August 14, 2024
Mark Hedinger
Yesterday, I had the joyful experience of telling a group of Mission leaders about the CultureBound approach to training for culture and second language. It was a great meeting, and the CultureBound team did a great job of describing our focus on self-directed learning and on a relational approach to ministry and ministry training.
We told our mission colleagues about how we introduce new cross-cultural gospel workers to skills and information and attitudes that they need in order to be successful in life and ministry in a new culture:
Skills in observing and recording, and seeing how the different parts of a culture all interact.
Information and knowledge about the major distinctions between cultures that have been noticed around the world.
Attitudes of openness to learning in everyday life situations, and to developing the flexibility needed for those who live outside of their home culture.
But as we wrapped up the call, I realized that there is a missing ingredient. We didn’t talk about volition; we didn’t talk about will.
Someone can easily have the will to buy a ticket that will take them to a distant nation, but not have the will to enter into life so that those people can understand the depths of the Gospel.
Someone can easily have the will to take a language course, but not have the will to persevere through the ups and downs of living and sharing and moving forward in a new language.
You get the idea. There is more to missionary training than simply learning new skills, facts, or even attitudes. There is a decisive volitional willpower involved.
Jesus talked a lot about the will:
John 7:17 shows us that understanding Jesus’ teaching is a matter of our wills.
"Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. (John 7:17)"
Philippians 2:13 tells us one of the things God does in the life of the believer is to direct our will.
"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Phil. 2:12-13)"
You get the idea. There is more to missionary training than simply learning new skills, facts, or even attitudes. There is a decisive volitional willpower involved.
Maybe one of the most tender passages about God’s will is when the leper came to Jesus in Matthew 8, recognizing His power to heal: "if You are willing, You can make me clean. (v.2)” Jesus' simple answer: “I am willing; be cleaned. (v.3)”
Years ago, I learned a leadership lesson as a Boy Scout leader. As a group of young leaders, one of the adults put their hand around our wrists and told us to get free. Some physically struggled, fighting to get that larger, stronger hand off of their wrist. (There was no success there without really nasty escalation, like kicking them in the knee. Not a good idea). Others tried to lift off one finger at a time... but any given finger snapped back into place around that poor young scout’s wrist as soon as we started to work on the next finger.
The answer to our dilemma came when one of us had the clever idea: ask! “Would you please remove your hand from my wrist.” Instant relief!
“Would you please...” The answer to our problem was to engage the will of that larger adult leader. The answer to a lot of mission training is to engage the will. In fact, the answer to a lot of Christian growth is to engage the will. And join in Jesus' prayer: Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Mark Hedinger, DIS, is Executive Director of CultureBound. Mark and his family spent 12 years living and teaching in Mexico. Since then, he has taught in many international locations and leads culture training programs at CultureBound. With his Spanish language background, he serves in a multicultural church in Portland, Oregon.