Do I Need a Degree to be a Missionary?

Do I need a degree to be a missionary? Fuller professors share their answers.

Be Equipped to Face Challenges Involved in Crossing Cultural Boundaries

A degree equips you to face the challenges as well as the dangers that are involved in crossing cultural boundaries as someone who is speaking for the gospel. There are so many possible ways in which we can be oblivious or harmful when we cross those cultural boundaries. A degree helps acquaint you with some of the ways that you’ve been shaped—perhaps in ways you’re not even conscious of—and helps to equip you to be a good listener and to be patient with the context that you’re going to, so that you can be a messenger of a gospel of peace.

G. Tommy Givens, associate professor of New Testament studies

Be Wiser, More Effective, and Last Longer as a Missionary

Everyone can be a missionary if they’re committed to showing and sharing the love of Christ with others. But for most people that have built their lives and their vocations around sharing the love of Christ with others, they often find that, at some point, they encounter a challenge that they don’t know how to address. That’s when a degree can really help. For others, they may have the wonderful opportunity to pursue a degree in mission before they ever engage in ministry. Whichever order you choose, it’s important to see how a degree helps us to be wiser, to be more effective, and to last longer in our work as missionaries.

David H. Scott, professor of intercultural studies and children at risk

Be Educated for the Sake of the World

First, we go into the world as missionaries to share the love of Christ. And the world is a complex and complicated place. We need to know what’s going on; we need to understand to do the work as well as we possibly can. Second, missionaries form relationships with people.
While we might take education for granted, many in the rest of the world want education and value education. We owe it to them to be the best educated missionaries that we can be.

Kirsteen Kim, professor of world christianity

Interested in being equipped to serve as a missionary? Learn more about Fuller’s degrees, including the Master of Arts in Global Missional Leadership (MAGML), which emphasizes both scholarship and praxis to give both seasoned and aspiring leaders the foundational skills to serve in various types of intercultural ministry around the world.