It’s no secret, American home improvement stores and auto-parts dealers thrive off of the Saturday ritual of the weekend warrior. Each weekend these stores transform into base-camp for millions of home and car improvement nerds who mightily announce at bedtime on Friday night, “I’ll have it done tomorrow by lunch.” After tucking into the “quick” Saturday job sometime around noon, these arm-chair experts soon realize that the vital nail, screw, pipe, paint brush, socket, paint remover, tie, flange, or bolt needed for completion is no-where to be found. Thus the frantic, unshaven, unbrushed, dirty, oily, and angry scramble to the store begins; destined to be repeated at least 3 more times that day.

Since this is how the vast majority of us “fix” our homes and cars, it’s no surprise to me that we approach missions planning in the same way.

When we left for our first international ministry job in Europe our cultural education and planning looked a lot like the typical weekend warrior. We thought we had a vague understanding of our target culture but in reality we didn’t have a clue. We had never lived in Europe, our history of Europe stopped somewhere in the middle 19th century, we didn’t understand modern European culture or politics, had only travelled around Europe for a few weeks, and to top it all off, were still newlyweds. To say that we were green around the ears was an understatement. Our informal attitude was that we would simply figure it out once we got there and it showed. We quickly realized shortly after arrival that we were underprepared and slipped into culture shock within days. We made pointless mistakes that should never have been made and put ourselves through unnecessary agony. If only someone had taught us how to better prepare for our international move... (Or if only we had listened)

Understandably, there are some things that are only obtainable in country and I guarantee that you will never become a cultural expert by reading blogs or books. In fact, scoping handled wrongly can produce arrogant and cocky people damaging our impact from the moment we step off of the plane. (and as a missionary myself, I know that no one wants that) However, the lack of preparation with which some have entered the mission field is nearsighted at best and negligent at worst. Having made the mistake of not scoping prior to our first ministry, and knowing that there are many missionaries prepping to repeat the same mistake with theirs, it is imperative that we take the time to more adequately equip. Over the next few posts I am going to teach you what scoping looks like and how to properly scope your destination. My aim is to 1) increase our cultural awareness, 2) help elevate our cultural effectiveness, 3) ease the transition into your new culture 4) and enhance the quality of our ministries. No, you won’t become a cultural jedi after reading this series but you will be better prepared if you give scoping a go. If we American missionaries all commit to studying our future destinations humbly and earnestly imagine the cultural impact we could make for Jesus. What a staggering idea!

Tags: Missionary Life, Missions