Step 9: Lifelong Learning
by Steve HokeCaution: For those of you who are young adults, some of the following material may not appear to be highly relevant to you right now. Those of you who are older can rapidly discern the relevance of the following reflection exercise. Regardless of your age and experience, spend some time here. If you are younger, ask a mentor to work with you through the reflection. This may stimulate your mentor to think seriously. Another thing to keep in mind is that these exercises might best be done in small groups.
• A missionary of 20 years finds herself asking, “Which way next?”
• A mission leader realizes he is merely reacting to the demands of ministry. He has no focus and has lost sight of his unique giftedness and calling.
• The wife of a missionary has always sat in the shadows. She has significant capacity to minister, but no one has helped her clarify her ministry. Yet she has consistently devoted her efforts to helping and caring for others.
These are all-too-familiar scenarios of missionaries who lack a perspective on their past and a focus on their future. And probably it’s not their fault completely.
We will need to revise our concept of what a “term of service” means. The future of missions will probably bring much more mobility to our missionaries. Job contexts will change, or tasks will be completed, or more visas will be denied,
or children will need special secondary educa-tion opportunities. Your cross-cultural skills may be used even in different countries or regions of the world. And as your gift mix and skill set mature, God will open up new and creative areas for you to grow as a person as well as in ministry.
How can you keep learning and growing?
• Read widely.
• Use home assignment (furlough) for spe-cific courses or further degree programs.
• Take a study leave, take advantage of distance learning, or get into programs on the Internet.
The task of learning never ends. One challenging aspect of missionary life is that situations will always be new. There will always be fresh opportunities to learn and do new things. Your perspective on ongoing personal and professional development will be critical to your long-term effectiveness. Continuing to learn and grow as you minister will keep you fresh and on the cutting edge.
Getting sidetracked by the “tyranny of the urgent” and getting stressed out over trying to do too many tasks in too little time are just two of the typical traps encountered by the busy missionary who neglects his or her personal development. All too often, what’s missing is a broader, longer-range perspective on what is important.
Robert Clinton has correctly observed, “The difference between leaders and followers is perspective. The difference between leaders and effectiveness is better perspective.” More than ever before, missionaries recognize that leadership is demanding and difficult. If missionaries are to finish well in life and ministry, they will need all the perspective they can get.
The development of a mature Christian leader takes a lifetime. God refines our character, values, and leadership skills over a lifetime. A leader’s development is the function of many events, people, and circumstances - “process items” - that leave an imprint on our lives and priorities. These milestones teach us significant life and ministry lessons.
Reflecting on God’s ongoing work in our lives teaches us to recognize His activity. All leaders can point to critical incidents in which God taught them important insights that shaped their development.
Personal timeline. Your responses to God’s shaping can be tracked on a timeline which helps evaluate your development, reveals your unique processing patterns, and provides a lifetime perspective. The exercise will help you chronicle how God has directed your life and shaped your identity.
You can gain insight for future ministry direction and decisions by comparing your development with the generalized development patterns of other Christian leaders or missionaries. This insight is part of what contributes to gaining a godly perspective.
Ministry ultimately flows out of being. Take time to create your personal timeline, and you’ll accomplish an invaluable step toward gaining perspective and direction for the rest of your life. That’s why we’ve included the Symbol Timeline Exercise in the next article.
Over a lifetime, God shapes who we are. The main way He does this is through our life experience along the journey of faith. Because of this, setting aside intentional time for personal growth and development should be a vital component of every missionary’s ministry plan.
We have tried to make it clear that we don’t assume that all the preparation and training you need will be academic. Much of it will depend on the personal and professional growth goals you set for yourself.
With this in mind, a second way to be intentional in your lifelong development is to set goals for personal growth.
The Personal Development Action Plan is a goal-setting worksheet and action plan. It is designed to map out specific learning objectives in the three profile categories (character, skills, and knowledge). This exercise may help you piece the tasks and growth areas you’ve noted on previous journal pages into a coherent whole.
The Personal Development Plan can be used once to help you establish new direction for your own learning, or it can be adapted and used annually as a self-study guide to assist you as you analyze and shape your own lifelong learning process.
Coming up next are two short, practical exercises (in place of the journal worksheet in this section). You will want to work through these exercises to gain a clearer perspective on your past and to develop a personal growth plan for the future.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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