What perspective should I take towards missions training?
What types of training should I consider?
Can I become a missionary if I don’t want to learn another language?
» more related questionsQ: What major in university would be most helpful for missions?
A: Consider teaching, business, etc.
If you are looking into going into what we call a creative access, limited access, or closed country, a degree in Teaching English as a Second Language is useful. Also, degrees in computer technology are useful, especially if it puts you into a teaching or entrepreneurial capacity. If you are looking at going into a more open country as a traditional missionary, and I applaud this highly too, then anthropology can be quite good, or any degree in teaching.
For someone eager to become a missionary, we can actually work with almost any college degree. This includes History, Psychology, Philosophy, Business (missions agencies love this), almost anything you can imagine. No, these don't necessarily help you prepare for missions, but if you are at a secular school and are involved with groups like Inter-Varsity or Campus Crusade, you are getting valuable ministry training. If you are a serious student, the study habits you develop will be very useful later.
Finally, I recommend taking languages in college. If you can take one language for four years, wonderful. If you can take two languages for two years each, almost as wonderful. If you can take one for two years, still good. You may never use that particular language overseas, but the practice of learning another language will assist you for whatever language you will need to learn later.
For someone eager to become a missionary, we can actually work with almost any college degree. This includes History, Psychology, Philosophy, Business (missions agencies love this), almost anything you can imagine. No, these don't necessarily help you prepare for missions, but if you are at a secular school and are involved with groups like Inter-Varsity or Campus Crusade, you are getting valuable ministry training. If you are a serious student, the study habits you develop will be very useful later.
Finally, I recommend taking languages in college. If you can take one language for four years, wonderful. If you can take two languages for two years each, almost as wonderful. If you can take one for two years, still good. You may never use that particular language overseas, but the practice of learning another language will assist you for whatever language you will need to learn later.
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, and using that access to be able to reach the local people.
