I don't like being called a missionary, because I'm not. Don't tell me, "You can be a missionary right here in Fort Wayne, Ind." No I can't. It doesn't equate with relocating to Mozambique.
Anyway, I once wrote an article about this, sort of a rant, as my editorial in a denominational magazine I once edited. The piece was subsequently published in some other magazines.
Anyway, I posted in here for your glorious edification.
Career-wise, I've been hanging around and writing about and cheering on churches and pastors for the past 25 years as my denomination's Communications Director.
Hmm - so can the Missionary Church be the Missionary Church in Fort Wayne? ;-P
Thinking . . . . Thinking . . . What about people from Latin America, Africa, even Canada, who relocate to the US to minister - are they missionaries?
Intriguing. Does being a "missionary" require relocation. And if so - what is the minimal distance. . . .
You're thinking too much, Mike.
I'm probably all bound up in traditional paradigms. At the most basic level, I don't think everyone I workship with on Sunday morning is a missionary. I do think of foreign relocation as part of it, but that has problems.
Is Dave Datema a missionary, since he works out of Pasadena? After spending 20 years in the States, Billy Simbo is going to Sierra Leone as a missionary--but he's originally from Sierra Leone, so maybe he was only a missionary when he was in the States.
But again, at the most basic level--don't tell me that, in my ordinary local church work, I'm a missionary. Because to me, that cheapens what the real missionaries from my church--Sharon in Azerbaigan, Tabatha in Vietnam, Elizabeth in Haiti--are doing. If we want to call everyone a missionary, then we need to come up with a new term to describe them.
But you know what I mean.
My brother is a missionary in Honduras and he absolutely loves it. He says it is not difficult to be in foreign country if that's where God wants you to be. We have had other missionaries visit our church who say the same thing. I look upon them as having sacrificed to go there and they do not think that way. They are where God wants them to be and so are we. That's probably why missionaries are so encouraging to us here by telling us that we are missionaries, too. We are simply where God wants us to serve Him. Don't be so hard on yourself! If God wanted you on a foreign field, believe me, you'd be there!
What does a "layperson" do then? If I go to Mexico for a week and build an orphanage for a local ministry am I a missionary? When I return, have I become a layperson again? For that matter, do missionaries on furlough cease to be missionaries until they return to timbucktoo?
Just a few questions you've caused my mind to trip over. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Sorry Steve but I have to disagree with you because I believe that there is a fundamental flaw in your understanding of missions. Missiologists have argued for many years that it is not a separate function of church but rather a part of it's very identity. If missions is seen that way it will affect everything you do, including your trips to the ping pong club.
Tom