{"id":700,"date":"2015-10-24T09:09:54","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T13:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/missions\/?p=700"},"modified":"2015-10-15T11:41:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T15:41:31","slug":"the-cost-of-missionary-attrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/missions\/the-cost-of-missionary-attrition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth of Missionary Attrition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Many missionary candidates have insufficient theological education, ministry training, ministry experience, or spiritual maturity. \u00a0This creates a need for pre-departure theological, spiritual and ministry training.\u00a0 Many leave for the mission field overconfident with unrealistic expectations and ultimately leave their missionary career because they were not adequately prepared for what awaited them.\u00a0(Brynjolfson 2006, 9)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Missionary attrition results in significant resource losses, creating sustainability issues for missionary work. \u00a0According to Taylor (1997, 9-13), the attrition rate among evangelical missionaries in the late 1990s was about 5.1% per year, 71% of which was preventable.\u00a0 That means the attrition of 5,368 missionaries per year may have been prevented, either by more thorough screening or by better training.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong><em>The findings in the data from the ReMAP research project indicate that a large investment by mission agencies in missionary candidate selection and pre-field training is necessary for reducing the preventable attrition rate.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Blocher and Lewis 1997, 117)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Much of the current literature on missionary attrition is written about or in response to the World Evangelical Fellowship\u2019s (WEF) study, the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldevangelicals.org\/resources\/rfiles\/res3_168_link_1292517737.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Reducing Missionary Attrition Project II<\/a><\/em> (ReMAP II).\u00a0 This study included data solicited from 598 agencies headquartered in 22 countries. \u00a0The ReMAP II report ranks 26 reasons why missionaries leave mission service (Brierley 1997, 92).\u00a0 While reasons like retirement, health problems and elderly parents may not be preventable, Bloecher (2005), Hay (2006) and Van Ochs (2001, 2005) indicate that,<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>better screening, training and shepherding during the selection and preparation process may have helped to prevent other reasons for missionaries leaving service<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">(e.g. problems with children, conflict with peers, personal concerns, or poor cultural adaptations).\u00a0 Blocher (2004, 2-4) quantifies the correlation between a lack of training and higher missionary attrition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Concerned with financial losses due to attrition, secular multi-national entities (MNE) have also studied the problem of attrition of overseas personnel.\u00a0 Experts report attrition rates of 16-70% among expatriates with 50-70% of expatriate managers serving overseas returning early or under-performing due largely to a lack of training and preparation (Harrison 1994, 17; Ko and Yang 2011, 158; Osman-Gani and Rockstuhl 2009, 277).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Attrition and under performance of expatriates cost secular MNEs as much as $250,000 to $1 million (Littrell and Salas 2005, 307) or $2 billion collectively each year (Ghafoor 2011, 338).\u00a0 It can be assumed that the costs for overseas MNE attrition may be proportionally equal to overseas missionary attrition.\u00a0 As stewards of kingdom resources, churches, mission agencies and missionaries should be concerned about the financial losses resulting from missionary attrition and ineffective ministry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Sometimes a lack of cross-cultural understanding on the part of the worker or missionary contributes to preventable attrition.\u00a0 Gannon (2011, 4) says, \u201c\u2026 [H]umans compare a new and uncertain situation to something with which they are thoroughly familiar in order to understand it.\u201d\u00a0 If the familiar is not similar to the new and uncertain, misunderstanding results.\u00a0 Living and working in a cross-cultural environment complicates individual life, family life and work. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>It is easy for the expatriate or missionary to think he or she is behaving correctly or communicating effectively when sometimes the hosts are simply being polite or seeking to gain something from the visitor.\u00a0<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">This lack of understanding and familiarity leads to stresses that can be overwhelming.\u00a0 Some of the stresses of serving in a foreign culture can be addressed biblically, but effective cross-cultural ministry also requires an understanding of the customs, thinking and beliefs of the host culture (Elmer 2002; Taylor 1997). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">References<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Bloecher, Detlef, and Jonathan Lewis. 1997. \u201cFurther findings in the research data.\u201d In <em>Too valuable to lose: exploring the causes and cures of missionary attrition<\/em>, edited by William D. Taylor, 105\u201325. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Bloecher, Detlef. 2005. \u201cGood agency practices: lessons from ReMAP II.\u201d <em>Evangelical Missions Quarterly<\/em> 41 (2): 227\u201337.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Brierley, Peter W. 1997. \u201cMissionary attrition: the ReMAP research report.\u201d In <em>Too valuable to lose: exploring the causes and cures of missionary attrition<\/em>, edited by William D. Taylor, 85\u2013104. Pasadena, CA: World Evangelical Fellowship Missions Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Brynjolfson, Robert. 2006. \u201cMaximizing informal learning in an intentional missionary training community.\u201d Deerfield, IL: Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Elmer, Duane. 2002. <em>Cross cultural connections\u202f: stepping out and fitting in around the world<\/em>. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Gannon, M.J. 2011. \u201cCultural metaphors: their use in management practice as a method for understanding cultures.\u201d <em>Online Readings In Psychology And Culture,<\/em> 7 (1).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Ghafoor, Shahzad, and Uzair Farooq Khan. 2011. \u201cEvaluation of expatriates performance and their training on international assignments.\u201d <em>Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business<\/em> 3 (5): 335\u201351.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Harrison, J. Kline. 1994. \u201cDeveloping successful expatriate managers: a framework for the structural design and strategic alignment of cross-cultural training programs.\u201d <em>Human Resource Planning<\/em> 17 (3): 17\u201335.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Hay, Rob, ed. 2006. <em>Worth keeping: global perspectives on good practice in missionary retention<\/em>. William Carey Library.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Littrell, Lisa N., Eduardo Salas, Kathleen P. Hess, Michael Paley, and Sharon Riedel. 2006. \u201cExpatriate preparation: a critical analysis of 25 years of cross-cultural training research.\u201d <em>Human Resource Development Review<\/em> 5 (3): 355\u201388.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Taylor, William David. , ed. 1997. <em>Too valuable to lose\u202f: exploring the causes and cures of missionary attrition<\/em>. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Ko, Hsiu-Ching, and Mu-Li Yang. 2011. \u201cThe effects of cross-cultural training on expatriate assignments.\u201d <em>Intercultural Communication Studies<\/em> 20 (1): 158\u201374.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Osman-Gani, Aahad M., and Thomas Rockstuhl. 2009. \u201cCross-cultural training, expatriate self-efficacy, and adjustments to overseas assignments: an empirical investigation of managers in Asia.\u201d <em>International Journal of Intercultural Relations<\/em> 33 (4): 277\u201390.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Van Ochs, B. 2001. \u201cTen challenges that may make going home look attractive.\u201d <em>EMQOnline<\/em>, October. Accessed March 18, 2014.<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emisdirect.com\/emq\/issue-252\/1499\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.emisdirect.com\/emq\/issue-252\/1499<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many missionary candidates have insufficient theological education, ministry training, ministry experience, or spiritual maturity. \u00a0This creates a need for pre-departure theological, spiritual and ministry training.\u00a0 Many leave for the mission field overconfident with unrealistic expectations and ultimately leave their missionary career because they were not adequately prepared for what awaited them.\u00a0(Brynjolfson 2006, 9) Missionary attrition&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/missions\/the-cost-of-missionary-attrition\/\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[21102],"tags":[21103,8660,21109,21108],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - 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