Traveling changes you. (And not merely traveling two states over and spending the night at Holiday Inn.) Encountering a new culture, lifestyle, worldview, and people groups is an experience that deepens one’s understanding of life, humanity, and the church. Here is your challenge to do that—to take a trip somewhere.
Ten Reasons Why You Should Take a Cross-Cultural Journey
This article is written primarily to pastors. The benefits that a pastor gains from taking a trip can be a ministry-changing experience. It’s not necessary to go to a foreign country to experience the benefits, although that is ideal. You may simply want to take a trip to a different church or culture in your own city or country. The more disparate your destination is from your own setting, the more you will learn. Here are ten ways you’ll be changed.
- Taking a trip will alert you to the needs and challenges of other churches. It’s pretty easy to get preoccupied with your own set of concerns. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but perhaps other people have other needs, passions, skills, insights, challenges, and burdens. You’ll get a glimpse of these when you visit these people and seek to understand their world.
- Taking a trip will broaden your conception of what the church consists of. “Church” conjures up a certain set of ideas, images, and experiences. But the “church” experience in a different culture may be widely different from your own. That’s a good thing. It will expand your vision of the church universal, and cause you to yearn for the majestic assembly of the entire ransomed church (Revelation 5:9).
- Taking a trip will yank you outside your comfort zone. Often, the more uncomfortable we are in a setting, the more we’re learning and growing. Nowhere is that truer than when you are in a setting where the language sounds strange, the customs are surprising, the food tastes…funny, and the bed you’re sleeping on doesn’t feel very nice. We learn much when we step outside of our well-worn rut of cozy, and leap into the world of crazy unfamiliarity. Usually, all it takes is an airplane ride (and not reserving a room in the overseas Sheraton).
- Taking a trip will forge relationships with brothers and sisters who aren’t like you. The church universal consists of people who are very, very different from you. Statistically speaking, western Christians are one of the smaller groups of believers. You would be well served by visiting Christians in another setting, serving them, worshipping with them, praying with them, and learning from them.
- Taking a trip will give you a perspective on the home ministry. When you leave your locale for a time, see something totally new, and then return, you have a fresh perspective on things. Many travelers comment that the “reverse culture shock” of returning to their home country is more jarring than the culture shock of arriving at the foreign destination. This “reverse culture shock” is also called “perspective.” It can help you knock out the cobwebs and refresh your ministry.
- Taking a trip will enable you to minister to a diverse group of people. Ministering in another culture is a sweet experience. Although you may be vastly different from the people around you, you will also experience the intense bond that exists between fellow believers. Although you may go somewhere to minister, you will yourself be ministered to.
- Taking a trip will give you burdens for other groups of people. The needs of believers around the world are intense and pressing. Seeing these circumstances firsthand will both burden you and better enable you to help them.
- Taking a trip will help shake loose the cultural trappings in your Christianity. It’s hard to realize how culturally bound our Christianity is until we see Christianity lived out in a different culture. What is essential to the church? Freedom of religion? A building in which to meet? Seminary-trained pastors? A piano? Children’s ministry? Ah, prepare to be deeply discomfited.
- Taking a trip will cause you to realize what’s truly important in life and ministry. I’ll never forget an experience that I had while on a vision trip to Madagascar. I was in a helicopter, flying at 1000 feet, staring down at village after village after village passing beneath me. Villagers were streaming out of their huts, staring up at the commotion in the sky. I was staring back at them. These people had never heard of Jesus Christ. Prior to my trip, I was concerned with internal church squabbles, arguments over which Christian camp was right, and worried about what other Christians thought about me and my Facebook posts. Staring into the eyes of an individual who has never heard the name of Jesus sort of put those petty concerns where they belonged. There are much more important things in life. Scenes like these will help you realize what those important things are.
- Taking a trip will enrich you as a person, and by extension, those to whom you minister. The benefit of a cross-cultural journey does not end with you. The lessons and life perspective that you gain should flow from you to others. A trip is a considerable financial investment, and not everyone is able to take such a trip. It’s not absolutely necessary. With that in mind, you can share with others the lessons you’ve learned.
Take the next step.
If you’re a pastor, I encourage you to take the next step. Perhaps the first thing you should do is to pray about it, then consult with your church leadership team. Find out if a trip is feasible, then begin considering target destinations.
Please don’t feel like this must be a “ministry trip”—painting a school, building a church building, or preaching revival services. Don’t feel like you need to bring the youth group or college class. Also, perhaps the best thing you can do is to step out of the central role, yet avoid being a cumbersome guest to your hosts. Now is not the time to check airfares on Orbitz or call up your missionary buddy in Mexico to see if he’ll be in Cancun in January. Now is the time to take care of the first necessary thing.
The eye-opening experience of visiting a different culture will invest you with a rich store of memories, lessons, and insights. Don’t wait.