Author Thread: Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Moonlight7

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 7 Nov, 2019 07:15 AM

Wouldn't a missionary be someone who takes the Word of God abroad? In other words to Foriegn places.



Why is there so many, so called missionaries titles, in churches?



Aren't all Christians to be a Witness for Jesus in Life !

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Loree7

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 8 Feb, 2020 05:20 AM

You are correct that a missionary is someone who leaves their own area, or culture. The complete definition would be someone who leaves their own area or culture to establish a church, school or hospital.



Being a missionary, I have hated the song, "Be a Missionary Every Day." We are all called to be witnesses as you have said, but while the Bible doesn't use the term "missionary" the guidelines are there in the life of the Apostle Paul.

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Moonlight7

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 24 Feb, 2020 08:08 AM

Loree



Thank you for your response ! So many on these Forums just view and don't reply.



You wouk think more would take time to post , if they are members of CDFF.

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Moonlight7

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 24 Feb, 2020 08:11 AM

Apostle Paul was a missionary, he went many places teaching the Word of God .

A missionary can be Agent, Apostle, or Evangelist.

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LittleDavid

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 26 Feb, 2020 06:18 PM

I’m posting this article by Got Questions, naught be helpful.



What is a Christian missionary?



GQkidzChristian missionaryaudio

Question: "What 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?

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LittleDavid

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 26 Feb, 2020 06:20 PM

“Naught” is my spell checker’s alternative for the word “might” But then again, could be my fat finger punching the wrong keys!

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Loree7

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 27 Feb, 2020 03:54 PM

The Apostle Paul was 1. sent from a local church

2. plant churches

3. left pastors in the churches



This is the missionary model, but many confuse the word "witness" and "missionary" now days.

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Loree7

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 27 Feb, 2020 03:59 PM

We are all commanded to make disciples within our local churches, but the New Testament church addressed this model of specifically sending missionaries (Apostle Paul, Silas, Barnabas, and John Mark).

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LittleDavid

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 18 Apr, 2020 07:51 PM

One of the saddest of missionary stories is about charlatans and scammers posing as missionary candidates taking part in disputation processes.

One such scammer thought the the fake missionary would be an easy life of free money and leisure but he eventually got caught and might have gone to prison. Many of the churches he scammed wanted to see him go there.

But one man was able to convince church leaders to allow the scammer to make restitution for all the money scammed instead of simply going to prison.

The restitution plan went in to effect and the scammer ended up selling all his ill-gained possessions and worked to pay off the rest of what he owed. In the end, the scammer become a true believer.

I don’t have stats indicating the number of missionary scammers likewise brought to justice but the fact scamming takes place, should behove churches to vet missionary candidates thoroughly.

God bless those missionaries who truly serve their Lord by spreading the gospel of Jesus

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Alligator

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 26 Apr, 2020 03:09 PM

My middle daughter was a "missionary" during the last summer of her high school. A church group when to Honduras. But they helped build a church. There were 10 in the group. She said it was never made clear what the denomation was. She was from a Berean church. But the "preacher" encouraged the kids to sleep late on Sunday morning. They were there for a month. One Sunday morning she and one of the boys went to church. It was conducted in a foreign language, so she does not know what was preached. Basically, they were used for free labor.

I am a student of Native Americans - both North America and South America. There has been no greater damage done to the Word than the Catholic "missionaries" who accompanied conquerors to the New World. I dont have enough space to write it all here. I have often wondered why churches send people to other countries to try to teach Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims, but fail to take clothing, food and the Bible in its truth to Appalachia, Indian Reservations, Inner Cities in the USA. I do not have a high opinion of missionaries overall.

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Just What is a Missionary in Your opinion ?
Posted : 26 Apr, 2020 07:16 PM

A missionary is someone who goes on missions.

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