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What is a Christian missionary?
Who is a Christian missionary?
Answer: A Christian missionary is commissioned by the Lord to make
disciples, followers of Christ. Jesus commands all Christians to share the
Gospel, the message of His death and resurrection that conquered the penalty and
power of sin.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew
28:19-20).
Who is a Christian missionary? Many people picture a missionary
as a middle-aged man who leaves his job in America to evangelize and plant
churches in Africa. But that is a simplistic view. Today, African Christians
reach out to Muslims in the Middle East. College students spend their summer
teaching English in Asia. A family in America befriends and witnesses to
international students. A truck driver responds to an international disaster,
meeting both physical and spiritual needs. All these are missionaries.
Although missionaries cannot be stereotyped, they each have a call. God calls
them to set aside personal ambitions in order to be witnesses of the Gospel.
Like Isaiah, a missionary gladly responds, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah
6:8b). Often God sends a missionary to a particular people group as Paul was
sent to the unreached Gentiles and Peter to the Jews (Galatians
2:8). Although technically a Christian missionary is one specifically called
by God and sent out by the local church,
every Christian has a mission to make
disciples.
What does a Christian missionary do? A Christian missionary
proclaims Jesus as Savior and Lord. Whom do they tell? Jesus made it clear that
Christians are to reach out to “all the nations” (Matthew
28:19), especially those ethnic groups without a Gospel witness. Unreached
people groups are still waiting for the way, truth, and life found in Christ (Romans
15:20). But Christians at home should be missionaries in their own
communities, doing personal evangelism (Acts
1:8).
Missionaries do more than evangelism. The commission was to make disciples, not
immature believers. Thus, a Christian missionary’s outreach involves evangelism,
discipleship, and church planting. These main goals are accomplished in a
variety of ways: street preaching, tract hand-outs, church building, Bible
studies, teaching English as a second language, relief projects, children’s
clubs, mountain trekking, literacy teaching, radio broadcasting, etc.
Why does a Christian missionary go? Christian missionaries go
in obedience to God’s call. God called the apostle Paul, “to appoint you as a
servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in
which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the
Gentiles— to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts
26:16-18).
Jesus assured us that missionaries will face surrender and suffering.
Missionaries leave friends behind, experience culture shock and rejection (Matthew
10:16-31). But instead of falling into self-pity or pride, they learn to
delight in serving God. Rather than being a burden, obeying His call brings joy
and reward in heaven. Therefore, a missionary serves not out of duty but love (2
Corinthians 5:14-21).
A Christian missionary delights in spreading the good news of Christ to the lost
just as Paul did: “Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a
door was opened for me in the Lord. . . . thanks be to God, who always leads us
in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge
of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who
are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from
death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for
these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from
sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God” (2
Corinthians 2:12-17). Rather than seeking personal gain while witnessing,
Christian missionaries bring glory to God by honoring Christ’s righteous life,
sacrificial death, and absolute authority.
Will you be a Christian missionary? A Christian missionary is
an ambassador of Christ. Each one must be yielded to the Lord, loving Him with
all the heart, soul, mind, and strength. Specifically, a missionary is one whom
God sends through the support of the Church to the unreached. All Christians,
however, are called to be missionaries of the Gospel. The Lord works through
them to rescue the lost. What greater call can one answer?
Source:
http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-missionary.html
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