The Road from Urbana

How can we help more get from here to there?

This month thousands of students are returning to their campuses from the Inter-Varsity triennial missionary convention at Urbana, Illinois. They came from all over the United States and Canada, as well as from other countries of the world. They came from Christian homes and non-Christian homes, from strong churches and weak churches, from many denominational and independent groups. At the convention thousands of them made a spiritual commitment; for many, it was a commitment to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.

The convention came at an opportune time, because a new wind is blowing, a wind of the Holy Spirit that promises to bring a new world consciousness to North American evangelicals. Young people are responding to the Spirit’s moving, and their response at Urbana was one indication of this. On many campuses students are banding together to study world needs, to pray for missionaries, to think about forming their own missionary teams, and to consider what it takes today to prepare for and actually launch a missionary career.

At Urbana, of course, there was a vivid demonstration of youth’s missionary enthusiasm. There were also many opportunities to counsel with missionaries and to take preparatory workshops on the wide variety of missionary vocations available. Meanwhile, there is a deep desire on the part of educators, missions leaders, and pastors to cultivate this enthusiasm, and to help young people face realistically how long the journey is from campus to mission field.

The students themselves in many cases will need to take the initiative to follow through on what they learned at Urbana. Those just beginning their education, as well as those in various graduate level institutions, will not find a clearly marked route to missions involvement. This is because schools differ in philosophies and programs, and missions agencies themselves have a variety of requirements in terms of education and experience. In addition, some young people grow up in churches with little or no missions vision, while others have the advantage of continual missions exposure and teaching in their churches.

Beginning at the level of the local church, we cannot assume that a young person with an interest in missions is convinced of the importance of placing his spiritual roots in the church. Therefore, the road to a missionary career must begin with membership and involvement in a local fellowship. Because of the unique temporary nature of college life, students and churches often find it useful to recognize two church homes. Many churches in college communities offer associate memberships to students.

The vital point here is that Christian young people need the support and encouragement of a local body of believers. When it comes to developing missions interest, a young person can gain much from regular counsel with someone on the pastoral staff, or with a wise layman who has both a passion for and an understanding of the missionary situation.

In this supporting, instructive context it is important for students and church leaders alike to have as their objective the opportunity to discover and develop one’s spiritual gifts. The local church offers the best proving ground for a subsequent career in missions. It may be while the young person is thus involved there will come the time when a definite commitment to a missionary career will be made. Neither young people nor church and missions leaders should be too hasty about this. There is always the chance that someone will volunteer out of enthusiasm, or even guilt, and in many cases such persons do not last long on the field.

On the other hand, in some cases students expect God to guide them rather mystically, without any concerted attempt on their part to ascertain God’s will regarding a possible missionary vocation. They may assume God somehow will get them to the field if they answer the “call.”

In such situations, counsel is needed to direct them to apply the same hard thinking to missions as they would to any other profession. They need to canvass the options, count the cost, survey the fields, read missionary literature, and get together with a missions study group on their campus. They will need the consistent cooperation and supervision of pastors and missionaries. Local church missions committees can help by taking such young people under their care and acting as the bridge between them and missions agencies.

During these crucial years between education and career, young people need constant guidance, because many who respond to missions enthusiasm fall by the wayside when they realize how tough it is to get to the field, fully prepared, trained, and qualified. Of course, the fires of spiritual zeal must be continually stoked—so that obedience to Christ remains foremost—but in addition, church and missions leaders will find it extremely valuable to raise certain basic questions along the way. I have outlined certain essential ones as follows:

1. Academic training. The right kind of undergraduate and graduate training is essential in missions preparation. This begins with the initial choice of an institution. But in many cases—because students today respond to Christ at various points in their college careers—changes have to be made. Wise, patient, loving counsel is needed. Sometimes it is assumed that if a missions career lies ahead, one should switch from a state university to a Bible institute or college, or perhaps to a Christian liberal arts college. This is not necessarily true.

Many missionary opportunities require graduates with the highest professional training. This should be the primary concern: What is required for me to do the job God wants me to do overseas? It is not a question of studying in a Christian atmosphere. On the other hand, young people need to know they cannot skimp on Bible training. They need to make allowance in their planning for at least a year of concentrated Bible study. Of course, if the missions vocation involves Bible and theology overseas, then one needs to plan for a full graduate course in those disciplines.

Mission boards also recognize that academic preparation in the social sciences is extremely valuable. Therefore, practical counsel for young people thinking about missions will include planning specific courses of study beyond the requirements of the student’s major field. In this category would come courses in sociology, communications, and anthropology. Many Christian graduate schools also offer master’s degrees in missiology, the science of missions.

2. Practical experience. Hand-in-glove with academic training must come actual experience in various Christian ministries. There is unlimited opportunity for youth today in this regard. The potential missionary cannot assume he is prepared when he receives his college or graduate degree. Local church leaders may find that students are too tied down to take on a heavy ministry assignment during the school year. For that reason, many churches provide special summer projects for witnessing, evangelism, teaching, and outreach in camps, migrant communities, and retirement centers.

The best part of practical experience is that which is gained with persons of a different culture. Here is where a summer overseas assignment has been of such great help to young people. Thousands are involved in many such projects. One need not go overseas, however. Central cities in the U.S. sorely need compassionate, courageous young people. Working in such places will often be an invaluable proving ground.

Again, young people need guidance in finding such opportunities. They also need financial support, because many take full-time summer jobs to pay college bills. Churches can help by setting aside special funds for student summer missionaries. The need is for planned and supervised experiences in various Christian ministries, to coincide with educational preparation.

3. Choosing a missionary vocation. There are two aspects to this difficult decision. One is the part of the world, the other is the sending agency. When these two matters are considered, the young person will find that his own vocational goals are being clarified. If one wants to teach overseas, for example, the choice is determined by countries where such opportunities exist and agencies that have such institutions. One cannot teach theology in Iran, but there are many graduate level institutions in other countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

The young missionary enthusiast needs to be prepared for the fact that adjustments are more often the rule than the exception. Flexibility and versatility are called for overseas, plus a willingness to start with less than the instant fulfillment of one’s career dreams. Young people are encultured with the American aggressiveness that in many cases doesn’t work overseas. Church and missions leaders recognize this as a potential problem and discuss it in their counseling of potential missionaries.

Many students start by looking at exact needs overseas. For one who wants to be a pioneer evangelist, this means studying everything you can find about people never reached with the gospel, and learning what it will take to accomplish that goal and start a church. Many young people think the world has already been evangelized and wrongly assume the whole task of missions today is either a mopping up exercise, or a job of training people in overseas churches.

After discovering specific needs among the unreached, as well as among the churches, the young person looks at various missions agencies. (In some cases, the process begins with the missions agency, which then informs the young person about needs overseas and the educational and practical preparation required.)

Here is where careful nurture is required, because young people are easily bewildered by the missions apparatus. If the Urbana convention proves anything, it is that the choice of a mission board is complicated by the fact that there are so many of them, both denominational and independent. The young person whose missionary call has been confirmed in the context of his church will find that the missions committee can give guidance about agencies that conform to the church’s doctrinal standards and financial policies. Those students who are not so fortunate have to start by writing across the country to dozens of missions agencies, and then studying their doctrines and policies. In such cases, the help of a pastor or an experienced layman is invaluable.

At this point, students need to be counseled toward looking at the big picture of missions. Education and experience are being gained, the church and the missions agencies are assisting and encouraging. In the process, the student will gain a clearer understanding of what the call to a missionary career involves: the continual refreshment and guidance of the Holy Spirit; dependence on God for physical and material needs; financial and prayer support at home; adjustment to culture overseas; willingness to work alongside national brothers and sisters, not as their superior but as a learner first, and always as a colaborer.

The more exposure a prospective missionary can have to veteran missionaries, the better. The more articles and books on missions studied, the more realistic will be an individual’s knowledge of missions. Youthful enthusiasm must be undergirded by hard-nosed realism. For example, if a young person has an emotional antipathy toward foreign languages, he or she ought to be warned that effectiveness as a missionary will be determined in large measure by language skills. For many missionaries, their careers began with two to four years of diligent language study. Many others, having been shifted from one country to another, find themselves learning a second language and taking four years to do it.

There is no excuse for church and missions leaders to give young people the impression that after something like an Urbana experience it’s a short, sweet, exciting trip to a missionary career. Rather, it may take from six to ten years of intense study and training. Even then, the best missionaries continue to study on furloughs and many take graduate degrees in such areas as missions, anthropology, or linguistics.

In the meantime, a student may find his interest waning. He may question or doubt God’s call when he finds out what is expected of him. He may decide he’s not up to it, and quit. That may not be a tragedy. On the other hand, it is a setback to Christ’s global cause when a young person is deflected from overseas service because church, school, and missions leaders have not taken the time and interest to work patiently, step by step, in giving educational, practical, and career guidance. The needs overseas are so pressing, and the interest among young people so growing, that adjustments need to be made in looking at the entire process of leading a college sophomore to a place of effective missionary service.

Working together, churches, educational institutions, and missions agencies can give the needed counsel and support. Much time and adequate financial resources will be required. But perhaps the chief requirement is priority. If young people’s missionary vision and interest are surging, where is the missionary vocation in the scale of priorities held by pastors, church leaders, and educators? To the degree that these persons are convinced God wants young people involved overseas, we will see more and more of them get there.

Books And Agencies For Those Considering A Missionary Career

BOOKS:

Stop the World, I Want to Get On. C. Peter Wagner (Regal).

Passport to Missions. W. Guy Henderson (Broadman).

The Making of a Missionary. J. Herbert Kane (Baker).

What in the World Is God Doing? Ted W. Engstrom (Word).

You Can Tell the World, a Mission Reader. James E. Berney (ed.) (InterVarsity).

World Missions Today. Terry Hulbert (Evangelical Teacher Training Association).

So That’s What Missions Is All About. Wade T. Coggins (Moody).

Winds of Change in the Christian Mission. J. Herbert Kane (Moody).

Give Up Your Small Ambitions. Michael Griffiths (InterVarsity).

Everything You Want to Know about the Mission Field. Charles Troutman (InterVarsity).

Myths about Missions. Horace L. Fenton (InterVarsity).

Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow. C. Peter Wagner (Regal).

What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Bolles (Ten Speed Press).

You Can So Get from Here to There. Edward R. Dayton (MARC).

American Cultural Patterns: A Cross-cultural Perspective. Edward C. Stewart (SIETAR, 107 MIB, University of Pittsburgh).

Language Acquisition. Made Practical. Thomas and Betty Sue Brewster (Lingua House).

The Gift Within You. Ray Stedman (Regal).

Discover Your Spiritual Gift and Use It. Richard Yohn (Tyndale).

AGENCIES:

Intercristo, P.O. Box 9323, Seattle, WA 98109.

Christian Service Corps, 1509 16th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036.

Evangelical Missions Information Service, P.O. Box 794, Wheaton, IL 60187.

Missions Advanced Research and Communication Center, 919 West Huntington Drive, Monrovia, CA 91016.

Association of Church Missions Committees, 1021 East Walnut Street, Suite 202, Pasadena, CA 91106.

Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, 1430 K Street, N.W., Washington. DC 20005.

Carl F. H. Henry, first editor of Christianity Today, is lecturer at large for World Vision International. An author of many books, he lives in Arlington, Virginia.

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