Forged for the Frontlines: We Don't Know What We Don't Know

Criteria #2: A Learner’s Attitude

‍A fruitful missionary is someone who exhibits a hunger and thirst for learning and growing in wisdom in all areas of life. They are able to humbly learn from teachers, peers, people in the community, and books.

We’ve all been in the room with “that guy” who already knows everything and has done it all. When some bit of knowledge, information or experience is shared, he knows a better way or had an even better experience and is more than happy to tell you about it. While this attitude is annoying in any context  when it appears on the mission field it can be deadly!

The posture of being a learner, like so many other things, isn’t developed on the flight overseas. People don’t get off the plane and instantly develop the skills necessary to take in everything around them, especially from unlikely people and places.

For those of us in leadership this attitude can be easy to miss. Most people in missions are happy to learn from some – usually pastors, teachers, or those seen as having something to offer. But this doesn’t give us a good picture of the humility necessary to learn from everyone. We must assess whether a missionary candidate is able to interact with people seen as having less to offer, or even the needy. Children, the aged, and those on the fringe of society all have something to offer, especially in the context of learning language and culture.

Learning in Language and Culture

I remember when we first moved to Mexico and were learning Spanish. We put our three children in local Mexican schools. We all struggled to learn the language in different ways. It quickly became obvious to my wife and me that our children were learning a different language than us. As adults we didn’t have access to a wide range of vocabulary and cultural understanding that our children did. We soon found ourselves having to ask our children about language and how to put things together and learn from them how they were understanding the things that we meant to communicate.

We must be willing and eager to learn from those that we don’t naturally gravitate to. The reality is that for many years a missionary will have nothing to offer their host people. We know this from our own experiences. Not many of us gravitate toward and are eager to spend time with people that don’t speak our language and invite them to our homes. It will take years to get to the point where a missionary offers any relational value. This will take building intentional relationships with people that go beyond the superficial exchanges of vocabulary.

Because of books, movies, education, and even the ability to travel internationally, many of us feel “culturally savvy.” These resources do give us insights into different religions and basic cultural models, but many missionaries have assumed these resources provide all that is necessary in order to truly understand the culture of their target people. But if we don’t learn from the culture and language ourselves, our relationships become transactional and we lose the ability to truly know and understand the people we are ministering to, even if our motive was an urgency to share the gospel. Proverbs 18:13 tells us that this is foolish: “he that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him." Duane Elmer, noted author on the subject, says it this way,

Refusing to be a learner is a real danger. It means that while we are in another culture, we think we know everything necessary to accomplish our task. Interaction with local people is reduced to getting the job done rather than learning more from them and becoming increasingly wise in understanding local realities. Instead, our brief exchanges become mutual monologues. We live mostly detached from local people, periodically reattaching for the pursuit of our goals.

Learning on Teams

Perhaps more than any other area, it’s among teams where we see people struggle with a learner’s attitude. Teams are made up of men, women, married people with children, and singles. The reality is that all of these people bring value and experience to the team. But their value and experience isn’t always easily visible. It takes intentional investigation and a willingness to get to know people in order to bring their value and experiences to bear. When this isn’t done two common situations often arise:

1. Teams miss out on the experience and expertise of the lesser-known quantities. Today’s missionary teams are no longer a lone preacher and his wife living among remote tribes where the people are eager to have them present among them. Teams now often require legitimate businesses and reasons for being in the country other than missionary activity. The best teacher on the team may not be the person that is good at business. It may be that single lady or mom who has the skills necessary for the business to succeed.

2. Single women on the team are run over by their teammates because they don’t take the time to investigate how the single women perceive situations.

Learning and the Gospel

The main task of a missionary is to communicate the gospel in such a way that it is in direct conflict with a person’s worldview. This assumes that the gospel proclaimer knows and is skilled in many things. They must not only know the language at an adult fluency and be able to converse fluidly through a wide variety of topics, but they must also have an intimate understanding of how the hearer is receiving the message in the context of their understanding of how the world works (their worldview).

For this to happen, the missionary must be learning on purpose! No greater example exists than the Lord Jesus who took on flesh to show us what it means to be a true worshiper of the One True God. His life not only provided the merit necessary to be righteous before God, it taught us what it means to live humbly, to love others, and to serve sacrificially.    

Conclusion

One of our favorite phrases at Radius is, “We don’t know what we don’t know.” Nothing could be truer of a missionary. A gospel worker has to live both intentionally and humbly because the simple fact is that no amount of preparation prior to arriving in the target language group will teach you those things. This is true for both the task that we seek to accomplish and the people we wish to accomplish it with.

‍This is Part 3 of “Forged for the Frontlines.”

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