As the Head of the Department of Mission, this is a question that I am often asked. Many people I speak to are surprised to learn that over the last 20 years Moors College has consistently sent about 8% of its graduates directly into overseas mission fields. As many (like me) also go into overseas mission work after 5-10 years of Australian ministry experience, the actual percentage of College graduates serving overseas at any time is higher than that, and difficult to pin down. On top of this, almost every graduate of the College will go into a ministry context that is increasingly multi-cultural.
How do we prepare students for mission? Well, the main thing that we do to prepare people for mission is to ensure that they know God and continue to grow in their knowledge of God by hearing him speak through his word, in the fellowship of other believers. That is, the most important training that any missionary needs is exactly the same training that any Christian, and especially any Christian leader, needs. If a person can’t read, understand, teach and live consistently with the word of God in their own culture, we must be very sure not to send them somewhere else to try and do it there.
Many of the most formative elements of studying at Moore happen outside the classroom. A number of these things directly contribute to preparing students for mission. Most obviously, every year, every student, faculty member and chaplain goes on an 8-day mission trip together. This year we sent 14 teams—some overseas, interstate, to rural NSW and to a diversity of places around Sydney. Teams have to work together to navigate different socio-economic, linguistic, cultural and worldview contexts, to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus in ways that can be understood. See the report from the Solomon Islands mission this year for an example of what that is like (pp6-7).
Each year we also host a Mission Awareness Week, where representatives from a variety of Christian mission agencies come to the College to talk about their different ministries and opportunities. We intentionally pray for every nation in the world and encourage students to consider what role God might be calling on them to play in his great mission (see pp12-13). For two further weeks in the year, we host missionaries in residence. Missionaries speak at a variety of events, share meals with the students, and make themselves available to meet with anyone interested in exploring mission further. Beyond this, we regularly have international guests and missionary visitors to the College to meet with faculty and students.
One of the clearest formal ways in which we prepare students for mission is through the mission stream of the Advanced Diploma. Whether completed part-time over a longer period, or full-time in one year, this course meets the minimum requirements for theological training expected by most mission agencies. It is especially appropriate for students preparing for bi-vocational missionary roles like teachers and doctors and nurses. Specialised mission subject areas include cross-cultural communication, world religions, and mission history.
In our degree level courses, instead of having mission as one of a number of specialities that students might elect to focus on, we have embedded mission in the core of our curriculum, alongside other ministry. Indeed, all Christian mission is a form of ministry, or it is not really Christian. Likewise, all ministry should be working toward our heavenly Father’s missional goal of bringing all things under the feet of the Lord Jesus. This is why the Father sent the Son and why Jesus sends us into the world. By teaching ministry and mission together as a core element of all four years of study at Moore, we model the reality that commitment to the mission of God is no optional extra for followers of Jesus.
We teach cross-cultural discipleship in first year as a foundation for all Christian ministry. All ministry involves loving, serving and discipling people who are different to us. The tools of cross-cultural discipleship help us to understand and navigate some of the biggest and most obvious differences. We learn to listen well and resist jumping quickly to negative conclusions when we see or hear something that is different to what we expected. Understanding others well enables us to teach the Bible in ways that are more clearly understood. Application of biblical truth then pushes beyond clichés and platitudes to wrestle with what sin and righteousness might look like in any specific situation.
In third year, we explore ministry in a secular environment as a case study in cross-cultural engagement. This is especially challenging because it involves recognising and understanding our own cultural biases, and how they might be impacting our understanding of God’s word and our models of Christian ministry. It is always much easier to see how Christians in a culture different to ours might compromise or syncretise their faith, than it is to see our own distortions and errors.
We encourage students to develop ministry approaches from first principles, rather than to adopt particular models. This means that as graduates proceed into ministry, they should be equipped to take unchanging gospel principles and express them in culturally appropriate ways, wherever they are. For missionaries, this means that as they serve in a different part of the world, rather than importing their models and practices and habits and culture alongside the gospel, they will take time to explain the gospel and develop patterns of ministry that make the best sense in their new context.
Whether or not our graduates ever move postcodes, the culture around them will continue to change and we all need a missionary mindset to clearly proclaim the unchanging gospel of the Lord Jesus, to whoever he leads us to.
