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Who Is a Missionary?
The term and concept of missionary has been around a long time — four centuries to be exact. Since that time, the world has changed enormously and the pace of change in the last generation has been almost exponential. Those changes necessarily compel us to consider how we are carrying out the great disciple-making mandate of Jesus and the role of the missionary as we have traditionally understood it. In this series, Dr. Larry Sharp, Crossworld’s Vice President Emeritus, will briefly examine this role in the light of our changing world.
Who Is a Missionary?
by Larry Sharp, Crossworld Vice President Emeritus
Most of us probably have a fairly consistent definition of the word missionary. Our responses might range from the Sunday school ideal of “someone who tells another person about Jesus” to a more profound understanding of the term “sent one.”
Read the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
A quick review. The term missions refers to the act of sending, and began to be used about 1598 in reference to the Jesuits. In 1974, the Lausanne Congress defined the term in this way: “To form a viable indigenous church-planting movement.” Missionaries rely on what is called the Great Commission as they witness about our risen Lord and seek to help others follow Him. Some people consider being a missionary “the highest calling.”
Crossworld itself is considered a missionary organization and does not shirk from stories of how God has changed lives and communities into disciples of Jesus. Our website tells the story of the Danis in Papua burning all their fetishes so they could follow Jesus. Clearly missionaries bring the “good news,” and that good news changes lives.
But today, many who hear the word missionary associate it with something other than one bringing good tidings of great joy.
Wikipedia suggests a missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism. The article’s link to evangelism provides this: “Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs.” The next paragraph links evangelism to making converts and to proselytism. The English Collins Dictionary’s list of synonyms for missionary suggests these terms: apostle, converter, evangelist, preacher, propagandist and proselytizer. When a novice Googles missionary today, those are the results.
I question whether the label missionary is as useful today as it was when the term originated. With all of the history and preconceptions that accompany the term, I wonder if there are better ways in which we can express those committed to fulfilling Jesus’ disciple-making global mandate.
Crossworld itself is considered a missionary organization and does not shirk from stories of how God has changed lives and communities into disciples of Jesus. Our website tells the story of the Danis in Papua burning all their fetishes so they could follow Jesus. Clearly missionaries bring the “good news,” and that good news changes lives.
But today, many who hear the word missionary associate it with something other than one bringing good tidings of great joy.
Wikipedia suggests a missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism. The article’s link to evangelism provides this: “Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs.” The next paragraph links evangelism to making converts and to proselytism. The English Collins Dictionary’s list of synonyms for missionary suggests these terms: apostle, converter, evangelist, preacher, propagandist and proselytizer. When a novice Googles missionary today, those are the results.
I question whether the label missionary is as useful today as it was when the term originated. With all of the history and preconceptions that accompany the term, I wonder if there are better ways in which we can express those committed to fulfilling Jesus’ disciple-making global mandate.
Read the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
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