The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that a little more than 1.5 million immigrants (both legal and illegal) move to the United States each year. It is difficult to envision a ministry in the United States that is not intercultural. Fifty years ago, only those who were preparing to serve on the foreign mission field needed to gain an understanding of the issues specific to intercultural ministry. Today, with the ever-growing international population in the United States, we must train every minister of the Gospel to be an intercultural minister of the Gospel.

The cultures of the world are coming to our shores and neighborhoods daily. We have unprecedented opportunities to join in the evangelization of the nations and advancement of the Kingdom of God. Millions of people are providing us with the opportunity to share the Word of God with them without even needing to leave the comforts of our homeland.

The arrival of so many immigrants could be a time of tremendous missions advance. Many of those who are coming are from some of the most oppressive and anti-Christian countries in the world. We can freely reach and teach them here in the USA where we may preach the Gospel openly. Yet, we will miss this excellent opportunity to impact the world with the Gospel as long as we ignore the cultural differences between ourselves and the other cultures coming to live among us.

If we want to influence the world at our doorstep, we need to understand our own cultural distinctions as well as those around the world—whether we are visiting them or they are visiting us. Only then can we relate to them and communicate the Gospel effectively.

How can one prepare for effective intercultural Ministry? Intercultural Studies is the discipline of study that prepares intercultural workers to effectively enter, live among, relate to, and thrive in other cultural settings. This includes verbal and nonverbal communication, cultural understanding, global worldviews, ethnographic research, theoretical knowledge, spiritual warfare, contextualization, ethnohermeneutics, orality issues, mission strategy, etc.

We usually recognize that we must learn the target culture’s language in order to influence the people. Yet, in the signal systems that we use for communication and interaction, verbal language is only one aspect. This discipline of intercultural studies prepares people from one culture to understand and interact effectively among other cultures of the world. The ability to do so is essential in our day of globalization, urbanization, and interaction of thousands of ethnolinguistic groups in our world. In fact, Dr. David Hesselgrave stated in Communicating Christ Cross-culturally, “If the Christian mission were something to be played, communication would be the name of the game. As it is, the Christian mission is serious business—the King’s business! In it, missionaries have ambassadorial rank. Their special task is to cross cultural and other boundaries in order to communicate Christ. That is a tremendously rewarding endeavor. But it is also an unusually demanding one.”

Some 27,000 distinct ethnolinguistic groups exist in the world today. Intercultural ministry among so many different groups today requires unique preparation. Today’s ministers and missionaries must be effective multicultural witnesses both in their natal culture as well as in the cultures to which God leads them. Intercultural Studies is a discipline of study that prepares men and women to do just that.