Wanting to be a missionary and thinking about going to seminary? Think again.
The road to becoming a foreign missionary is oddly vague sometimes. How do those “called” people go from a pew to places like Japan or Papua New Guinea? What are the steps? How do you prepare?
One question you might have might be whether or not to go to seminary.
If you’re reading this article, I’m going to assume that you are an aspiring missionary, so much of this article will be addressed directly to you. By aspiring I mean guys who want to serve on the foreign field who may currently be in Bible college or are currently raising support. If you’re on deputation, you’re not serving on the field yet so you get lumped in with the aspirants. 🙂
First, let’s dive into some common reasons why aspiring missionaries think they ought to go to seminary and why those reasons are probably not good enough.
It seems like the next logical step
This is probably the scariest reason. Aspiring missionaries often lack input from people actually doing missionary work. When considering your options in preparing for a specific field, wouldn’t the FIRST people you should ask be people who are actually doing the work?
How many seasoned missionaries have you consulted with about going to seminary as part of your preparation for the field? If the answer is 1 or none, you’ve got some homework to do.
While you will need training, a seminary degree isn’t necessarily the best way to get training to be a missionary.
Your friends are going
Chances are, you might have some godly, Jesus-loving friends that you spend time with in Bible college. Many of them want to be pastors. If that is how God is directing their lives, then that is wonderful. However, not all ministry opportunities require the same preparatory steps.
Even the pastorate requires more than a degree. This is why often people take associate pastor positions when they are fresh out of school. It provides the hands-on experience of learning church administration and more practical aspects of ministry that you can’t obtain when parsing Greek verbs.
Your professor says you should go
Many times, Bible colleges present seminary as the next step to going into full time ministry. While it may be true that some need it, in general, people benefit from learning when they understand the practical application of the concepts they are learning. If you go to seminary right after Bible college, you end up cheating yourself because you don’t make all the connections and argue with your buddies (and teachers) about finer points of theology.
Your pastor thinks you should go to seminary
This is a touchy area. I will tread lightly.
Without overstepping the authority of the local church, I would like to ask the following:
Is your pastor recommending a seminary degree just because he has one and he thinks everyone in ministry should have one? While my scope is limited, younger pastors (30’s~40’s) might be more prone to recommend seminary to aspirants.
If your pastor is not well versed in foreign missions, I would recommend you and your pastor both contact missionaries who are actively serving and ask for their input as you prayerfully decide what to do.
It could be that your pastor knows exactly what he is doing and thinks you need to go to seminary. If that is the case, please do what your pastor recommends.
What you really need
While it may sound like I am a seminary hater, that is not the case.
What I am trying to say is that it has a time and place, and that for missionaries headed to the field, it isn’t the right time and place.
Here is a short list of skills and qualifications you will definitely need. As you read each one, think about whether seminary (and only seminary) is the only way to pursue each point.
A walk with God
Unfortunately, many who obtain professional theological training obtain much head knowledge without a proper heart response to the truths of scripture. When you arrive on the mission field, you can’t show up like it is a day off in the barracks. Soldier, this is war. The enemy and all of his cronies will do everything they can do discourage and defeat you. You are on their turf.
The only thing that will get you through these times is if you are actually walking with God. No number of letters behind your name will do you any good.
Your walk with God will include faith in and fear of God in addition to active reliance on the Holy Spirit.
A seminary degree might make you seem more spiritual to some laypeople, but the devil is not fooled. He knows the chinks in your armor and will exploit every single one of them. You will only prevail by the power of the Holy spirit.
Are you walking with God? How do you know? What is the evidence? Are you qualified to be a pastor/elder according to the Bible?
A Biblical Theology
As you teach and explain the Bible to people, you will need to have a proper framework for how God has been working throughout history. Can you explain this?
This is one area that seminary MIGHT be helpful. But a proper Bible survey coupled with reading the Bible through multiples times from cover to cover will probably do the trick.
Practical ministry experience
Some of this can be obtained in your home country. The rest needs to be done on the field. How do you evangelize the lost? What about making inroads into the community?
Any seminary that is worth its salt is going to pair you up with a church anyway. Why not jump in where you are right now? The problems and messes that happen in a local church are what will help push you to understand God’s grace in people’s lives. It is this kind of knowledge that you need when taking the Gospel to people who are far from God. If you see and experience it first-hand, it will do your long-term ministry wonders.
Relationship building skills
Many in the U.S. have had the privilege of growing up in a church setting. Even if you did not, chances are that it might have been some time since you actively went out and worked at befriending people who don’t know Jesus.
When you arrive on the mission field, what do you think you will need to do? You guessed it! You will need to befriend people who don’t know Jesus.
Seminary tends to pull people away from everyday life and put them in classes and classrooms. This means you have even less time working on connecting with people who don’t know Jesus.
If you are already on deputation raising support, your time is even more limited. Your full-time job is raising financial support (can be done in 2 years or less – I did it, you can too). While you will spend much of your time traveling, what about the other time? Since time is precious, you need to work at reaching the people that are right where you are through relationship building.
Do you know what people’s objections are to the Gospel? Do you have a general roadmap in your head of what it takes for someone who has no proper concept of who God is to come to faith in Jesus?
Do you know these things by reading a book or by experiencing them?
Language and culture
This might be a no-brainer, but you have to communicate with people to be a missionary. This starts with learning the language and culture of the country you go to.
Can you tell me how your M.Div. is going to help you in this area?
When you go to a foreign mission field, you essentially need a master’s degree in that language and culture. You have to know how those people think and what causes them to feel the way they do.
In essence you need to be able to hear the heartbeat of the people. When you listen closely, you will hear the hurts and struggles, that they carry.
Here’s the problem, to hear a heartbeat, you have to be close. And you can’t be “close” to people on the other side of the world if you’re in a classroom (or taking online classes for that matter).
Additionally, you will need to “unlearn” many things about your own culture and way of thinking. What we consider “normal” can be seen as odd or even evil when viewed from an outside cultural perspective.
For example, Japan is very much a group-oriented culture. People know how to talk, act, and respond to keep things smooth. Japan and The United States are on opposite extremes of the sociological individual vs group-oriented spectrum.
I think Japanese people tend to preserve group harmony to a fault, but Japanese people typically believe that Americans are too individualistic to a fault. What Americans might view being expressive and self-assertive as generally positive features, Japanese would look at the same qualities and see selfishness and lack of consideration.
You have to be around the people in the proper context to fully understand what is going on. Even hanging out around expats from that country isn’t enough because many of them are cultural outliers that hold to thought patterns and mannerisms that are not in line with the mainstream of their native culture (Japanese people who have been in the US for a while will start to act more like an American when they are around their American friends).
The only way to know what the hushed whispers and glances mean is to be around them and experience them. The sooner the better. Seminary is going to keep you away from these experiences longer and delay your progress for now.
Is your face set like a flint?
I hope that the tone of this article does not come across as harsh or disrespectful. I do believe that there may be a time and place for missionaries to further their education and better equip themselves for Gospel ministry.
However, as I look out of my window and see the high-rises, I can only wish to get more boots on the ground for the sake of the Gospel. I want to see young men succeed in their work and ministry and I want to see as many people as possible reached with the Gospel here in Japan.
You can probably get a seminary degree after you have spent some time on the field. At that point, all that you learn will be in light of your field experience and how it will specifically apply to your situation. It will probably be 10x more valuable to you then.
So if you’re an aspiring missionary who is on the fence about going to seminary, please don’t.
Now it’s time to set your face like a flint and head to the field.
Instead of going to seminary, get to the field. We need more workers.