Preparing Cross-Cultural Workers

Why Prepare People for Cross-Cultural Service? 

Why not just send the called and the passionate? If a person loves Christ and is called and willing to sacrifice and go, should there be any further barriers or requirements put in the way? Think back to Christ’s disciples. They eventually became world changers. However, from the beginning, they were not exactly the pick of the lot and were even a bit dull during their training period. But in the end, they did alright, didn’t they? 

Think back to the centuries of Christian growth before the advent of the mission agency proper about two hundred years ago. People essentially went out on their own in the natural flow of life and vocation and carried the life and word of Christ with them around the world. The Gospel did not need a mission agency with hoops and requirements for all those centuries. What’s different now? Why don’t mission agencies send people based on Christ’s calling and passion alone? 

It’s a good question, one I and many others who recruit, train, and develop workers have faced. In the ultimate irony, I am now the candidate development director for an organization to which I asked all those same questions. At age twenty-three, I wrote a letter to the then VP of Missions for The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada (now known as The Alliance Canada). I stated the time it takes to get through all their hoops―a bachelor’s degree in theology or Missions, two years of working in a church, and then another year of Masters’ level training with a specific missiological focus―a minimum of seven years! I could have become a medical doctor in the same amount of time, with a much better salary! So why is the path to being a missionary as long as a physician’s? 

How the vice president responded is what I have now come to know: 

• The process develops character and maturity, which often only occurs via time and experience. Life itself is a great teacher. 
• The person’s motivations and call are tested and, hopefully, strengthened. 
• The reality is, calling and passion are not enough. My wife debriefs international workers from multiple organizations and observes the tragic consequences of sending based on passion and calling but without proper preparation and support. As a result, lives and beliefs are often shattered. 
• It is a worthy endeavour to be prepared, experienced, and competent before entering another culture. Bringing your ‘best self’ honours those people and glorifies Christ. Another culture and people group are not a playground for spiritual adventure, nor is it a laboratory to fulfill a person’s passions. We send ambassadors of the King, makers of disciples of Christ. 

In our contemporary global context, there are other factors at play that informs, even demands, proper screening and preparation: 

• It is no surprise to any agency or church, but sending and sustaining a resident worker is increasingly expensive. Good stewardship back to a church and donor base means selecting and preparing people who can be effective and have lasting power. 
• The need for identifying and developing competent and resilient workers has never been higher given the multiple levels of risk (family, health, politics, etc.) they will encounter. 
• Globalization makes it easy to travel, but protectionism makes it difficult to stay. Many countries now restrict who can enter and often require special education or skills before granting visas. 
• Thankfully the global church is sending, not just the West. This means that we often work alongside partners where a specific role or niche needs to be fulfilled. So there is a movement from generalist to specialist roles. 
• The Alliance Canada has a history of long processes, not because we want to make it hard, but because we know the work of cross-cultural adaptation and contribution as a representative of the Kingdom of God has a unique set of responsibilities: 

1. To the King. A workers’ life speaks of Christs’ life – in totality. How they ‘show up’ in words, in living, and in actions will either be an accurate representation, or they will be representing something or someone else. That’s a significant role to carry. It’s what an ambassador does. 
2. To the world. How others experience the worker is the primary lens through which they will see the validity of the Jesus Way and whether it’s worth joining His community. When people look at, hear, watch, and interact with a worker, they decide if this alternate way of life is good and worth following.1 
3. To the local churches supporting the workers. The agency sends people on behalf of local churches. They would not have the role if the church and its people did not give and pray. Period. In what may feel unspiritual terms, the worker has an employer―the church―who expects them to do a job and do it well. 

What Constitutes Proper Preparation? 

King David is said to have cared for his people with a true heart of integrity and led them with skillful hands (Psalm 78:72). Compassion, calling, and conviction are foundational, but building something enduring and sustainable takes skill and competency. So how do we do that? 

Missionary training has evolved in positive ways from fixed sets of knowledge and skill requirements to more curated approaches. This has come about because of the increasingly complex world these servants are sent into. It is also a good example of applying the adult learning theory principle of ‘get what you need and use what you get’ to our training. Excellent training resources such as Grow 2 Serve, which brings together multiple training partners in an online education community, have emerged from this need and reality2. 

However, with the positive effort to make skills and knowledge training more accessible and targeted, how do we ensure someone has the competency to use their training well? This chapter will look at the personal and organizational commitment to developing core competencies we in The Alliance Canada have found to be characteristic of our most effective international workers. 

Defining the terms around competency 

Simply put, competencies are the observable behaviours that enable a person to do a job effectively. 

Training courses, degrees, and even experiences are not competencies. Instead, they are the means, the raw material for competence in something. 

Skills are specific learned activities that enable us to know what a person can actually do. Skills give us the ‘what,’ telling us what abilities a person has or needs to perform a job. They can also be further developed. 

On the other hand, competencies take skills and training and incorporate them into on-the-job behaviours. Competencies are skills and training with boots on. 

Those behaviours demonstrate the ability to perform the job/ministry requirements effectively in a wide variety of situations. Why is this important? Because we do not deploy factory workers and widget-makers, but people who are self-initiators, creators, pioneers, partners, and collaborators. 

Placing our focus on identifying and developing competencies helps us as agencies to: 

• Ensure our people demonstrate the appropriate expertise/skills/character needed for the ministry they are employed to do. What is on a resumé is not necessarily the same as what a person is actually able to do. 
• Recruit, select, and develop new staff more effectively. Clearly defined competencies function to weed out tire kickers and attract the right people. It’s not just about calling and heart. Can you do the job? Do you demonstrate the behavioural orientation which makes for an effective worker? Do you aspire to act in this manner? 
• Evaluate performance. Many mission organizations are not proficient at evaluation. We are often just so glad we have someone there. However, when we do evaluate, it has to be against an articulated set of expectations and not just subjective judgement. Competencies are defined in behavioural terms, which can be evaluated and then further developed. 
• Identify skill and competency gaps to be addressed pre- and post-deployment. For example, a person can indicate they have a gift for discipling or evangelism. We can see it on their resumé or via our assessments. How well do they demonstrate that gift? Do they need more training, more practice? The continuum of behaviour outlined in our Competency Rubric, imperfect as it is, provides a starting point for us and a candidate to ask how their gifts and skills are ‘showing up’ in behavioural/action terms. 
• Develop a measure of standardization that can be used to meet higher agency goals. Standardization cannot be about training or skills because 
  • Define common behaviours (competencies) we seek to see demonstrated by all in the global missionary team. 
  •  Link these competencies to the higher values of our Mission. 

Thus, as individuals develop in these areas, they share in a team-wide standard. Moreover, having a defined set of competencies shows workers the behaviours we value, which will help us achieve our global objectives. 

Developing the Competency Rubric 

We started this process in 2019 by asking ourselves the question, “What are the key characteristics of our most effective workers?” We also asked the converse question, “What characterizes our ineffective workers? From this eye-opening process, we distilled the dozens of characteristics identified in our effective workers into ten competencies we assessed as core to all workers. From these, we have developed a coaching process to enable our candidates to begin working to build these behaviours into their life and training. 

The “GM Competency Rubric” (GM = Global Ministries) found in the Appendix condenses our research and reflection into a rubric we now use to guide pre-field and on-field development. This does not replace the professional and/or ministry training required for the work to be done. Knowledge and skills remain important areas to assess when developing candidates. Core competencies provide a framework for developing people across a broad range of behaviours we know will strengthen the knowledge and skills they already have in their hands. Note that we have attempted to describe the expression of the behaviour along a continuum so the candidate/worker can self-evaluate where they show strengths and needs for further growth. 

The Outcome: 10 Core Competencies 

Here’s a broad level look at the competencies, described as behaviour statements, and a further description of what it would look like if the worker was proficient at demonstrating this competency: 

1. Personal prayer. Effective workers have active prayer disciplines. They have identifiable practices of communion with God making prayer a ‘natural habit.’ Rather than relying on old stories to sustain them, they are experiencing fresh encounters with Christ and growth in various aspects of daily life. 
2. Intercessory prayer. Effective workers involve others as prayer partners in their ministry. They see the world as one influenced by spiritual forces. Thus, they not only understand spiritual warfare but engage in prayer accordingly. However, they never go alone, consistently engaging with an intercessory prayer team. 
3. Mature Soul. Effective workers are focused on developing a whole person’s maturity of heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mark 12:30). They do this by consistently integrating acquired Scripture knowledge into daily practice and living accountable to regular spiritual and life disciplines. Additionally, they offer grace and wisdom to others on the negotiables of faith and practice (dogmatism vs. seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit for the situation) and integrate the exercise of faith into all aspects of life, demonstrating there is no sacred/secular divide to Kingdom living. 
4. Personal leadership. Effective workers demonstrate active habits of self-leadership and personal growth. They proactively develop and practice habits promoting healthy work/life rhythms. These workers also function with a high level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence in their relationships. 
5. Cultural Intelligence. Effective workers demonstrate intercultural and least-reached acumen. They proactively implement strategies for their integration into local culture. This includes embracing people from other cultures into their social circle. People are not approached as ‘targets’ or ‘projects’ but are treated as fellow humans and friends. 
6. Disciple-Making. Effective workers see all their relationships as opportunities for active disciple-making. They can describe the number and nature of their discipling relationships. Spiritual conversations are regular and recent. They consistently demonstrate to others what it looks like to obey and trust in Jesus. 
7. Faith Community Engagement. Effective workers have the ability to build Christian community, and in particular, rather than importing a model, they actively participate in, coach, and develop a contextual Christian community. 
8. Team Participant. Effective workers demonstrate the capacity to workand/or lead in a team. This is their second transformation after the cross-cultural one. They strengthen the teams’ mission through active contributions based on their personal and team strengths. They also possess and exercise a healthy conflict resolution strategy.
9. Cooperative Capacity. Effective workers engage the capacity of others outside the organization to achieve mission goals. The Kingdom is God’s; therefore, they seek out partnerships for the sake of good stewardship and increased impact.
10. Active Communication. Effective workers involve corporate (e.g., church) and individual partners through meaningful communication. They regularly report mission-critical information to an identified support base of individuals and churches.

Developing the Competencies in Candidates 

Our approach to developing competencies is to create a collaboration between our agency, the candidate, and their local church leadership. If the local church prefers, we will identify a mission mentor to work with the candidate. The process is designed to be self-generating and straightforward: 

The local church/mentor and the candidate work jointly to identify two or three competencies for development. We suggest this number because no one can successfully work on ten things at a time. 

They then decide on the type of activity or experience to help develop the competency. We provide a list of suggested competency development activities to help spark their brainstorming. However, to develop the candidate’s self-awareness and personal leadership, we do not insist on how they should develop the competency but give them autonomy to choose their strategy for development. 

A plan with check-ins on progress is developed between the candidate and mentor. 

At the check-in, and depending on progress, they can move on to a deeper phase of developing that competency or work on a new one. 

The reality is no one is ever ‘done.’ We are always in development, meaning the development of competencies is then carried over once they become workers. 

Jesus moved into the neighbourhood (see John 1:14 MSG). So we follow Him by doing the same thing, wherever that may be, near or far. In that neighbourhood, competent missionaries can live. They may be employed locally or run a business; they may be supported financially by a charity or sending agency or church. But there in that neighbourhood, they carry out the Great Commission; they are salt and light, they have joined God in His mission to bring Good News to all people groups in the world.

This is an excerpt from the book, On Mission Volume 4. Download your free copy today.