Q: What major in university would be most helpful for missions?
A: Consider a degree in teaching, business, or humanities.
If you're looking into serving in a creative-access, limited-access, or closed country, a degree in teaching English as a second language is useful. Or, a degree in computer technology is useful, especially if it puts you into a teaching or entrepreneurial capacity. If you're looking into serving in a more open country as a traditional missionary, then anthropology or any degree in teaching can be quite helpful.
For someone eager to become a missionary, my agency can work with almost any university degree, including history, psychology, philosophy, and business. If you're studying at a secular school, then get involved with Christian campus groups and receive valuable ministry training.
Finally, I recommend taking a language at university. If you can take one language for four years, wonderful; two languages for two years each, almost as wonderful; or one language for two years, still good. You may never use that particular language overseas, but the practice of learning another language will assist you in whatever language you later will need to learn.
For someone eager to become a missionary, my agency can work with almost any university degree, including history, psychology, philosophy, and business. If you're studying at a secular school, then get involved with Christian campus groups and receive valuable ministry training.
Finally, I recommend taking a language at university. If you can take one language for four years, wonderful; two languages for two years each, almost as wonderful; or one language for two years, still good. You may never use that particular language overseas, but the practice of learning another language will assist you in whatever language you later will need to learn.
A: Get broadly trained in a field that interests you.
Here are three considerations to keep in mind as you evaluate the choice of a major:
1) University is more preparation of a person for life than necessarily as a training school for a job, though it certainly will help to orient and guide one. Thus, I would think that a helpful background for ministry or missions would be in the humanities, and probably as broad a selection as possible. Fields such as history, literature, psychology, anthropology (especially cultural anthropology), and perhaps even sociology prepare you to understand people, where they are coming from, and their basic ideas and needs. Particularly if you plan to go on to graduate school – either to a seminary or a more specialized M.A. level degree – I would encourage you to pick a major in one of the above fields, take the minimum courses required, then take lots of electives in the other fields.
My associate, a recent college graduate and the son of a missionary, upon reading my answer suggested the following: "A course in philosophy, art history (esp. non-western), cultural geography, political theory, macro-economics, urban theory or literature in translation from a different civilization. "
2) A second consideration would have to do with you as a person. What are your interests? and deepening your knowledge in this area may well prepare you for your future work. "Ministry" and "Mission" are broad fields. Exploring your interests in depth may well prepare you for the unique place God has made you for and is continuing to prepare you for.
3) A third, and often neglected, aspect would have to do not so much with a "major" as "exposure" as part of your preparation. I would strongly urge you to make friends with people who are different from you (other races, other cultures), participate in a mission trip, and get involved in ministry on campus. Learn how to develop your own spiritual life, how to share the Gospel, how to answer the tough questions, and how to help a new Christian grow. These are skills you'll be able to use all your life and there is no better place to learn them than right where you are! I'd encourage you to move into the dorms or some other incarnational evangelism position, where you can actually live with people you might not have chosen to be your friends, but can learn from them about where other people come from.
1) University is more preparation of a person for life than necessarily as a training school for a job, though it certainly will help to orient and guide one. Thus, I would think that a helpful background for ministry or missions would be in the humanities, and probably as broad a selection as possible. Fields such as history, literature, psychology, anthropology (especially cultural anthropology), and perhaps even sociology prepare you to understand people, where they are coming from, and their basic ideas and needs. Particularly if you plan to go on to graduate school – either to a seminary or a more specialized M.A. level degree – I would encourage you to pick a major in one of the above fields, take the minimum courses required, then take lots of electives in the other fields.
My associate, a recent college graduate and the son of a missionary, upon reading my answer suggested the following: "A course in philosophy, art history (esp. non-western), cultural geography, political theory, macro-economics, urban theory or literature in translation from a different civilization. "
2) A second consideration would have to do with you as a person. What are your interests? and deepening your knowledge in this area may well prepare you for your future work. "Ministry" and "Mission" are broad fields. Exploring your interests in depth may well prepare you for the unique place God has made you for and is continuing to prepare you for.
3) A third, and often neglected, aspect would have to do not so much with a "major" as "exposure" as part of your preparation. I would strongly urge you to make friends with people who are different from you (other races, other cultures), participate in a mission trip, and get involved in ministry on campus. Learn how to develop your own spiritual life, how to share the Gospel, how to answer the tough questions, and how to help a new Christian grow. These are skills you'll be able to use all your life and there is no better place to learn them than right where you are! I'd encourage you to move into the dorms or some other incarnational evangelism position, where you can actually live with people you might not have chosen to be your friends, but can learn from them about where other people come from.
A: Major in teaching and minor in missions.
While some countries do indeed discriminate against missionaries with ministry degrees, that background and in-depth study of the Word and effective ministry is invaluable. So how do you reconcile the two? Go to a college that turns out ministers and also offers degree in other areas, including the area that you want, or feel directed to be used in. For example my wife and I both graduated from Bible colleges with the equivalent of at least minors in Bible and ministry. But our majors are in history and English. We are going into our mission field as teachers.
A: Major in something "marketable" and minor in intercultural/international studies or missions.
Another aspect to this question is the issue of managing debt or student loans. Increasingly I see many young people who have a clear call to missions but a prohibitive level of debt. So another aspect of determining a "major" that would fit well with a cross-cultural missions future is to consider a major that would provide a "marketable skill." I encourage candidates to major in something "marketable" and minor in something more cross-cultural.
