Don’t Be a Missionary…

I was at a coffee shop recently with a friend when someone walked up and began to talk to us. This person began to tell us all about how they were going to be a missionary and were looking for support. They were not really connected with any local church, but this person talked about all of their previous experience, the people they were going to work with, and the missions organization that was going to send them. They seemed eager and earnest, and the one thing I wanted to tell them was, “Don’t be a missionary…”

Before I explain myself, let me be clear, my heart beats for the mission of God. I am jealous for God. He deserves the praise of the nations. Leaders in North Korea do not deserve praise, Buddha does not deserve praise, Allah does not deserve praise. Only the Triune God of the Bible deserves worship, and it burns me up to see these false gods get the praise due His name. And I love the lost. I am burdened for those who have never heard. I grieve for those who are deceived. I long to see those who are in the domain of darkness be transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.

But while I pray for God to send out laborers into His harvest, I think a lot of people need someone to tell them, “Don’t be a missionary…” There is so much good and godly zeal that is expressed in a desire to go to the mission field, and yet, “desire without knowledge is not good” (Prov 19:2). Because our culture is weak in enthusiasm towards the mission, when we find someone who actually wants to go, we immediately begin to try and find ways to send them out. Unfortunately, the testing and training that missionaries need often go largely neglected, and someone with a weak ecclesiology, a poor understanding of the mission, and most dangerously, a poor understanding of the gospel, goes to the lost world and is completely unprepared for the work. These zealous Christians need to be encouraged and tested, but they don’t need to be indiscriminately sent out.

We as Christians need to be discerning in our sending. If we’re not careful, we will be guilty of replicating the missionary efforts of the Pharisees that earned this rebuke from Jesus: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves (Matt 23:15). If we send out under-qualified and unprepared missionaries, then it should be no surprise when we get poor results and weak churches.

So really, my encouragement to most people is, “Don’t be a missionary… yet.” God raises up men and women for this work of bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth, and He works to do this by His Spirit and the confirmation of the church (Acts 13:2-3). Those with a desire to “go” need to be patient and willing to put in the work to be qualified to “go”. And each one of us should burn with that same missionary zeal to see God glorified among the nations. Even if we are never called or qualified to be a missionary, let our hearts be filled with jealousy for our God. Let us be burdened for the lost world. May God be glorified in His church.

Jacob Crouch 2023