If you go back 50 years, it seems like if a young Christian person wanted to work internationally, they would have grown up in one church, heard missionaries come to speak, ‘received the call’ or became interested to go and be a missionary. They would have no short-term experience. They would then get a degree in Missions at a Bible College, plug in with their denominational mission agency (or a highly reputable one) and off they go to be a ‘career missionary’ for life, supported by their home church, family and friends.
Now, kids will most likely grow up going to a number of different churches, due to our transient culture or dissatisfied/restless parents, become interested in International Affairs through the media, will have had one or multiple short-term experiences, possibly go to a Christian College to get a degree in Intercultural Studies or Global Ministries, and then not know where to go next. They will have large student loans, not have a support base to raise funds from for traditional mission agencies, but also not have the right education/experience to be hired by any paying Agency . . . Christian or otherwise. They are directionless and don’t know where to go from there. Also, YWAM and one year international programs are becoming ever popular for the experience, but alone still don’t provide what it takes to have a career/ministry in international work. As a result, young people join small, non-traditional agencies or start up their own work. They go to visit an orphanage and stay on for a while, go teach EFL for a year, etc. There is more living for the immediate than planning for the long term. This isn’t necessarily good or bad – it just is . . . but it’s more confusing, messy and frustrating than how it’s been done in the past.
Back to the Church, the Agency and the Academic Institution: I used to think the Christian Colleges needed to pull it together to provide a product (student) that was marketable for international work/ministry, but I’ve changed my thinking. FACT: the Church is becoming more independent and wanting to take back what the agencies are doing up because church people are bored in the pews and bored with in-house programs. The Agency asks the Church for money and their people, and the Church is no longer willing to give those up. The Christian Colleges have an extreme challenge to develop students ready for professional productivity in the international career/ministry path as the Church and the Agency figure out how they are going to work together.
In my opinion, the Church needs to ask the Agency for help to get up to speed on how to do the work they gave up to the Agency a long time ago. The Agency needs to do a 180 degree turn and rather than ask and take from the church – now give back to the Church and pass on their knowledge and expertise. This might cause the doors of many agencies to close – but that’s OK. The Agencies are just tools to get the job done anyway . . . the Church is what’s most important, so serve and build into it so it can do what it was intended to in the first place. When the Church and Agency figure this out – the Christian Colleges will be able to give better training and direction to their students.
The system is currently messy, but that’s OK because as it sorts itself out, the result is going to be more dynamic, global, interactive and relevant to a world in need of knowing Jesus.
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