The Vital Role of Third Culture Kids in New England Baptist Churches — and Where They’re Headed
When Baptists in New England talk about mission, discipleship, or church renewal, one often-overlooked resource sits quietly in pews, classrooms, and mission fields: Third Culture Kids (TCKs). These are children who grow up between cultures — commonly the children of missionaries, diplomats, military families, international businesspeople, or immigrants — who form identity in a “third” culture that blends parental and host cultures. For Baptist churches across New England, TCKs are not a marginal curiosity but a growing asset and a prophetic signpost for the church’s future life and witness.
Why TCKs matter to New England Baptists
Cultural agility in an increasingly globalized region. New England’s cities and towns are more diverse than many assume. TCKs naturally bridge cultural gaps — they’re fluent in crossing boundaries of language, worship style, and social codes. That agility helps congregations engage newcomers and host multicultural ministries without losing theological conviction.
Mission-mindedness and vocational fuel. Many TCKs carry early exposure to global needs and cross-cultural service. In Baptist life — where mission and evangelism are central — TCKs often bring deep vocational interest in overseas missions, church planting, or cross-cultural ministries, replenishing a pool of workers whose passion was forged in childhood.
Innovative leadership and hybrid thinking. Growing up between cultures encourages creative problem solving and a willingness to experiment. TCK leaders in youth ministry, worship, and community outreach can help congregations rethink programs that no longer reach younger or more diverse constituencies.
A bridge to immigrant and refugee neighbors. TCKs often have linguistic or relational connections to immigrant communities. In New England towns with growing immigrant populations, TCKs can help Baptist churches offer hospitality and practical ministry in ways that feel authentic and respectful.
Theological enrichment. TCKs challenge monocultural assumptions about faith. Their questions about identity, family, and belonging push pastors and teachers to articulate doctrines of incarnational presence, hospitality, and the global church with fresh depth.
Challenges TCKs and Churches Face
While the gifts are real, so are the tensions — for the TCKs and the congregations that receive them.
Belonging and identity issues. TCKs may feel rootless, struggling to belong among local peers while also feeling different from peers in their parents’ home culture. Churches that fail to address identity and pastoral care risk losing gifted young people.
Generational and stylistic mismatch. Older congregations sometimes misread TCK flexibility as restlessness or lack of commitment. Conversely, TCKs may find traditional church structures slow or inflexible.
Underdeveloped pastoral structures. Not every church is equipped to provide the counseling, mentoring, and vocational discernment TCKs need. Without intentional investment, TCKs’ gifts can be underused — or they can leave for other ministries.
Practical Pathways for New England Baptist Churches
The future of TCK involvement in Baptist life depends largely on intentional practice. Here are concrete steps churches can take:
Create welcome pathways that recognize multicultural identity. Sunday school classes, newcomer orientations, and small groups should explicitly recognize TCK experiences (frequent moves, bilingualism, mixed cultural references) so newcomers don’t have to explain themselves repeatedly.
Invest in pastoral care and mentoring. Train leaders and lay counselors on TCK-specific needs — identity formation, reentry culture shock, grief over loss of place. Pair TCK youth with mentors who can help translate gifts into local service and long-term vocation.
Develop leadership tracks that value cross-cultural skills. Design internships, apprenticeships, and volunteer roles (in youth ministry, outreach, worship, and missions) that leverage TCK strengths. Celebrate hybrid skills — language ability, event adaptability, informal multicultural leadership — as valuable leadership traits.
Partner with regional networks. New England is rich in seminaries, mission agencies, and cross-cultural ministries. Churches should partner with those networks to provide vocational pathways and theological formation that honor TCK backgrounds.
Offer theological reflection spaces. Host seminars, retreats, or sermon series that connect TCK experiences with Baptist theology — themes like incarnation, pilgrimage, exile, hospitality, and the unity of the church. This helps churches see TCK stories not as peripheral but as theological witnesses.
Use hospitality as formation. Encourage TCKs to lead hospitality ministries with immigrant neighbors, language cafés, or international potlucks — spaces where their cultural fluency becomes ministry and community formation.
Leverage digital tools for dispersed populations. Many TCK families move frequently. Online small groups, discipleship tracks, and mentorship can keep young people connected across moves, enabling churches to retain and nurture TCKs who relocate within the region.
The Future: A Church Shaped by Mobility and Multicultural Witness
Looking ahead, TCKs will likely increase in importance for New England Baptists for several reasons:
Demographic shifts. New England’s population trends include immigration and mobility for education and work — trends that produce more multicultural children and families. Churches that can steward TCK gifts will be better positioned to serve changing communities.
Shifting forms of ministry. As mission and ministry become less centralized and more networked, the adaptable, relational skill set of TCKs will be invaluable for hybrid, conferencing, and cross-congregational ministry models.
Global crises and vocational calling. Global humanitarian and mission needs continue to call new workers. TCKs are often prime candidates for compassionate vocational responses, whether in nonprofit leadership, chaplaincy, or international church planting.
A theological reframing. Theologically, TCKs press the church to more fully embody the New Testament’s vision of a scattered, diverse people united in Christ. Their presence provokes gospel-shaped hospitality and a reorientation from cultural comfort to missionary presence.
From Resource to Reformation
TCKs are more than a demographic to be managed; they are a prophetic resource for Baptist churches in New England. When congregations intentionally receive, equip, and partner with TCKs, they gain cultural fluency, mission vitality, and theological depth. The future hinges on whether churches will see TCKs as an occasional gift or as central to a missional reformation — a reformation that equips congregations to be at home in a changing cultural landscape while remaining at heart a people formed by the gospel.
Practical steps — mentorship, theological formation, leadership pathways, and hospitality-led outreach — will determine whether TCKs become a bridge to the region’s future or drift elsewhere. For churches willing to invest, TCKs offer a vivid promise: a Baptist witness in New England that is simultaneously local, global, and deeply faithful.
Lierte Soares Junior is a Brazilian-American pastor, missionary, and educator serving in New England. As a "reverse missionary," he was sent from Brazil to New England to help revitalize churches. He serves as the president of the Baptist Churches of New England.
Soares holds a law degree from Faculdade de Direito Vale do Rio Doce, a business degree, an education degree plus a Bachelor of Arts in Theology from Faculdade de Teologia Integrada in Brazil. He also holds a Master of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Missouri and a Master of Theological Studies with a concentration in cross cultural missions from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry in Missions and Evangelism from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Lierte Soares's extensive educational background in theology, missions, and evangelism directly informs and empowers his ministry as a "reverse missionary" in New England. His academic path, spanning degrees from both Brazil and the United States, has equipped him with a nuanced understanding of cross-cultural ministry, church planting, and leadership in diverse contexts.
References
Corrales, T., Ahimi, N., Frasch, J., Klapwijk, J., Lloyd, B., & de Waal, I. (2021). “Where I’m from? Third Culture Kids about their cultural identity shifts and belonging.” Social Sciences & Humanities. This study looks at how TCKs tell stories about cultural identity and belonging, finding that many view “home” more in relational than geographic terms. ScienceDirect
Ruth Bateson‐Ardo, Ann Rogerson, Stephanie Denne, Leigh Coombes (2024). “Ab-normalising projects of third culture kid identity: Troubling the god trick.” This article critiques some of the usual deficit assumptions about TCK identity (e.g. identity crisis, rootlessness) and argues for reframing identity in more fluid, situated, and relational ways. SAGE Journals
“Third Culture Kids: Home without an address” — Council on Business & Society Insights (2024). This offers an accessible overview of TCK traits: identity, the sense of not quite belonging, adaptive/cultural chameleon tendencies, etc. Council on Business & Society Insights
Complex but integrated: Exploring social and cultural identities of women Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and factors predicting life satisfaction. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Vol. 84, September 2021. Explores how female TCKs integrate social and cultural identities, and what contributes to life satisfaction. ScienceDirect
“An Investigation into Academic Stress and Coping Strategies of South Korean Third Culture Kid (TCK) College Students.” Behavioral Sciences, 2025. Examines academic, relational, and identity stressors among TCKs, and how they cope. Helps illuminate challenges of identity formation and belonging. MDPI
“Missionary kids experience a 3rd culture world.” Baptist Press. A story about MKs (Missionary Kids) living as TCKs, giving qualitative detail of their lived experience in Baptist mission contexts. Baptist Press
“New England Baptists aim to reach Hispanics.” Baptist Press. Provides demographic context in New England and illustrates the growing ethnic diversity among Baptist communities, which intersects with TCK issues (immigration, cultural hybridity). Baptist Press
“Seven fast facts about New England for volunteer mission teams.” Baptist Churches of New England. Offers useful demographic data about urban / rural divides, ethnic diversity in major cities (e.g. Boston), helpful for understanding the landscape in which TCKs are growing up in New England.