Article
International Student Ministries
Author: Leiton Chinn
Date: 24.08.2010
Category: Diaspora, Globalization, Unreached People Groups
Translations
International Student ministry is a highly strategic opportunity for world evangelization by engaging in "global missions at home" (and sometimes in your home). Please read the brief attached article about the magnificent elements of ministry among international students, and how you, your church, denomination, campus ministry, or mission organization may get involved, and find resources for ISM.
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Keywords: International Students, Diaspora, Globalization, Reverse Missions
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United States
International Student ministries is a great focus. Coming from a public undergraduate university there were many students who where from various countries, doing a study abroad where they were on the campus for only a semester, to students who were studying at the university for the entire 4 years, this impressed me. The university that I attended had a specific dorm for these students where they could come together and really learn about the other students who like themselves had uprooted from a home that often was clearly across the globe. There were some ministries such as Intervarsity, Campus Crusade and others who conducted Bible studies within these dorms and with these students. The students will to study, to learn and openness to ask questions and seek answers always amazed me. This ministry on campuses across the globe should be kept and reenergized because I have seen the benefits of the seeds that are sown in these groups!
13.09.2011
United States
Thank you Denise. I was in the process of replying to you when I may have accidentally erased my text or sent a comment, and if so, this is a duplicate.
I have sent your response to many in the ISM community and encouraged our colleagues to reply to your input, or share other mattters related to ISM.
The concern of International Student "Returnees" is a growing area of priority for ISMs to help with pre-departure preparation of students, for helping the receiving home Church to understand and welcome returnees, and to provide a link between students who have become Christians abroad with a church/fellowship back home.
I am interested in knowing more about your research on International Students and their impact upon their countries, and your continuing involvement with ISM.
Also, if you will be at Capetown2010, I hope you’ll be able to participate in at least one of the 4 ISM sessions (regional focus on Asia-Pacific; Greater Europe; Norht America; Africa).
Leiton Chinn
13.09.2010
Australia
@ LeitonChinn:
Hi Leiton. Yes, my husband Garry and I are looking forward with anticipation to Lausanne. Garry has been an ESL and TESOL teacher for almost 20 years and has found this an incredible opportunity for ministry and outreach. Will there be any sessions specifically focussing on these areas? It will be great to meet you and talk further.
13.09.2010
United States
@ Denise_Austin:
Hi Denise and Garry,
I do not see any Dialogue Session focusing on ESL or TESOL. If either or both of you are able to attend any of the four ISM sessions, please do share your perspectives about the tremendous mutual benefits and blessings ESL/TESOL offers to both the student and the "teacher" (whether professional ESL/TESOL teachers or volunteers). Your input about ESL/TESOL would be a high value to the ISM session during the dialogue portion to discuss various elements of ISM. The dialogue component is about 60 minutes of interaction following the initial 25 mintues of presentation.
Being from Australia, you may wish to at least be at the session for the Asia-Pacific Region, and maybe other ISM sessions as well.
Leiton
14.09.2010
United States
@ LeitonChinn:
I totally agree that ISM is strategic and important. For I am involved in it as well. However, there seems to be a hugh push for ministries to help the returnees, not just to prepare them to go back home and live and work, but to also minister to them while they are back in their home countries. I speak of the Chinese context that I know most about. There is a growing and thriving church in China. Why not let the church in China minister to them instead of us from the outside jump in and trying to do that which the local church should be doing? yes, it will be difficult, yes they will make mistakes... but shouldn’t we allow them to make those mistakes?
15.09.2010
Australia
@ MrNehemiah:
Yes I definitely agree that it is vital that returned students become planted in their local churches back home. I believe this is the only answer to the current statistics of loss at present (I’m thinking particularly of nations such as Japan). One possible suggestion to achieve a higher retention rate may be for local churches to receive training in returnee ministry?
15.09.2010
United States
@ Denise_Austin:
Denis:
yes, agree with you that perhaps we have been focusing on the "wrong" side - perhaps we need to focus on the local church instead of the returnee. excellent food for thought!!!!
16.09.2010
Australia
@ LeitonChinn:
Thank you Leiton for highlighting the role of ISM in world evangelization. The need for intentional ministry among international students as part of the strategic global missions movement has been highlighted in previous contributors to this conversation. For example in Australia, over half a million of international students will move in and out of this country in this year alone. Many are unbelievers. Therefore the potential for gospel ministry among these students is enormous.
Reflecting on the contemporary needs of ISM, OCF (Overseas Christian Fellowship) Australia wants to propose at least three priorities. Firstly, Christians in host countries need to build relationships with international students so that the gospel can be proclaimed to them faithfully and truthfully. Blinkers to this ministry at our doorstep need to be removed. Indeed there are many students waiting to hear the gospel if only someone will go to them.
Secondly, one way to meet the challenges associated with Christian international students’ re-entry to their home countries after completing their studies overseas is to ground them scripturally in the gospel. To do so properly, more faithful workers have to be raised to teach, train and equip international students in the gospel. One of the fruits of such equipping is that they will return to churches in their home countries not merely as “consumers” but as “contributors” to the life of their new local churches. This raises the need to equip more ISM workers and leaders to do this work. Previous comments on the role of local churches among international students or returning ones will require pastors, teachers, trainers and mentors equipped to minister to these students (and returning students). In addition, these workers also need to be equipped to face the diversity and dynamic changes in this field.
Thirdly, those who are already involved in ISMs should prayerfully consider how partnerships can be built to strengthen this field of ministry. Partnerships between (1) ISM groups in the same country, (2) “para-church” ISM groups and local churches, (3) ISM groups in the same region, and (4) between ISM groups and churches in countries where these students originate and will return to, need to be cultivated. Praise God that Lausanne provides one such opportunity for these partnerships to develop.
In conclusion it is important to realise that ISM is a dynamically changing ministry. Trends in student movements and educational institutions are constantly and rapidly changing. Therefore there is a need for ISM workers and leaders to keep up with new developments and changes.
May the Lord himself lead us in his work among international students around the world for his own glory.
Footnote: By the grace of God, OCF Australia is a student-led Christian organisation was formed in 1959. The organisation currently has 20 affiliated groups in seven capital cities in Australia, serving among 1000 international students.
27.09.2010
United States
@ OCF-Aust:
OCF:
HI, I don’t think anyone disagrees with you. The thorny issue is who does the equipping of students once they get home. The disagreement is that I proposed that we let the local churches handle the returnees, as lacking and as mistake prone they may be, b/c that is the scriptural model. We can work with the students while they are here, but once returned, we need to let the local church minister to them. We should not replace the local church. The example I gave is of child-raising. If we see parents that are too good with raising their kids, do we work with the kids or do we work with the parents?
This is the jist of the discussion for me; we are at many agreements that you have summarized well.
28.09.2010
Australia
@ MrNehemiah:
There is agreement that equipping Christians, whether students or not, is an indispensable responsibility of local churches. Whether students are studying in overseas host countries or returnees to their home countries, the equipping and ongoing learning must occur in the context of local churches.
Therefore the ministry among international students opens a unique privilege for local churches to equip them as disciples of Christ and such opportunities should never be wasted. Many local churches in Australia and OCF Australia can testify to numerous international students who became disciples of Christ while students, nurtured in the gospel and have returned to their home countries as leaders and workers of their local churches. While we will never be able to guarantee every student returns in such a state, we ought to be faithful in our teaching and nurture of Christian international students. To do this well, local churches in host countries and ISM groups require multiplication of faithful workers and volunteers all the time.
It would be fair to recognise that ‘long-term’ pastoral care of returnee-students should rest with the local churches where they are returning to. It is unrealistic to expect foreign local churches and ISM groups to be the main source of support for these returning students. Nevertheless, these foreign local churches and ISM groups can still provide ‘peripheral’ support through prayer, correspondence and visitations. At the same time, awareness of returning international students in some local churches and knowing how to minister to them is still limited. Undoubtedly this is an area requiring more focused attention from local churches.
There is a need to recognise that quite frequently, many of these students will return to their home countries as “agents of change” (as have been alluded by some of the conversations posted in this thread so far). All the more, this should spur ISM workers and groups to be faithful in equipping Christian international students, especially in the essential gospel truths. In turn, they can teach and pass these truths on to others in their home countries.
The time constraints (because of each student’s length of study) will always limit the extent or depth of training. However within this ‘short’ window of opportunity, ISM groups and local churches must make the most of the time available to train and ground these students in Christ and Scripture. Because of the transitory nature of this ministry, ISMs will always operate in between the tension of ‘not enough time for full scale equipping’ yet having ‘the opportunity to impart eternal Christ-centred truths’ in young lives. This calls for vibrant and dynamic ISM leadership and training. At the same time, healthy partnership between local churches at a global scale is another important influence on life-long discipleship for anyone who have been through ISMs, especially for those moving from churches in a host country to their home country.
14.10.2010
Australia
Leiton, thank you for opening up this discussion on ISM. It was very interesting to read about the significant impact of international students such as John Sung and Bakht Singh. I’d like to add some further comments based on my historical research of the potential to change the course of our world through ISM. Evidence reveals that many national leaders have emerged from overseas student communities. Asian students have been studying abroad in Western countries since the mid-nineteenth century. Thailand’s modernising King Chulalongkorn (Rama V 1853-1910) sent a large number of his 77 children to be educated in Great Britain. King Vajiravudh (Rama VI 1881-1925), Chulalongkorn’s firstborn son, studied in England from the age of nine till he was 21 years old. What would have happened if the seed of the gospel of Jesus had been sown in his heart during his formative years of study abroad? What if his youngest brother, King Prajadhipok (Rama VII 1893-1941), had been saved whilst in England? Upon their return to Thailand and accession to the throne, these Western-educated, Thai kings immediately set their country on the road towards a constitutional monarchy. What a tragic shame it is that the major influence the “Christian” kingdom had was democracy rather thanChristianity!
The numbers of international students continued to increase during the twentieth century. By 1915, there were 1,200 Chinese youths studying in America, including Hu Shih, a PhD graduate of Columbia University and one of the most significant revolutionary writers of China’s modern era. Ho Chi Min of Vietnam and Zhou Enlai of China, became friends in Paris whilst they were both students there. The infamous Khmer Rouge which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 was controlled by a small group of French-educated men, including Pol Pot, who had lived, worked and studied abroad. What if just one of these people had been reached with the gospel whilst studying overseas? History could have been written in a very different way, if university classmates, shopkeepers, bus-drivers and friends of these future world leaders had given their utmost to see them won to Jesus. In even more recent history, one of the key political leaders and prominent billionaires in Hong Kong today, studied economics at the University of New South Wales. Was there an opportunity to change the course of history during his campus days?
As Leiton has already noted, there are many overseas students who did convert to Christianity and made a tremendous impact both in their homeland and abroad. Rev. Cheok Hong Cheong, one of the most prominent and influential Chinese migrants of Sydney, during the late nineteenth century, matriculated at the Melbourne University, before entering the Presbyterian Theological Hall. Sun Yatsen, the father of modern China, was educated in missionary schools in Hawaii and Hong Kong, where he was introduced to ideas about democracy and Christianity, which deeply influenced his own 1911 Republican goals. One final example is that of Dr Kriengsak Chareonwongsak who, in 1973, accepted Christ whilst studying economics at Monash University in Melbourne. After a period of solid discipleship and ministry experience, he returned to Bangkok, where he pioneered the Hope of Bangkok Church, that now has multiple thousands of members, has planted hundreds of churches around the world and is one of the fastest growing Christian movements in Southeast Asia. Dr Kriengsak has also been heavily involved in politics in Thailand. What a tribute of the power of ISM!
Currently, in Australia, one of the fastest growing groups of international students is from Middle Eastern countries, such as Iraq and Iran. What an incredible opportunity to bring positive influence to those great nations. However, one important issue that I believe needs further discussion is the challenge of ongoing support for returned students. Statistics reveal that the majority of students who convert to Christianity abroad find it extremely difficult to continue on with their faith once they return home. In many cases, churches which have found success are those with western style worship forms, meaning returned students are not engaging effectively back into their local communities. Perhaps what is needed is more strategic and long-term partnerships with indigenous churches in the home countries, who would be poised ready to embrace the new converts when they return?
12.09.2010
United States
@ Denise_Austin:
Thank you, Denise, for your diligent research. You might not know that America’s first international student was Henry Obookiah, a native of the (then) Sandwich (now Hawaiian) Islands. He was brought to New England in the early 1800’s. Samuel Mills, one of the "Haystack 5" guys that began the first foreign misisons society in the US, lead Obookiah to Christ, hoping he would return to win his island brothers to the Lord. Instead, he became a very effective recruiter for overseas missions. Your insights into the cultural and spiritual needs of returnees is correct. That is one reason why I wrote the book, Add to Your Faith (1993). It helps prepare future returnees by discovering cultural reentry issues along with New Testament spiritual growth principals and how those principles fit and should be lived out, taking on local behavioral patterns. It is a big challenge, but not too big for God’s grace!
13.09.2010
Australia
@ BillPerry:
Thank you Bill. Your research sounds fascinating and I look forward to learning more. My work has mainly focussed on those Western-trained Chinese students who went into flourishing business careers. Missionaries were often disappointed that their these students did not become great evangelists back home. However, I found that many of them were instrumental in financing the building of churches, hospitals, schools, universities, etc. As such, they were probably more effective in extending the influence of Christianity in modern China than if they had become ministers.
13.09.2010
United Kingdom
@ Denise_Austin:
Denise, thank you for your contribution here - this is a great discussion and the strategic nature of returnees is the main focus of our ministry in OMF International, where all our workers in our Diaspora Field are concentrating on the preparation of returnees to China and Japan especially. i would love to be able to meet up with you and talk further over these issues. Do you have a contact email address?
29.09.2010
United States
I appreciate the discussion. No doubt there needs to be concern for God’s process and design in returning disciples to China. And the church is God’s living organism for growth and outreach. The open door of opportunity of outreach to the top scholars is ordained by the Lord. We have seen key outreach and compassionate care within China be developed by top scholars who came to the US and have come to Christ and now are led by the Spirit to be fully involved in ministry. We have seen others who have returned to be leaders in business and academics, and also be leaders in the church and pastor and plant churches. God’s heart is for all people and is not limited to one group or class - and that includes the influential scholars. It seems that there is an appropriate tension here - and one to continue to pray about and work with - sharing Christ with those overseas, helping them to grow in the Lord and consider God’s call on their lives to serve Him back home, and the need for good connections with the church when they return. When both sides can work together, this can bring good results for God’s glory.
Glen Osborn
President, China Outreach Ministries
24.09.2010
United States
@ China_Outreach:
Hi Glen, good to hear from you. I agree with you that we are joining God in working with those that He has scattered around the world. By reaching them, we not only reach the diaspora, we can reach through the diaspora and beyond the diaspora.
Yes, there is a tension, but as I see it, we are over reaching the authority of the local church here. The Bible is clear on it. The returnees are to be under the care of the local churches. It is up to the local churches to feed them and challenge them and prepare them. We on the outside can certainly help, but right now, I feel as if we are not helping correctly. I think the majority of help should be with the local church, but we spend the majority of our efforts on the returnees. We need to help mostly the local church, not the returnees. This is according to the Bible. We need to work with the parents, not the kids. Otherwise, we will just be meddling in everyone’s homes on how to raise their kids. Good thing the Bible helps us to avoid that. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of our predecesors in missions. Let’s hand the control and responsibilities to the locals, and allow the Spirit to work. For us, perhaps it is 80-20, where the bulk of the investment should be in the local churches and 20 in the returnees. I am afraid, from what I am hearing, that we are doing the opposite, where we are spending the bulk on the returnees and very little on the local churches. We need to rethink this, seriously.
26.09.2010
United States
The following is a reply from Paul Pruitt of the OMF Chinese Diaspora (student) ministry....
Yes, the local church "should" be helping returnees to integrate, but either are failing to do so, or are making no effort to do so. To be fair, many are simply unaware that there is even a need for this, and many others just have too much on their plates to deal with this "extra" need. But however we look at it, failure to successfully integrate returnees into the Chinese church would mean a colossal loss on both sides, and one that would have far-reaching implications for many years to come. Why?
1. It is estimated that at least 10% of Chinese students and scholars who return from overseas are returning as Christians. This puts their numbers into the tens of thousands every year. 2. These returnees, if they are mature, return with a wealth of valuable contributions to make towards the Chinese church, including (often) a more holistic view of ministry; great ideas on how to more effectively train and evangelize the urban areas of China; an ability to compare strengths and weaknesses in the Chinese church with the overseas church; and they often return far better trained and equipped to serve in the church than those who have not had the opportunity to go overseas. Moreover, they are the best possible source of providing the much-needed cross-cultural training that outgoing missionaries from China so desperately need.
3. The Chinese church, for all its many strengths, is also plagued with many weaknesses that are, and will, severely hamper its growth in ever-changing China. For example, because so much of the church is rural, it is failing to minister effectively to the rapidly-expanding urban areas of China. Urban professional fellowships are popping up everywhere, but the disconnect between the two is getting larger. There is much naivete with regard to cross-cultural mission which will seriously damage China’s first efforts at cross-cultural mission, when that takes place. Returnees can be a very significant link between the church in China and the church overseas, and also between the church in China and overseas missionaries/mission agencies.
We should allow the Chinese church to make mistakes, but not without providing a hand to help them up when they fall. In other words, we need to walk alongside them as they grow and develop, rather than stay out of the way. They are welcoming our help in many areas, and as long as we approach them as equals, with humility and gentleness, we have a great deal we can still offer the church in China. The same goes for returnees.
Paul
18.09.2010
Australia
@ LeitonChinn:
Thank you Paul for these great insights. Yes, I definitely agree that the rapidly growing "Third Church" in urban areas of China is a key to supporting and embracing returnees. I think it’s also important to acknowledge the role of the disciplers in the host country, who have invested time, energy, friendship, care, love, etc. into the new converts in the host country. As such, they actually have more of a vested interest than those in the home country, for whom these new returnees are actually "strangers". So, this is where I believe that church partnerships are a vital missing link. Somehow, there is a need to introduce these "new family members" into the local church.
19.09.2010
United States
@ LeitonChinn:
While we may all agree that working and preparing returnees is a good idea, it sounds like we are not in agreement about how to go about it. Currently, I don’t think there is enough preparation for the returnees and the overseas churches are beginning to see that and working towards it. However, the question I originally raise was that why focus our energy solely or mostly on them? They may be strategic, may be the best bridge, but I think it is up to the local national churches to continue to grow them. Let me give you an illustration.
Say you are the parents of a child who’s learning a lot at school and the teachers are loving and everything. But the teenager is coming home with all sorts of strange ideas - evolution is truth, homosexuality is ok, abortion is pro choice, etc. Now, you are the parent, and it is up to you to raise the child. Would you continue to like it when the teacher teaches all these new strange ideas to your child?
I think Denise brings up a good point in a conversation earlier. Perhaps we are focusing on the wrong part of the equation. Maybe if we want to reach the child, we need to first reach the parents, and not the other way around. Ultimately, it is the parents’ responsibility to raise their child, just like it is the responsibility of the local church to minister to the flock. We need to be careful to not usurp the authority of parents (local church) as we go forth in Kingdom building. Many parents are not bringing up their children the way we like (I am not talking about neglect), do we go and raise their kids for them? I hope not. This is what some might call western paternalism - we don’t have all the answers.
So I like what Denise has said, perhaps we need to bring the focus on the local churches rather then focusing on the returnees. This can apply to China or Japan or Indonesia. I also think that returning scholars are not the only ones with great potential to do cross-cultural work. Most people who grew up in SE Asia are pretty cross cultural already. There are many more people that God can use to build His church. Through out history, He has used the most unlikely ones, starting with Apostle Paul - who we would never think is a great cross cultural worker. But God used him mightily. The awesome growth of the house churches from 1950 to 2000 are done by the people that we would never think that has great potential - uneducated peasants. So be very very very very careful as to how we see things and focusing our energies on a group of people that we think humanly speaking, has great potential. Our Father is the one that determines who He will chose to use in His work.
In 1 Corinthians 1:27-31 it reads: 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." We may see the scholars as prime asset, but we must look to God first, He often works different then what we humans think are “best”.
No matter how “broken” the local church is, I believe that God has set them up to do the Kingdom work. We MUST partner with the local church. Paul planted churches and appointed elders right away. He didn’t send in workers to work with those who are “with great potential”; he let the local church do the work, no matter how young they are. He then send people to help the local church, so that the local church leaders can pastor the people that God’s given them. Might we not do the same?
21.09.2010
United States
As a former intl student and now an ISM worker, I am simply bowled over by the opportunity of not just the host country participating in world missions at their front door, but also for the international Christian student themselves whom otherwise would never have much opportunity to learn to share the gospel to another foreigner. As a Malaysian, when I go back to Malaysia, I only share with Malaysians. Our ministry involves having future leaders of the world being trained to share the gospel to other sensitive people groups with religions/beliefs where it would be very hard to share one’s faith so openly and freely. Our Pakistani believing student has been able to share his faith with a Russian/Tajikistan Muslim and an Indian Muslim. Now, his current housemate is an Indian Muslim, and now living with them is a Hindu vegetarian, and he is a Pakistan believer. Tell me where else one can have such training and opportunities to live out one’s faith in the context of the Great Commission.
24.08.2010
United States
Yes, God loves the stranger and calls His people to do the same.
24.08.2010
United Kingdom
Thanks Leiton. You are doing a wonderful job raising the profile of international student ministry and we all appreciate you very much.
Richard
24.08.2010
United States
Thanks Leiton! Al LaCour
24.08.2010
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