Learning to Lead: What Missions and a Random Class I Took as an Undergraduate Have in Common
Imagine this: you’re sitting in a room that most certainly used to be an open porch that has since been enclosed and turned into an office. The metal folding chair you’re sitting on is cold; you realize there doesn’t seem to actually be any central heating here, and the entire room is being warmed by a single space heater tucked underneath the desk in front of you. Across the desk sits your academic advisor, who is desperately trying to figure out the college’s registration system on his laptop. It’s November—it’s advising season—and you’re both trying to sort out which classes you will take in the spring semester.
“You have an open elective that you should use up this semester,” he notes. “You could take anything you wanted, really, but you should probably just take something offered by the department.”
You shrug your shoulders. You’ve been up since 7 AM, which you know isn’t all that impressive in the grand scheme of things, but it’s impressive for a college student who went to bed at 4 AM. You’ve got presentations to work on and papers to write; this 15-minute academic advising session wasn’t very high on your list of things you were looking forward to.
“Sure,” you say. “That works. What is the department offering?”
Your advisor does some more clicking around on the laptop. “Looks like … you could … No, you transferred that one in … Hmmm…”
A couple more moments go by. “You could take Group Communication,” he finally offers.
You nod. “Sounds great, I’ll make sure to register for it.”
That’s a fairly accurate representation of the conversation that happened between me and my academic advisor during the first academic advising session I ever had as an undergraduate student. I ended up taking Group Communication as a night class (because who wants to take an 8 AM?). Interestingly enough, the college eventually combined the Group Communication class with the Leadership Communication class and called it “Organizational Communication.”
Whatever the name, the content I learned has since come in handy—and especially came in handy as I served as Team Lead for the RP Missions Costa Rica team this past summer!
Group/leadership/organizational communication skills are necessary when working on the mission field in just about any capacity, but perhaps especially for short term trips. RP Missions trips typically have a small group (my team was a team of 5) of varying personalities and backgrounds. Some of us were extroverted, some of us were introverted. Some of us preferred to take showers at night, some of us preferred to shower in the mornings (thankfully, all of us preferred to shower daily). None of us knew each other before we arrived in Costa Rica.
Navigating new people and new places while trying to achieve a goal can be difficult, especially since groups tend to go through stages or phases. Generally, there are four stages of small groups: exploration, transition, action, and termination. An RP Missions team goes through all four stages.
Exploration
The beginning stage of a group. For me, this was getting the final team list and sending an initial email to let everyone know who was going to Costa Rica. We spent time learning a bit about each other, including things like home congregations, personality types, etc. It’s an exciting time in group development!
Transition
Perhaps one of the tensest stages of a group. You’ve gotten to know everyone a bit better, and it’s become clear that everyone has different personalities and preferences. You’re beginning to transition away from just getting to know each other into completing a task. The Costa Rica team arrived, got settled, and immediately got to work—before we had fully sorted out strengths and weaknesses of team members. It can be a discouraging time for a group because the reality of the situation—a month in a foreign country with people you aren’t familiar with—is starting to set in.
Action
it’s time to get started! The group is now actively working together and working on problem-solving. The Costa Rica team began to open up to each other more and show grace to each other in times of particular stress and anxiety. We learned each other’s strengths and weaknesses and used them accordingly! The team was in its prime during this stage of the trip, and we managed to do a lot of good work for our host congregation.
Termination
All good things must come to an end. After four weeks in Costa Rica together, it was time for my team to go their separate ways. We came from different states, different backgrounds, different generations—but had lived and loved together for an entire month in a foreign country! RP Missions facilitates debriefings after each trip so that team members have time to reflect on their experiences.
Overall, I learned a lot from that Group Communication class in college, and was able to apply it to my experience as a Team Lead for the Costa Rica trip. RP Missions believes that these types of skills are valuable on the mission field. . .so valuable, in fact, that we offer our own leadership training course required of all Team Leads!
The RP Missions Leadership Training for 2023 will launch on January 28 and run bi-weekly through May 13, 2023. Every other week, participants will gather virtually for 90 minutes to learn about leading and facilitating small groups, as well as the ins and outs of planning a missions trip with RP Missions.
While this training is required of all our Team Leads, it isn’t restricted to just them—anyone interested in small group/leadership communication can take our course!
The cost of the training is covered for Team Leads. For those not leading an RP Missions trip, the cost of the course is $350 per person. The course is available to Congregational Missions Advocates (CMAs) for $275.
Feel free to reach out to info@rpmissions.org or mikayla@rpglobalmissions.org for more information!
Mikayla Covington works for RP Missions as the Assistant Coordinator of Marketing and Recruitment – Short Term Missions.