On defining the word missionary

From a comment I left on a blog this week?

I’m going to break my own rule here and comment without having read this entire post. Just don’t have the time to today (unfortunately) but this is a topic I have strong opinions on. Probably no one will see this comment anyway, since this post is almost a year old now.

I used to be of the mind that everyone’s a missionary, wherever you are. I’m not any longer though, having served in missions mobilization for five years now (with http://mdat.org — just 80 miles east of Tulsa). The problem I see with this mentality is not so much with the idea that we’re all witnesses – “You WILL BE my witnesses” (Acts 1:8), whether you intend to or not — as much as it has to do with clarity in communication among believers.

To say that everyone’s a missionary waters down the term in the context of what is a very complicated endeavor, taking the Gospel to all Nations. I’ve come to realize we need to delineate different tasks simply to best understand the task ourselves. If we say that everyone is a missionary, it becomes much more difficult to clearly share the need for people to go overseas and engage the unreached people groups, which is still needed (Mal 1:11, Matt 24:14 et al). What do we call those people? Cross-cultural missionaries? Apostles (which, literally, means “sent ones”)? Neither of these really work as there are multiple cultures within a geopolitical area, and you can be sent without going overseas.

That said, I don’t exactly have a suggested glossary of terms to offer, particularly with respect to long-term missions. Here at M-DAT we’ve thought much more about short term missions (up to now, since we’re known for our website http://ShortTermMissions.com).

“Mission trip” has become the generic equivalent in the short-term realm that “missionary” has, well, other places. It would be so much easier for everyone involved if we distinguished between a service trip (construction or orphanage help) and a prayer walk or an evangelistic outreach. This isn’t to say that prayer and construction can’t be evangelistic (you WILL BE witnesses), but the simple fact is those trips aren’t geared to that end. I suppose doing this might be problematic to certain participants, who for whatever reason might feel less important if they were part of a “service trip” and not a “mission trip,” but IMO people with that mindset are approaching service from the wrong angle from the get-go.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. And, yes, to a degree it’s splitting hairs, but that’s what we do in missiology. I look forward to nosing around your website more, and if I can insert a shameless plug you might want to check out our new website, http://PreparingToGo.com, which likely addresses a lot of the same content.