GFM Director’s Blog

One of the best ways to show what has been on my heart and mind lately is to show what I have been sharing with others.  Here is an excerpt from an email conversing with a high school graduate asking about the benefits of going to college first versus going through a program like our missionary training school.  We usually advise young people to do a program similar to ours on the field before going to college so that they can get more direction as to what would be beneficial to study that will actually help people on the mission field.  That seems like a better option than spending four years in school getting trained to do something that may not even be meeting a felt need.  There is a little bit of repitition as this comes from a few different back and forth emails, but here is a part of the dialogue:  

Prospective Student: Also, as we’ve spoken about, there are a lot of advantages to doing MTS straight out of high school, (lack of debt, opportunity to get direction on what to study in college if desired, etc.).  I was wondering if you could see any disadvantages to doing MTS so early, though. Are there reasons why one might get more out of the experience at a greater age?  

Grant: I was thinking about this the other day and I’m starting to get convinced that the one of the devil’s greatest strategies in this world is to keep people off of the mission field.  We know that he knows the Bible backwards and forwards because he used it to tempt Jesus in the wilderness.  So, he must know versus like Mt. 24:14; Mt 28:19,20; and definitely knows his ultimate destination spelled out in Revelation.  If I were him, I would make every attempt to keep the gospel from going into all nations knowing that once that happened, the end comes.  I have an urgency on my heart for the nations right now and passages like Jesus saying “you say four more months and then the harvest….I say open your eyes, the harvest is now”.  I think the people of Tlaxiaco need representatives of Christ right now.  How will they hear unless someone goes to them….?

Grant: Aside from that, I think that Christian discipleship is best done sooner than later.  I can only see positive things about learning those lessons sooner than later and would want to have those tools in the tool box before going to college.  I guess my case in point would be to look at all of the lessons and spiritual truth that you learned this summer and ask “do you wish that you would have waited four more years to learn and grow the way that you did this summer?”  Think about what you learned with regards to sin, prayer, death to self, worship, God’s glory, evangelism, warm/cold climate, the body of Christ, God’s heart for the nations, etc.  Are you sitting there right now thinking, “man I’m really young…I wish I would have waited until I was done with college or had more life experience before going down to Oaxaca to learn the things I did.  I would have gotten so much more out of it if I would have waited four more years.”

Grant: I’m trying not to be one sided in this argument and look at it from all angles like a parent would, but I’m honestly having a hard time coming up with any disadvantages of going through a fairly painless 7 month school (which offers an associate’s Bible degree) and learning some great spiritual lessons that can be put into practice both at home and abroad.  I’m trying to give as real an answer as possible and not dance around the question…..I can’t think of any reason that a 22 year old would get more out of this training than an 18 year old as I have seen my share of both come through this program.  

Prospective Student: One concern I’ve had is that if I do MTS this year, feel called to study something in college, go to college, and then am ready to ship out to missions, will I still be fresh on the things I learned at MTS or will I be stale and disadvantaged because of the spam of time in between my missions-specific training and actually going?

Grant: I think that people should go to college to DO ministry even more so than to prepare for ministry.  I think that it is just as much a calling as the mission field is and would want training before going there.  I would want people to put into practice everything that they learned at MTS on their college campus as practice before heading to the mission field.  We are basically teaching a lot of Christian life and church principles that are just as applicable in a U.S. college environment as in the 10/40 window.  I think going to MTS first also helps you stay focused while you are in college.  I’ve seen too many people do it the other way around and have lost the vision along the way because of the lure of the American dream, a significant other, a new calling to US ministry, and a million other distractions.  I’ve been doing this for ten years now and am beginning to get a little pessimistic as I have seen so few people make it to the mission field that felt such a strong calling from the Lord.  Everyone swears that they are in the category of solid Christian who is not going to get distracted, but I’ve seen very few survivors.

Grant: All of the principles that you learn at missionary training school will be immediately applicable in a college context, so you should never grow “stale” because you could implement everything learned at MTS in a university.  Most of our training is Christian life oriented rather than missions specific because missions is basically living out Christianity in a cross-cultural setting.  So, you will learn more about prayer, worship, spiritual warfare, evangelism, discipleship, church planting, learning languages, etc.  At least 90% of what you learn at MTS should be able to immediately be put into practice there at school and you would be more equipped to hang out with the international crowd there as well which is a mission field in and of itself.  So, everything will actually still be very relevant and fresh if you do missions after college and you may be even more prepared by having lived out the principles that you learned during a four year stay at college.  I truly believe that the span of time between doing our school and going to the mission field is irrelevant because we’re are basically trying to teach people to be good, reproducible Christ followers.  Everything should be applied immediately just as we encouraged all of you summer staffers to go home and put into practice everything that you learned down here. 

Prospective Student: I appreciate all the ways you’re supporting me, and in advance, the time it’s gonna take you to formulate answers for my stinkin’ difficult questions…so, thank you.

Grant: Feel free to pushback on any of my points or arguments.  I find that most of the questions that you are asking on behalf of others are like you said in your email (good questions from people that are looking through a worldly lens rather than a faith lens).  I’ve enjoyed reading your updates and really do see a lot of maturity in the way that you are going about this whole decision.  Let us know as you have more questions or concerns.  We just ultimately want you to be in the place where you can bring most glory to the Father.  Run all of life’s decisions through that filter and you’ll do just fine.