- MISSIONARY
'mɪ.ʃə.nɛ.ri noun. Person sent on a religious assignment, namely to spread Christianity in another place.
Jesus ordered his students to tell the whole world about
Well, some of us. Most of us don’t bother.
Because we tell ourselves that’s a specialized job. One for people who’ve to have a God-experience: Jesus personally spoke to them, or appeared to them, and made us
Meanwhile we pray the Moses Prayer…
Exodus 4.13 NLT - But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”
…and avoid anything where Jesus might show up, where we can no longer avoid him or explain him away, where he might actually tell us to obey him already. ’Cause the commission to tell the world about his kingdom isn’t just for apostles. It’s for every Christian. EVERY. CHRISTIAN. And if we’re not doing it, we’ve no business calling ourselves Christian.
But because the bulk of Christians aren’t doing it, we have a designation for Christians who actually obey Jesus:
Most of us do it a little here, a little there. We go on a missions trip for a week or two, pitch in at another church, and use that church as a base from which we can go into the nearby communities and share Jesus. You know, like Barnabas and Paul and their teams did in Acts. It doesn‘t have to be in a foreign country; y’notice Paul doesn’t appear to have ever left the Roman Empire. But there’s something about foreign visitors which really gets the locals’ attention. So by all means take advantage of this interesting trait in human nature, and go share Jesus in some foreign countries.
Some Christians do these mission trips as a career. They travel the world, visiting country after country, connecting with local churches everywhere—or if there isn’t one, helping to get one off the ground. Again, like Barnabas and Paul in Acts.
Some travel to only one country, and plant a church there. Weirdly, we tend to call them “missionaries,” and the folks who do the Barnabas/Paul type stuff “traveling evangelists.” Not that the church planters aren’t just as much missionaries! And not that Jesus doesn’t frequently send people to do exactly as they’re doing. He gives Christians all sorts of specific missions.
But the general mission he gave to every Christian, the one we call the Great Commission, is this one:
Matthew 28.18-20 KWL - 18 Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “Every power in heaven and earth is given to me!
- 19 So go disciple every people-group:
- Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
- 20 and teach them to stick to everything I’ve commanded you.
- And look, I’m with you every day—till this age is over.”
Have we got to every people-group yet? No? Then let’s get cracking.