The Most Important Class in Seminary

Last night I was reminded of the most important class that I ever took in seminary, World Missions. I took the family to State College to take part in the First Night Celebrations. State College is the home of Penn State University. It was a wonderful night of watching a parade, looking at ice sculptures and general fun with the family.

It was the parade that got me thinking about my seminary missions class. It was a very small parade made up of freeze-dried hippies beating drums, and college kids wearing festive costumes. How does a parade of freeze-dried hippies get me thinking about missions? Well, fifty miles away in the town where I pastor, a typical parade is made up of fire engines from thirty different local fire companies, ten different high school bands, and countless baton-twirling classes. Fifty miles transported me from one culture to another.

There is an assumption that pastoring in America is a “one education fits all” thing. The reality is that is not true. In our church we have had pastors come from California, the city and the South, only to leave in a short period of time in failure. Why? They did not recognize that they were entering a different culture which required them to adapt their methodology. They needed to grasp cross-cultural ministry. They did not know how to study the culture and find ways to contextualize the gospel.

They needed to pay attention in “World Missions” class.