I have long struggled with defining (Christian) Missions and (Christian) Missionary. I don't really have a problem with modern formulations of "Mission." I find the Missio Dei understanding of Mission in terms of God's overall plan of ministry in the world is pretty good (there are of course different specific flavors of the definition). However, …
Tag: missionary
Maybe a “Cross-cultural Minister”?
In our Mission Research class it came up a second time. Should there be missionaries serving here in the Philippines? After all, if over 90% of Filipinos self-identify as Christians, are they needed? If one identifies missionaries in terms of the Biblical role of apostle-- evangelist and churchplanter-- they are unnecessary in much of the …
Some Thoughts on Culture, Communication, and Missions. Part 4
Taking the ideas of Part 1 through 3 further (see links below), I would like to extend it to Incarnational Missions. See the figure below (Figure 6) Figure 6. Incarnational Missions Modification In this case N, S, and C stay the same (natural world, society, and culture respectively). P again is the people group in …
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Four “L”s from Missions History
Successful missionaries, mission programs, and mission movements in Christian history seem to have four characteristics. They don't always have all three, there is a priority to them. Now some that have been numerically successful (such as the invasion and subsequent colonization and "Christianization" of South America) fail to meet the criteria of sound Christian missions, …
Pastoral Care and the Missionary
I am scheduled to teach a two-week course at Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary (www.pbts.net.ph) this April as part of its Summer Institute. Basically, it is an 8-week course shoved into two weeks. I am not sure that "Pastoral Care and the Missionary" is the name the course will finally settle on, but I like it. …
Parable of the USS Truett (and Missionary Member Care)
Strange title. Anyway, and I may have put this story in a blogpost before, many years ago, I was on an inspection team of the USS Truett. The USS Truett was a Knox-class Frigate in the United States Navy. While on board, only for a couple of days, I was talking to a petty officer …
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The Future of “4F” Missionaries?
What is a “4F” Missionary? This is the traditional missionary of the 19th and 20th centuries. I am going to start with 3F because it works better for a Venn Diagram... but we can add the fourth later. F Foreign (not community, local, or regional) F Fully Funded (not bivocational, or self-funded, but financed by …
What is a Missionary? Part 5. Solution?
I have already said some things that I think do NOT define a missionary. I don't think professional status defines a missionary. I do not think working cross-culturally is a necessary condition as well. Neither do I see the popular Christian understanding of being "Called" as tied of necessity to being a missionary. I pointed …
What is a Missionary? Part 4… the Conundrum
Now, I have to admit that I don't like terms that deny people of their proper place. Back when I was a mechanical engineer, I had a friend who did mechanical engineering, but was quick to say that he wasn't a "real engineer" since he did not have the college degree to support it. He …
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What is a Missionary? Part 3
The third part is the question of whether being a professional (full-time) is a necessary characteristic of a missionary. In other words, can one be a volunteer, be a part-time missionary, be a short-term missionary, a tent-maker, however one wants to say that one is not a full-time professional... can they be called a missionary? …