WHAT DO MISSIONARIES DO?

Part I | Discerning a Calling & Capacity

"What do missionaries do anyway?"

Before answering this question, it's helpful to reference our starting point, the Great Commission:

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus' words reveal his heart and desire for all to be saved and his commitment to pursuing the lost. The Barna Group, a leading research organization focused on the intersection of faith and culture, found that 51% of churchgoers in the US don't know about the Great Commission. For those who know the reference, Jesus' mission is the why behind our co-participation in that mission. Who he is and what he did is the answer to why we leverage our lives and share our faith in the process. 

Now that we have a starting point let's go back to our question: "What do missionaries do anyway?" 

Well, that depends on a variety of factors:

• Ministry Assignment = what part of the world (which includes the factors of culture and language).

• Term length = short-term, mid-term, long-term, or career missionary.

• Type of ministry = nature of the work and the capacity of service.

• Mission agency (or denomination) = agencies specify a specific part of the world, people group, or nation(s) as their focus.

Where are you being called?

When you hear the term "mission work," you may be picturing an individual, couple, or family going to a third-world country and living in the middle of nowhere, far from civilization. This type of mission work, although common, is not always the case. The God that sends people to these small remote villages is also the God who sends people to urban, densely populated cities. Perhaps, if we remove our Western lenses for a moment, we will see that poverty or a lack of modernity is not the primary issue tackled by mission work. Still, others may persist in describing mission work as some virtue-signaling religious person who goes door-to-door to share their faith with unsuspecting and frequently annoyed strangers. Fortunately, this picture is also an overly reductionist caricature or flagrant mischaracterization of mission work. 

As Christians, we believe that the Gospel message is communicated by our words and demonstrated by our actions. To put it another way, a Christian is an ambassador of the Kingdom of God—and being an ambassador often involves embodying the hope-filled message of Christ while addressing a practical need in society. For the sake of finding common ground somewhere in the conversation, one could ask: 

• Where in the world is there a need? 

• Who is in need? 

• What is their need? 

However, the mission's focus is not merely to solve a practical problem; it is ultimately to contextualize the finished work of the person of Christ and how that has eternal implications that far exceed resolving a person's temporal plight. 

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Romans 10:14-15

Furthermore, mission work is not synonymous with ministry abroad in a different country. You could go on mission in your city, neighborhood, or workplace, just like someone could cross national borders to go on mission in a foreign country. When trying to discern if you are being called to go on mission, we advise you not to discount time in prayer and communion with the Lord. There is a faith component to being called. A desire to reach those who are lost or isolated from the Gospel, whether they're religious or irreligious. Our experience of this is summed up by the acrostic below: 

• Consider - considering the journey ahead; gathering as much information, data, and factors as possible—conducting research (such as statistics, history, and immigration laws), reading books, watching documentaries, creating charts and maps, etc.

• Clarity - engaging in extensive prayer; taking the information and forming pros/cons; what is a factor and what isn't? Note: Going on a visionary or exploratory trip to the location is highly recommended. Meet and interview some people currently engaging in mission work there. 

• Conscience - introspection; is there anything weighing this decision down? Unforgiveness in your life, matters of convenience, financial debts, available resources, escapism, and many other reasons.

• Courage - It would be strange if you didn't experience doubts or fears about the calling. After all, many sacrifices are involved, and courage is a prerequisite to going on mission.

• Contentment - As a Western American, I confess that my culture and generation are not great at being content and/or patient. More likely than not, things will take shape differently while you're on the field, or something may pan out in ways you didn't anticipate. When this occurs, you must remember that this is a time for perseverance and contentment in the Lord. 

To add another "C" word to the list above, you may wonder how a calling is confirmed? Our calling to England was confirmed through affirmation from peers, mentors, and coaches—providence and divine appointments, scriptural confirmations, extensive prayer and research, countless inquiries, and an exploratory trip to England to meet with local ministers and leaders.

How do I get there?

There are a variety of ways to go on mission. As aforementioned, the type of ministry can be determined by capacity. A full vocational missionary will need to raise 100% of their monthly financial support to sustain life and ministry on the field. A bi-vocational missionary will partly raise their monthly support and partially rely on a salary from a part-time job (both are provisions from the Lord). A co-vocational missionary can obtain a job in a foreign country, treat their workplace as the entry point into the culture and rely on their salary to sustain their mission. 

Depending on the country you're going to, immigration laws and regulations can majorly affect your ability to do mission work there. Visas and other forms of permission to enter or cross a country's border are necessary. You will need to understand the pathways accessible to you and the timeline of approval depending on your country of origin (passport country).

When approaching a mission agency, you should equip yourself with a vetting process and criteria that suit your goals and mission. Here are some good questions to ask. Remember to treat your initial communication with an agency like interviewing a potential employer:

• What presence does the agency have in that particular country?

• What type of organizational and management structure do they have?

  (Top-bottom, bottom-up, flat, or shared ministry structures)

• What is their administrative fee/operations assessment? Agencies usually take 10-20% from every donation to run their operation, and they don't usually discuss it upfront. Note: we know of one mission agency that does not "tax" missionaries. (Send me an email, and I can share more info about this agency). 

• Do they have grants or partial funding options, or is it entirely self-funded?

• How does the mission agency manage your funding? How do missionaries and ministry partners access information related to ongoing financial support? 

• What type of visa or permissions to enter a particular country of interest does the agency offer? Agencies will typically have an affiliated church or charity that functions as a sponsor if they, themselves, can't sponsor a visa in that country. 

In Part II of this series, I'll go over the usual steps in preparing for the field, lessons learned while raising support, our visa application, and onboarding/settling on the mission-field for first-time missionaries.