THE POTENTIAL VALUE OF
SHORT-TERM MISSIONS AS PREPARATION
FOR LONG-TERM CROSS-CULTURAL
MINISTRY AND SERVICE:
A case study of the internship program of Northwestern College
By
Garry R. Morgan and John F. Easterling,
Northwestern College, Saint Paul,
Minn.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to use the internship
program of Northwestern College as a case
study to illustrate the potential value of short-term missions as preparation
for longer-duration cross-cultural
ministry/service.
Undeterred by terrorism, fuel costs and other
obstacles, short-term mission continues to grow. So many people make short-term trips each year that even counting
them all has become difficult. An EMQ article in October, 2000 estimated
450,000 short termers sent from North America
(Slimbach 441). Roger Peterson, of STEM Ministries, gives a figure of 2.2
million short termers for 2006 (2007).
Individuals, married couples and teams, going on
their own or sent by churches, schools and agencies (including many agencies
dedicated exclusively to short-term mission) swell the ranks of what has become
a multi-billion dollar industry. Although there is not an official standard, today anything between one week and one
year is usually considered a short-term trip. By contrast, when I first went to Kenya as a recent college graduate in
1974, short-term mission was 1-3
years (now usually re-named mid-term) and terms of service less one year were
rare. Common destinations include
inner-city United States, Native American reservations and near neighbor Mexico, but also reach remote and/or
restricted access countries such as Cuba, Mongolia and Bhutan and everywhere in between. There is probably no
country on earth untouched by
short-term missions, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Myanmar.
Twenty-five years ago, nearly half of all
short-termers went on to serve long-term. As the numbers of
short-termers has swelled, that percentage has plummeted (Corwin, et al 279).
Not only has short-term missions declined as
a recruiting tool, it has become a vaccinator of thousands who might otherwise be infected with the long-term bug. In
addition, many who return from trips as short as one week now consider
themselves experts on all things missiological. Consider the following letter:
Dear Mom,
It’s the last day of our
missions trip, and I thought I would write you while everything is still fresh
on my mind. You had asked me about culture shock, but I don’t think I’ve really
experienced any because we spent such a brief time here.
I am really tired, though, from having to listen extra
hard to figure out what people are saying
to me...even when they are speaking English. It usually takes awhile for them to understand what I am saying too.
The
missionaries were nice, but I had a hard time understanding how they can have a
maid...I mean, that
seems kind of unbiblical, doesn’t it? The missionaries seem to work
Internship Program of Northwestern
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really slow. They haven’t seen a lot of results in their
ministry, but we sure did! We asked people
to come forward at an outreach service in the park, and everyone did!
It was hard to see how little many of the national
Christians lived on. We have so much! I
gave one of the pastors some money, but he wouldn’t take it. That kind of
ticked me off... I was just trying to
help! I also invited my host family to come visit this year. I’d probably have to pay for their tickets, but it
sure would be fun to show them how we do things here. I’m sure they could learn a lot about the way we do ministry
and the resources available.
One of the girls my age wanted to
write me, so I gave her my address. I spent a lot of time talking with
her, and we became pretty good friends. It’s amazing how much you have in common with someone from another culture!
I hope we can keep in touch.
I’m so glad for this opportunity to come here. I’ll try
to call you once I’m home and send
you some of the photos which explain things better.
Love,
John
Much
has been written about both the pros and cons on this explosion of North Americans into other places and cultures (Friesen
448-454). The purpose of this paper is to consider the potential value of short-term missions as preparation for
longer-duration cross-cultural
ministry/service, and specifically, as internship for academic programs in
Intercultural Studies/Missions.
Agencies today are often reluctant to appoint a long-term
applicant who has not had at least one short-term experience.
Clearly it is assumed that these experiences in some way help prepare
people for more effective long-term service. Following in this train, schools
send students off on any number of short-term trips and
grant internship credit for the experience. How do they know what is actually
being modeled and learned through these experiences? One of
my faculty colleagues in Christian Education constantly reminds students of
Howard Hendricks’ words, “Practice doesn’t make perfect.
Practice makes permanent.”
It is not that all short-term experiences are bad. Indeed
many have been used by God to motivate, raise awareness and
even help train cross-cultural workers. The same is true for various study-abroad
programs, many of which are also accepted by institutions of higher learning as
internship for Intercultural Studies programs. Some of
these programs are excellent, such as HoughtonCollege’s
Semester in Tanzania (Arensen 14-19), and some share similar goals to internship programs, but most are not designed to
develop skills in cross-cultural ministry. The question is “How can an
educational institution ensure that internship goals are being met by the short-term programs their students utilize?”
Internships are intended to allow students to apply classroom learning in real-life situations.
Webster’s Dictionary defines an intern as “An advanced student or
graduate, usually in a professional field, gaining supervised practical experience” (598) Ideally, in addition to skill
development, additional learning takes place, plus a growing comfort-level in carrying out expected
tasks. In order to do so, the activities being practiced should reinforce the principles taught in the classroom.
THE CRITERIA FOR
AN EXCELLENT INTERNSHP PROGRAM
A very real limitation on internship learning in the
academic context is time. Internships are rarely more than one semester, and
often even shorter. Although it is recognized that the
Internship Program of Northwestern
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cross-cultural
worker continues to learn throughout her ministry (after 18 years in Kenya I
was still learning new insights and skills), it is still desirable that
internship opportunities be as effective as
possible in preparing people to serve cross-culturally.
In
order to do this well, Inter-Cultural Studies internships should:
1.
Be preceded by extensive training appropriate to the
trip.
2. Engage
in real, legitimate cross-cultural ministry tasks.
3. Do
so by coming alongside effective long-term ministries.
4. Deal
with current trends and issues in mission, e.g. team dynamics.
5.
Provide positive models
(although it is recognized one can also learn from negative examples).
6. Provide
relational mentoring.
7. Reinforce
classroom learning.
8.
Provide an accurate means of
evaluation, both for practical learning and academic assessment.
9.
Conclude with thorough debriefing and re-entry
preparation.
The above would be challenging even if one had unlimited
time and funds available. Since this is rarely, if ever,
the case at Christian institutions of higher learning, compromises are required. However, even
with these limitations, quality internships can be designed. While certainly not perfect, nor the only way to carry
this out, Northwestern College’s Intercultural Studies internship program will now be outlined as a case study for trying
to effectively meet these criteria.
CASE STUDY OF
INTERNSHP AT NORTHEWESTERN COLLEGE
JOHN: Thirty-three years ago when my wife and I were
finishing our degrees in seminary, we applied to a mission
agency only to be told to work in a church for a few years prior
to going overseas. My wife had previously served for a summer in Africa as a
short-term worker, but I didn’t even own a
passport. Two years later we completed the full application with the
same mission and received an appointment to serve overseas and made it to
France 18 months later for our first 4 1/2
year term. Our first term was so different from those of new missionary
recruits today for we had very little overseas exposure and had a true baptism
in cultural immersion, compared to new missionary
recruits today who often have extensive short-term mission experience from
their youth.
During our second term we developed a Summer Seminarian
Internship in partnership with Denver Seminary for
academic credit where I served as Adjunct. Our participants came for three
months of language study, working with missionaries, and a children’s camping
experience
Internship Program of Northwestern
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in the Alps. Three
couples who came over the first two summers came back for a long-term
commitment to missions in France. In 1988, when God led my wife and me to
Northwestern College, we hoped that we could
be a part of the training of future generations of missionaries to the
world.
The
Cross-cultural Ministries major was started in the mid-1980s at Northwestern College. The program included an internship as a
part of the major, but the actual internship for the major developed over a process of trial and error with early
attempts including several two week summer trips to Haiti, Belize, Ireland, and
Honduras and a three week trip to Ireland and the United Kingdom. These trips
were planned and supervised by various faculty including Communications, Spanish, Cross-cultural
Ministries and Christian Education. These short-term mission trips were labeled
as an overseas internship, but the training and preparations were very limited and the debriefing was far too casual
when it existed at all.
1996 brought the first attempt at a supervised
internship integrated into the school year. This included nineteen students, a faculty member and a seventy-nine
year-old retired missionary toIndia.
After three packed weeks of course preparation with one professor teaching a
Missions History class with an
emphasis on William Carey’s India, and a Social Stratification course again focused on American, English, and Indian class
structures. Then after a two week break for the Christmas holidays, the team went out for seven weeks including a few
days in England, five weeks across India, one day in Narita, Japan and a
week in Hawaii for and R & R and a very short debriefing. Although the
planning was not stellar, and the difficulties were endless, the participants survived with alumni of the
internship graduating and going on to live and minister in England, Hungary, Germany, Uganda, Pakistan,
India, China, and Japan.
On the first internship the school had invested a
portion of the student’s tuition to finance the trip. After denying future tuition subsidies, Northwestern College
reluctantly sent out a second team
of 20 students in January, 1998 to England, France, India, Thailand, Japan, and
Hawaii with a great deal more
preparation and the Intercultural Studies Internship was finally established. Over July and August that same year,
sixteen students, a professor and college staff member led a trip to
Israel and South Africa with equal success. By the fall of 1999, the Intercultural Internship became established in
its present format.
GARRY: Today the NWC internship trip is an 8
semester hour, two-month overseas short
term mission trip during the second half of the Fall semester that is
integrated with 8 credits of
preparation courses and team building during the first half of the semester.
The team of 16-20 students is chosen
by application in January, nine months prior to the trip. The team begins to meet
weekly during the Spring semester prior to the trip for prayer, initial
team-building and fund raising. The College
currently provides approximately 25% of the funding needed. Although raising
the remainder of the funding is challenging, it is an overall part of the internship experience, since many of the
participants will be raising support for long-term ministry after graduation.
Preparation courses include general mission
principles and practices; cultural sensitivity; trip-specific background
on the cultures and countries to be visited; ministry skills such as
testimonies, trans-cultural dramas, songs (often in the local languages) and
extensive team-building.
The itinerary varies each year, but generally tries to
involve students in three or four different
cultures (usually, though not always, in different countries) along with different
types
Internship Program of Northwestern
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of
ministries (ranging from teaching to evangelism to construction projects) and
partnerships with different types of
organizations (both U.S. and international mission agencies, national churches, etc.). While
it is a tradeoff with greater depth in one location, it provides two advantages: 1) all students on the team have the
opportunity to use their gifts, if not in every place, at least in one; and 2) students are able to compare different
types of organizations and ministries
and assess which they might best fit with on a long-term basis.
Since most sending agencies today are utilizing
teams rather than sending out the traditional
Lone Ranger missionary, this approach to internship stresses team dynamics and ministry, both in pre-trip preparation and during
the internship. Students have to learn to live with others 24/7 for two months. They also have opportunities to
develop leadership skills in small group settings throughout the trip.
A professor serves as one of the leaders for the
team, along with a co-leader of the opposite
gender. While granting teaching load to the professor is a sacrifice on the
College’s part, the advantage of
having someone along who knows what has been covered in the curriculum and can reinforce key lessons as they unfold during
the trip is invaluable to the learning experience. Involving the professor in the trip planning helps
ensure that appropriate learning objectives are designed into the internship.
Finally, extensive debriefing and re-entry is
carried out prior to the team’s return home. Follow up activities keep the teams connected, and members of previous
teams help in orienting new team
members for future internship trips.
CONCLUSION
This approach to utilizing short-term mission for
intercultural studies internship is labor-intensive, but Jesus’ example
of disciple-making goes far beyond classrooms or weekly Bible studies. By God’s grace, the results have produced
a number of graduates serving in many places around the world, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Indonesia,
among others. Graduate studies, which
often follow a mid-term experience of one or more years, have included law school (focusing on international justice),
TESOL, community development, Biblical counseling and theology.
Short-term
work, whether two weeks or two years, can indeed be effective and pleasing to God. Yes, it can cost a lot of money, disrupt
nationals and missionaries, encourage short-term thinking, and inoculate some against career missions involvement. But
done well, it can open participants’
eyes to the sometimes gritty realities of the world, make them aware of their
own ethno-centrism and the gifts and courage of non-Western believers, and
spark a lifelong
commitment
to missions. In the best cases, some real kingdom work gets done, too (Stan
Guthrie, quoted in Corwin, et al 191).
WORKS CITED
Arensen, Jonathan. “Lessons Learned in Africa.” Evangelical
Missions Quarterly Jan. 2007: 14- 19.
Internship Program of Northwestern College 6
Corwin, Gary R., McGee, Gary B., and A. Scott Moreau. Introducing
World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey.
Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.
Friesen, Randy. “The Long-term Impact of Short-term
Missions.” Evangelical Missions Quarterly Oct. 2005: 448-454.
Peterson, Roger. Address to IFMA/EMS, September
28, 2007
Slimbach, Richard. “First, do no harm: Short-term
missions at the dawn of a new millennium.” Evangelical
Missions Quarterly Oct. 2000: 428
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield,
Mass: G & C Merriam Company, 1979.
THE INTERCULTURAL STUDIES
INTERNSHIP PROGRAM OF
NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE, 1996 TO PRESENT
To
date there have been about 220 students participate on 12 Intercultural Studies
Internships from Northwestern College.
Year |
Month |
Weeks |
Leader |
Countries |
1996 |
Jan–Feb |
7 |
Easterling |
England, India, Japan, Hawaii |
1998 |
Jan–Feb |
8 |
Easterling |
England, India, Thailand, Japan, Hawaii |
1998 |
July-Aug |
7 |
Easterling |
Israel, South Africa |
1999 |
Oct-Dec |
8 |
Easterling |
England, France, India, Thailand, Malaysia,
Hawaii |
2000 |
July-Aug |
7 |
Easterling |
Israel, Amsterdam 2000 |
2000 |
Oct-Dec |
8 |
Easterling |
England, India, Thailand, Malaysia, China,
Hawaii |
20011 |
Oct-Dec |
8 |
Morgan |
Belgium,
England, Canada, Hawaii |
20022 |
Oct-Dec |
9 |
Easterling |
Los Angeles., Japan, S. Korea, China, India, Thailand,
Singapore, Hawaii |
20033 |
Oct-Dec |
8 |
Easterling |
France, Romania |
|
|
|
Morgan |
South Africa Mozambique |
20044 |
Sept-Dec |
15 |
Morgan |
(and Mathiesen Teaching in Ecuador) |
|
|
|
Easterling |
Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Trinidad, Puerto Rico |
2005 |
Oct-Dec |
8 |
Morgan |
England, Romania, South Africa, Mozambique |
2006 |
Oct-Dec |
9 |
Easterling |
Japan, China, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hawaii |
2007 |
Oct-Dec |
8 |
Morgan |
Kenya, Tanzania, Romania, Amsterdam, England |
1 Following 9/11 the itinerary was greatly changed due to terrorist
threats.
2 There were three sponsors with 22 students.
3 This trip was co-led by Easterling in Europe and Morgan in Africa.
4 This was an entire semester with 4 weeks of
academic work in Quito taught by two different faculty consecutively followed by 11 weeks of internship.
Internship Program of Northwestern
College 7
About the Authors
Garry R. Morgan and his wife Connie served for 18 years
with WorldVenture in Kenya. He earned his Doctorate in Missiology from Western
Seminary in Portland, Oregon and has taught atNorthwestern College since 1999
where he is currently an Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies. He recently served as department chair of the
Christian Ministries Department.
Garry has a daughter, Kristina, who is a senior at Northwestern College and
will be participating on the 2007
internship to Africa and Europe.
John F. Easterling and his wife Kathleen served for 11
years with WorldVenture in France. He earned his Doctorate
in Ministry from Fuller Seminary and his Doctorate in Missiology
fromTrinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is a Professor of Intercultural
Studies at Northwestern College since 1988. John has two
daughters, Sarah and her son of Roseville, MN and
Miriam of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.