I disagree...

Missionary is a flexible term. I understand why folks use it that way.

But I do not use it so broadly because I feel that such use devalues the great sacrifices made by those who minister overseas and cross culturally.

I have a sister-in-law who has been an IMB missionary for over 12 years so far. I also have friends who are who are moving to Ecuador to be missionary doctors.

I would be redfaced to call myself a missionary in their presence.

 

We as Christians are all compelled to go and tell. The fact is so very few of us do.

 

i would disagree with the statement that "all baptists are missionaries" because "ALL" baptists are probably not Christians. You can't be a missionary for Christ if you are not one of His.

 

I think that we are all called to share what we know about Christ no matter what. You do not have to be a missionary to share your faith. You are called to share your faith no matter what your job is if you are a Christian. Witnessing is not something that is just for missionaries
Kristen

 

All believers are missionaries. They are messengers of the gospel.

 

Many people feel because they do not have the tittle missionary over their name that they do not have to witness. What I am trying to say is that it does not matter what you do we are all called to share the love of Christ
Kristen

 

As a missionary I will say that in a sense all Christians should be a type of "missionary". They must all be witness, that seems to be agreed on here. However, not all Christians are full time or vocational missioanries.

Also to assume that mission is soley about winning people to Christ is absoulutly wrong. It is about glorifying God amongest all nations. And that involves a whole lot more than seeing people saved.

I my estimation the NT pattern for missions is church planting. This invloves bringing people to salvation, discipling and baptizing them; organizing them into a local church and appointing a national pastor to lead them. Then commending them to the Lord.
That is true NT missionary work.

So not all Christians are not called to be church planters.

 

All who are saved are called to be witnesses.All who are saved are witnesses whether for the good or the bad.
If all Baptist are called to be missionaries does that mean that all pentecostals are called to be missionaries? Are we palying semantics?

 

I believe the Great Commission was given to all Christians. Not all mission fields are foreign or away from home. Maybe your mission field is your own family.

 

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

Translation?

Hometown, State/Province, neighboring State/Province, the world.

In this sense then all believers ought to be missionaries. A missionary is one who is sent with the gospel.

The NT in Acts shows what one missionary did. He carried the gospel all over the country, established churches of believers, entrusted locals as pastors and moved on. But it also shows what other missionaries did. They collected a group of believers in their own home and ministered to each other and witnessed to their neighbors.

Our common modern problem with the term is we are so ego-centric. "I am not like so-and-so therefore I am not "called' to be a missionary". but it is error to think like that.

Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth; were Jesus' words. There is no wiggle room here, and I think Jesus meant it that way. He included every believer in that one statement.

We should/ought to be willing to go to the uttermost even if we never leave Jerusalem.

In HIS service;
Jim

 

I am a commissioned missionary with the NAMB and the MSC.My mission ministry is not overseas but right here in Arkansas.My wife and I oversee Travelers Chapel,a truck-stop ministry that ministers to truck drivers and travelers.Your mission field is where the need is,not necessarily just in some remote region of a third world country.There are many mission needs in your own backyard.

 

Sunday a "foreign missionary" spoke to our church. She is an American sent to Russia. She explained that her "duty" is accounting. She helps other Christians in Russia when they have financial problems, she offers emotional and moral support to those missionaries who preach the gospel, she does the Russian-side-of-the-equation-adminsitration for the mission board.

My Uncle was a pilot, a math teacher, he became a bible translator and a church planter. My aunt was a registered nurse. They have been in the foreign mission field for over 40 years.

Turn yourself over to God, and you'll discover amazing things about yourself that only God knew.

 

I agree with the thrust of most of the previous postings on this topic, i.e., that God has called each one of His children to be a witness for Christ, regardless of whether or not that person actually has some sort of "Christian vocational job title" (pastor, church staff member, "Missionary," etc.) attached to his/her name.

If a person is saved, then he/she IS, in fact, an ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:17-21). Our challenge is to be certain that we are honest representatives of Jesus Christ no matter in what vocation or location we may find ourselves.

To say that one is a "missionary" only if he/she has responded to a particular calling of God to go somewhere to work in some type of "Christian ministry" is to have a very distorted view of what God has in mind for all of His children.

As someone has already indicated, your "mission field" may be (and/or ought to be!) perhaps your own family and relatives, your friends and neighbors, those with whom you work at some so-called "secular job" (Boy, do I HATE that term--as if working at a regular job is somehow less sacred than working at some "Christian ministry"!)

Unless it's some job that God's Word specifically denounces (A "Christian Bar Tender"? I don't think so!), then each of us should look upon what we do as unto the Lord, be it, for example, a mechanic at some repair shop, an office worker at some legitimate business, or as a parent at home with your children (definitely a high calling IMO!)and so forth.

We are called to be both salt and light whatever occupation we may have and wherever we may find ourselves!

When you think about it, a "missionary" is simply a person who has been given a "mission" to accomplish. As has already been noted, our mission directive is found in Acts 1:8.

Not every Christian mentioned in the NT went along with Peter, John, or Paul, etc., on some "missionary journey." If you'll read the NT again, you'll often find "every day people" being commended simply for being hospitable (for opening up their homes for the full-time vocational servants of God to stay or for allowing gatherings in their homes in which others could be taught the things of God [You will NOT find Christians in the NT going to some "NT church building" to worship and be edified!]).

I'm not sure who came up with the saying, "Bloom where you are planted," but, in essence that's really what each and every child of God is called to do, be it in "Jerusalem, Judea, [or in] the uttermost part of the earth."

 

Several years ago, I had the privilege of leading a 5-year-old to Christ. Her 7-year-old sister had already made that decision earlier.

One day soon after that, these two young girls were playing at a playground, and shared Jesus with a friend. The friend asked Jesus to be her Savior.

The three girls went to the sisters' mom, told her, and mom went to visit the friend's mom, (who said she was already a believer),to invite her to come to church. After their first visit, our pastor went to visit the family, and led the father to Jesus.

If this is not "missionary work" being done by these two young ladies, then I don't know what it is! I STRONGLY agree with the comments about the mission field being where you are!

Bill