Apart from the inherent difficulties in missionary communication, not everyone who is a missionary is a naturally great communicator (including myself). Most of those who can communicate well have learned the art of communication through necessity and experience. There is no widely accepted standard by which effective missionary communication is measured. When it comes to communicating, missionaries for the most part are on their own.

Missionary culture adds an extra dimension to the communication environment. In an attempt to adapt and function in diverse circumstances, missionaries create their own unique sub-cultures, blended from parts and pieces of their home culture, their foreign culture, and the culture of their sending agency or church. The end result, of course, is that their new little sub-culture ends up being a patchwork that doesn’t really fit in anywhere. There are an enormous array of interactions that occur between these cultures. Add to that the overriding sense of mission that a missionary feels (whether to share the Gospel, heal the sick, or whatever), and the transcendent tenets of Christianity, and you have a culture soup, a subject on which libraries of books have been written.

These communication barriers can lead to logistical problems, as missionaries go to work in areas where other missionaries may also be working. At best, this can lead to duplication of work, as each missionary may proceed unaware of the other’s work. At wors