Who is a Missionary?

At first glance, this sounds like an easy question. We all know who missionaries are, don’t we? They’re the people who preach the Gospel and start churches in other countries – right? But as we dig deeper, we realize how difficult it is to accurately define who a missionary is. On one hand, there are those who say, “Everybody is a missionary, all you have to do is share the Gospel with someone else.” But if everybody is a missionary, then what is the significance (if any) of those who have a special calling to serve in another country? On the other hand, there are those who serve in other countries who tend to shy away from the term “missionary” because of its negative implications by some people. Does that mean they aren’t missionaries?

Missionaries are Sent Ones
The most basic meaning of the word “missionary” is “sent one.” Missionaries are those who are sent. But from whom and to whom are they sent?

To answer this question, let’s begin with a look at the Bible. God the Father sent His Son Jesus into the world (John 3:17), and the Son has sent the Church as a whole into the world to participate in His mission. Jesus told his disciples in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

The Church as a whole often sends specific persons to serve specific roles as cross-cultural missionaries to other people groups around the world. In Acts 13, Barnabas and Saul were set apart by God and sent by the church to do the work to which God called them. Just as the apostles were sent to take the Gospel message to the world in the 1st century, missionaries today are called to take it to the world in the 21st century. A missionary, in the strict sense of the term, is defined as a person who crosses “cultural boundaries to establish new outreach on behalf of Jesus and plant new bodies of local believers.”[1]

Joining God’s mission (embracing the missio Dei) is not reserved for a select group of Christians who are sent to cross cultural boundaries as missionaries. A future post will explore the missional nature of the church, but this post will focus on missionaries who cross cultural barriers.

The two marks often used to distinguish missionaries are that (1) they have been specially selected or chosen, and (2) they have taken the gospel to other cultural groups.[2] Ray Tallman defines missionary as: “A ministering agent sent by God and His church to communicate the gospel message across any and all cultural boundaries for the purpose of leading people to Christ and establishing them into viable fellowships that are also capable of reproducing themselves.”[3] This often includes, although does not require, entering a new geographic location and ministering in a different language.

Any Christian who crosses a cultural barrier, however, is not automatically a missionary. If a person who is a Christian has a job that transfers them to another culture, they are not automatically missionaries simply because they are Christian and work in another culture. Likewise, Christians vacationing in another culture are not automatically missionaries. Missionaries are called and sent – sent by the church and ultimately by God. There are no self-sending missionaries. “Mittere and apostello both imply that there is someone doing the ‘sending.’ ... Missionaries are sent by a mission board as well as by the Holy Spirit and by the Church.”[4] There are many who cross cultures but are not considered to be missionaries. “The title ‘missionary’ presupposes that one has crossed cultures for the express purpose of advancing God’s kingdom and has received God’s call to do so. ... You’re not a missionary simply because you wake up one day in a foreign country.” [5]

There are, however, a wide variety of people from many walks in life who become missionaries, often fulfilling a wide range of roles beyond the more traditional roles of teacher, preacher, and doctor. Missionaries make a broad subject. Some receive a salary for their work, others must raise their own finances, and still others find employment to support themselves. "Missionaries represent almost every profession.... They come short-term, long-term. Some come as students, some are retirees. Some are church-supported, some self-supported. Some come under mission boards and societies; some come independently. They come from the First World, they come from the Third World, and they go to all the world."[6]

1. A. Scott Moreau, “Mission and Missions” in Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions. ed. A. Scott Moreau (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 17.
2. Ibid., 15.
3. Ray Tallman, Introduction to World Mission (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1989), 17.
4. Ibid., 15.
5. Thomas Hale, On Being a Missionary (Pasadena, California: William Carey Library, 1995), 8.
6. Ibid., 1.