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| Jun 20 |
Why I don’t teach EnglishShould missionaries teach English? Many of them do, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. This is why: 1. It is the wrong kind of ministry.Only 6% of new believers in Thailand come to the Lord through missionaries. This to me is a clear indication that missionaries are not most effective by maximizing their own evangelistic effort, but by helping Thai Christians reach non-Christians. But English teaching is very missionary-centered. So it is not a wise investment of your time. 2. It works against church multiplicationWhen you build a church through English teaching (unlikely, but say you succeed), the members have not seen a model that they can reproduce. It will be hard for them to picture evangelism without resident missionaries, and all but impossible to picture planting a daughter church. 3. It is a lousy way to get in touch with people who are open to the GospelThere are people in Thailand who want to hear about Jesus. But you likely won’t find them if you are busy teaching English and trying to build relationships with these students. If you want to find people who are open to the Gospel, you should try to find people who are open to the Gospel. Personally, I go around telling people that I am here to teach about God the Creator, and that if anybody is interested, I’m very willing to go and teach at their house. I might have to tell this to 500 people before I find a new place where I can start a Bible study group. But at least then I am doing what I am called to do. Why is English teaching still so popular among missionaries? I think mainly because it keeps them busy. It’s a nice way to fill up your week. But if it does not fill up God’s church, it’s still a waste of time. Having said all this, the discussion is mainly a moot one for the Isaan team. We are focussing on rural areas where few people want to learn English. Praise God! (I’m not that crazy about English myself – it remains a poor alternative to Dutch 3 Responses to “Why I don’t teach English”Leave a Reply |
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As one part of what I am doing, I am trying to do a kids club English/Bible time every Friday afternoon. It is for small children (1-6 grade) and the English is really really basic, so even Thai folks with some minimal English could do this kind of evangelism. Our first session was yesterday, and we taught English numbers 1-7 and a few simple vocab words as part of telling the story of the days of creation. I have not seen any fruit from the “just teach English and hope to build relationships” method, so I am trying the “be up front about teaching English using Bible stories” method. My hope is that the kids (and any parents or teachers hanging out) will get some Bible content and the fact that I am teaching English will build good will with the community.
As far as reproducibility, I had a couple Thai guys helping me yesterday and at least one of them could have done most of the English part himself (and his English isn’t even very good). If I was doing English teaching for teenagers or adults, then the English knowledge required would be much greater but as it is, I think that the real simple stuff could be reproduced by some Thai people.
English teaching is hardly the bulk of what I do though. I’d like to keep it to a minimum actually. I would go crazy if I did too much of it. Having Bible as center of the teaching content helps keep me sane and feel like this teaching is part of what I came here to do: tell people about Christ.
I don’t believe teaching English is ideal for a missionary. But for those who have had difficulty learning the Thai language it is not a bad option. (Thous an argument could be made that if they can’t speak Thai what are they doing here anyway, but that is another discussion)
But I know of Thai churches (in Issan and elsewhere) who desire to have missionaries teach English as part of the churches ministry. So in this scenario it could work. It is not just up to the missionary but is a partnership with the Thais, which I feel is ideal and the way missionaries should work anyway.
Hi Martin,
Interesting to read your comments. We feel very much the same re. our church planting ministries in Taiwan. I would add another reason to not to it and that is it reinforces the view that Christianity is a western religion and for those interested western things.
I think one reason it is popular is that it is something you can do when you don’t have very good Chinese/Thai/etc. We certainly use it for short-termers making contacts but most of our long-term people avoid it whenever possible.
I am not sure that churches wanting missionaries to teach English necessarily means we should agree to this. We also find that churches in Taiwan want missionaries to teach English. But not because they have a good thought-through strategy. It is because a) They can’t think of anything else for the missionary to do. b) They tend to think the more programs and activities the better.