In class the other day we were having a conversation about missional Christianity, specifically in regard to A. Wayne Schwab's book, When the Members are the Missionaries. Someone brought up the fact that missionaries are people spreading the gospel in foreign lands. Her comment started me thinking, and here are my musings in abbreviated form:
To be a missionary, is to be one whose life is shaped by a mission. The common understanding came from the idea that people were sent on a mission by the church. I love missions in the sense of people going to a different cultural group—I have friends that are serving in other countries and I admire, appreciate and support their ministry among the people they serve. However, I think that understanding the word missionary in this way has been detrimental to the people of God because the mission is not the church’s mission primarily. It is first and foremost God’s mission to the entire world as revealed in Christ and God calls all of us to participate in this mission as missionaries. This is an essential part of the Christian faith—“For God so loved the world that he sent his Son…”.
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