Preparing to Go: The Necessity of Missionary Training

Every year Christians are stirred by the Great Commission, burdened for unreached
peoples, and sacrifice comfort for the sake of the gospel. Many feel God’s leading into
missionary service, but passion for the Great Commission does not produce good
missionaries any more than passion for sports produces great athletes.

Between the fervent desire and the final destination lies an undervalued bridge—missionary training. Missionary training should not be viewed as an organizational hurdle or an expression of distrust. It is a gift—to the missionary, to the people they will serve, and to the cause of
Christ. Those who are equipped well have the tools necessary to survive and even thrive
in different, difficult, or dangerous environments. Generally, the well-equipped missionary
tends to stay longer, go deeper, and bear more lasting fruit.

The Local Church
Missionary training does not begin in a classroom, but in the local church. This
environment, where faithful preaching, genuine community, regular evangelism, and
sacrificial service take place, is the greenhouse in which missionary character is cultivated
before formal training begins.

Spiritual and Character Development
An often-neglected dimension of missionary preparation is spiritual character. It has been
often stated that the field does not build character—it reveals it. Missionaries who have
not cultivated the personal disciplines of prayer, the Word, local church accountability,
and emotional resilience before they go, will find the pressures of cross-cultural life and
ministry overwhelming. This often leads to character failure, and when character failures
occur, great damage is done to the work of missions.

Theological Grounding
Training in theology is primary. A missionary who cannot articulate the Gospel clearly,
defend it rationally, or ground it scripturally is poorly equipped for missions. Theological
education is not the enemy of evangelistic zeal—it is its backbone. As Eric Wright
observed, "Theology, the study of God, ought to energize missions." Training in theology
and the proper interpretation of Scripture arms the missionary with tools that translate
across every culture and context.

Cultural and Linguistic Preparation
Finally, cross-cultural preparedness is paramount. A missionary who ignores the
necessity of developing linguistic and cultural fluency will limit their effectiveness and
often be unintentionally offensive. Linguistic fluency is not a luxury—it demonstrates
respect. Additionally, cultural training equips missionaries to listen before they speak,
learn before they serve, and contextualize the gospel without compromising it.
Missionaries who bypass the slow work of language and cultural acquisition in their
eagerness to reach people often find their ministry far less effective than they had hoped.
Recently, IBMGlobal rolled out an 8-step Missionary Training Plan, as we seek to facilitate
Gospel advance by serving local churches in sending out healthy members as wellequipped missionaries. Through this training we seek to make sure that each of our
missionaries have been discipled through the ministry of their local church, have deep,
growing spiritual and character development, are theologically grounded in God’s Word,
and are as prepared as possible for the cultural and linguistic changes they will
experience.

There are over 3 billion people in the world today with no access to the Gospel. It is our
responsibility, as the people of God, to reach them. It is the privilege of IBMGlobal to
support local churches in carrying out that responsibility; to help bridge the gap between
the local church and the mission field through missionary training.