I often hear an objection: “Wait a second. Are you saying missionaries shouldn’t try to share the good news about Jesus until they reach a high level of language ability?” No, I’m not saying that. In fact, I’m actually making a more startling claim: for all practical purposes, we simply cannot communicate the good news about Jesus until we reach a high level of language ability. It isn’t a question of should, but can; not propriety, but ability. Similarly the primary issue is not whether first-year medical students should be practicing medicine, but whether they can with any sort of effectiveness. Of course they can’t. Because they don’t yet know how.
—Matt Rhodes, in No Shortcut to Success