tive Baptists, pay nothing. Most missions fall somewhere between these two extremes. In the Faith Missions, most short-termers are required to raise their own support. There are several advantages to the STA pro gram: (1) It appeals to modem youth who, for the most part, take a dim view o f life commitment to anything. They are flexible when it comes to voca tions at home, and are the same when overseas service is concerned. (2) It meets a specific need on the field. Indeed, the manpower shortage is so great that some institutions have to close down while the career missionary goes on furlough. (3) It leads to long-term service in many cases. In some of the historic denominations, more than 50 per cent of their career missionaries began as short-termers. Of course, there is no guarantee that the young people will be favorably impressed with what they find overseas. Some o f them are “ turned on” and come back with a glowing report. Others are “ turned off” and do more harm than good on their return to this country. (4) It frees career mission aries for other duties. (5) It brings a reflex bless ing to the home constituency — churches and col leges. Indeed college students are more apt to be impressed with the reports of their fellow students than by anything a missionary on furlough might say. After all, most o f the missionaries are over thirty! Like every other good thing, STA has its prob lems. Four of them stand out: (1) Lack o f expe rience is always a handicap. Of course the career missionary has the same problem at first, but by the time he returns for his second term, his mis takes are mostly behind him. Hs is now ready to make a real contribution to the building up of the church. But the short-term missionary comes home just when he is beginning to function like a sea soned missionary. This is particularly hard on the national Christians and leaders who patiently en dure the bluff and blunder o f the young missionary in the hope that he will learn by his mistakes and be more of a blessing and less o f a burden during his second term. But if there is no second term, they are doomed to another round o f bluff and blunder. After breaking in nine or ten of these short-termers, their patience, to say nothing of their sanctification, wears thin. A second problem is acculturation. It is o f the utmost importance that missionaries understand and appreciate both the people and the culture of the land in which they serve. This takes time. It cannot be learned in “ thirteen easy lessons.” It is naive in the extreme to imagine that a three-hour course in general psychology will enable a person to understand the Oriental mind, or that a study in American sociology will enable one to understand and appreciate such exotic cultures as are found in Asia, Africa and many parts o f Latin America.
It usually takes a year or two for a person to feel at home in a culture other than his own. The body can be transported to another part o f the world in a matter o f hours. It may take years for the soul to catch up with the body. This is especially hard on the short-term missionary who is just beginning to feel at home when his term is up. A third problem is communication. To do effec tive work as a short-term missionary, one should be able to speak the language fluently. It is difficult to acquire fluency through the crash program of four or six weeks. Short-termers who speak only English should be sent to English-speaking coun tries. They will get along fairly well in ex-British colonies where English is still the lingua franca. English is also widely understood in most of the big cities o f the world. Persons going to Latin America should speak Spanish. Those going to ex-French colonies will require French. If the missionary leaves the big cities for the hinterland, he will probably need a working knowledge o f a trade lan guage. A fourth problem is the high cost o f the STA program, especially the shorter terms o f one or two years. Most missions like to get their investment back over a longer period o f time. And, finally, there is the lack o f continuity. Change is good, but it is possible to get “too much o f a good thing.” Short-termers swell the ranks of the mission during the first years of the program; but after five or six years, the homebound traffic is pretty heavy. More time and more money must be spent filling the ever-increasing vacancies left by the returning short-termers. After a while the problem begins to snowball, and the mission, in stead o f needing 100 new workers, needs 200. It goes without saying that the work on the field suf fers from the frequent change of personnel. Church leaders have always been loath to see career mis sionaries go on furlough even though they had the prospect of their return within a year. How much more loath are they to say farewell to the short- termer, who in all probability will not be back. On the whole, short-term missionaries have done a good job. They are young, enthusiastic, en ergetic, and full of new ideas. Mission executives have been well pleased with their performance. Church leaders on the field have accepted them with good grace, though not many short-termers work closely with the indigenous churches. An in creasing number of them return for a second term, and some become career missionaries. Even those who do not return to the field always have a soft spot in their hearts for missions and missionaries. As laymen in the home churches, they do much to promote the cause of missions. k b Mr. J. Herbert Kane is Associate Professor of Missions at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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