china - Technology's Impact on Missions

I just read a very helpful interview of missions expert Paul Borthwick on the future of short-term missions. What stood out to me most was what he said regarding technology and missions.

After showing that today's modern technology can, in a very positive way, allow "short-term teams [to] come back with more ability to stay in touch with the people they served alongside of", he goes on to share one of the primary hindrances of modern technology to missions:

"Unfortunately, technology can also have a negative impact. It's getting increasingly difficult for Westerners to be emotionally present where they're serving. Rather than becoming culturally immersed, they go out during the day and do ministry, but come back at night to check their Facebook pages and update their blogs. They don't become part of the local culture because technology is keeping them connected to home."

Its the part about not becoming part of the local culture that worries me most! If you don't become immersed in the culture and learn the language and customs of the people you are trying to reach, then you will not likely bear much fruit.

With the easy access to the internet that most missionaries today enjoy, it is very difficult to "disengage" from our native culture (which we access daily online), and to purposefully engage with our new adopted culture. But engage we must, for the purpose of making Christ known among the unreached people that surround us!

What do you think? What are some practical ways that missionaries can safeguard against staying too attached to home while ministering cross-culturally?

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Technology's Impact on Missions

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