of undergraduate credit, and is offered at four locations around the U.S.
World Christian Foundations
Just like INSIGHT, World Christian Foundations is an integrative program developed by those at the U.S. Center for World Missions that covers global history, theology, missiology, world religions, and even biblical languages. This a graduate program that is done fully at distance along side a qualified mentor.
Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies
If you are looking for training to minister in the Muslim world, the Zwemer Center provides a number of great graduate level courses and seminars. As part of Columbia International University, you can takes courses on campus and even complete an M.A. in Muslim Studies.
TOAG
TOAG stands for Training Ordinary Apprentices to Go and is a 10-month internship program that places teams of interns in walking distance to unreached people groups in the U.S. Participants don't earn any degrees or take any exams, but do those things they must do to survive and succeed overseas. This includes learning ways to personally treasure Jesus, building a repertoire of Jesus stories, meeting regularly with a team to reflect and grow, building relationships with unreached neighbors, testing contextually appropriate ways to share the gospel. The internship is done "after hours" to allow participants to maintain a normal job and requires about 15 hours a week.
Encountering the World (EWI) of Islam Course
Students in the EWI course learn experiences from around the Muslim world. The course has moved students around the US and beyond from an awareness of Muslims to sharing in God's compassion for them. EWI is a twelve-lesson course which combines typical learning assignments with experiential activities and on-line interactions for an integrated multi-disciplinary learning environment. Each course lesson is taught by a different Muslim or Christian expert. This course is engaging and life-changing as a result of the rich combination of methods of instruction. The course textbook itself has more than 80 authors providing a broad range of perspectives on Islam. The course is available at different locations around the US; in addition there is an online option.
Center for Intercultural Training
This North Carolina training center helps prepare both adults and children for cross-cultural service. Their full program involves nine weeks of training, but individual modules can be attended. Topics include stresses of moving overseas, culture shock, language learning techniques, conflict resolution skills, facilitating church planting movements, and spiritual formation.
Missionary Training International
Located in Colorado, this center has trained over 14,000 in cross-cultural ministry, in practical and relevant cross-cultural and language acquisition skills. By using training methods that engage the mind, the heart, and the body, MTI avoids the traditional use of lecture-only presentations which usually go in one ear and out the other. Learning occurs in a community context and is designed for every member of the family, through the special training for both parents and their children. MTI also offers debriefing and renewal opportunities for those returning from the field.
H.E.A.R.T. Missionary Training Institute
For those heading to developing nations, H.E.A.R.T. offers a 15-week hands-on training ground that has students living in simple housing with no electricity and water. Participants will learn everything from basic technologies, to raising poultry, to sustainable gardening practices, to primary health care, to cross-cultural communication.
Global Mission Handbook: A Guide for Cross Cultural Service
by Steve Hoke & Bill Taylor
For those who wonder how to go about finding their next step in missions, there is no better book than this. It covers everything from a person's spiritual walk to schooling to courting mission agencies to hands-on training and provides pointed and helpful next steps to take.
To Timbuktu and Beyond: A Guide to Getting Started in Missions
by Marsha Woodard
Each year hundreds of Christians are joining the vast force of cross-cultural missionaries flung around the globe. To Timbuktu and Beyond serves as a practical, step-by-step guide for those getting ready to go into missions. It begins with the basic question of knowing and confirming your calling, working through the various steps of preparation, training and logistics, and carrying you through your first few months on the field.
Ask a Missionary: Time-Tested Answers from those Who've Been There
by John Mckay
Rather than just give people a how-to book, John McKay has gathered responses from over 100 missionaries regarding everything from choosing where to serve to picking an agency to avenues of training to fund raising to serving with a family and has given readers their answers in a concise easy to read book.
Mission Smart: 15 Critical Questions To Ask Before Launching Overseas
by David L. Frazier
"It costs a lot to train, send out, support and care for people in cross-cultural ministry; however, the costs are immeasurable when these workers don’t learn the language and culture well, fail to be effective and return home in trouble spiritually and emotionally. Mission Smart addresses serious gaps in the mission mobilization process and offers fresh solutions for seeing less missionary attrition. Mission Smart is for overseas ministry candidates, church leaders, and mission agency staff. The goal is to send the right people who know their callings, can thrive overseas and be effective in cross-cultural ministry."
Cultural Intelligence: A Guide to Working with People from Other Languages
by Brooks Peterson
Cultural intelligence is an asset that can be learned, and Brooks Peterson does an excellent job of showing the reader how. In addition to leading you to understand your own cultural style, Peterson explains how to better approach management, planning, communication, and reasoning issues with those of different cultures. If I were to give one book to people as an easy-to-read, practical primer to intercultural relationships, this would be it.
Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures
by Gert Jan Hofstede, Paul B. Pedersen, Geert Hofstede
Geert Hofstede's five dimensions of a culture present a great gird by which to compare one's home culture with the one they now find themselves in or heading to. Through excellent stories and exercises, the reader comes to understand how people from different cultures do far more than eat different foods and speak a different languages, they view the whole world differently.
Screams in the Desert
by Sue Eenigenburg
Participate in one woman’s cross-cultural journey and the lessons she learns along the way. Eenigenburg’s poignant and humorous accounts of trips to the zoo, bouts of illness, landmine fields, miscommunications, and other everyday experiences of life in a foreign country provide insight into issues that many women encounter in the mission field.
Writing Exceptional Missionary Newsletters: Essentials for Writing, Producing, and Sending Newsletters that Motivate Readers
by Sandy Weyeneth
Writing Exceptional Missionary Newsletters shows anyone who writes personal ministry newsletters how to captivate readers. The revised edition offers more ideas for better online communication like e-mail and Facebook. It shows how to increase your letter’s impact and provides tips for how often to send your newsletters, e-newsletters, and posts. It is for seasoned and new missionaries, church leaders, mission organizations, mission boards, and any person encouraging missionaries to communicate well.
Serving as Senders
by Neal Pirolo
Those who go and those who serve as senders are like two units on the same cross-cultural outreach team. Both are equally important. Both are dynamically integrated. Both are moving towards the same goal of the fulfillment of the Great Commission. And both are assured success, for those in God’s work are on a winning team. Serving as Senders helps you become part of that winning team.
Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence
by David A. Livermore
Those heading to the field long-term usually spend some time understanding the culture they are going to live in and are ready on some level for the cultural differences they will encounter. Short-termers, however, often just get on a plane and go. That's a pity because often that means that they will interpret what things in very skewed ways and them come home and share what they thought they saw. Livermore's books helps uncover some of the more common misunderstanding and sets up the short-termer for a much richer experience.
Holding the Rope: Short-Term Missions, Long Term Impact
by Clint Archer
"Holding the Rope gives an insightful look into the preparation, philosophy, and application of short term cross-cultural ministry. Archer addresses the issues with candor, humor, and most importantly, grace. He provides viable solutions to common problems, and encourages churches, pastors, and volunteers to adopt a biblical and practical approach for engaging in short term missions. 'Holding the rope' is more than a catchphrase. It articulates an entire philosophy of ministry. Christian missions is too daunting an enterprise to attempt alone, but the synergy of combined efforts can accomplish untold advancement for the kingdom of God. This book is a tool for those serving the servants, a guide and celebration of those who hold the ropes."
Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Kids
by David C. Pollock & Ruth Van Reken
If you are planning to take children overseas for the long haul or are bringing them back to your "home" culture, Third Culture Kids is perhaps the most important book you can read. TCKs are a special breed that bring with them special giftings and challenges that will shape the way they view and interact with the world for the rest of their lives. Understanding this as a parent or relative or even a friend is critical.