Are you aware of missing missionaries! I have not read much about it, but I know God is concerned and so should we! There are documented accounts of missing missionaries throughout the world and in particular, interesting enough, in North America! Who would have thought… we in the United States have missionaries by the thousands of thousands, if not millions of millions who are missing!
Let me explain. God calls each of us as missionaries, who embrace a missional lifestyle wherever we happen to live. This can include a foreign field for some, but for all the rest of us God’s call is not any less. All believers are to live as His missionaries or ambassadors incarnationally, within our neighborhoods, workplaces and among our unsaved friends and families.
This started back with our first century brothers and sisters, when our Lord called His disciples to Himself by making an inseparable connection between genuinely following Jesus and being a fisher of men. (Matthew 4:19) This continued throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry until the end, when He commissioned the twelve to the global mandate to make disciples of all nations. For how long? Until He returns! (Matthew 28:18-20). Graciously God has not left us alone without strength or power. Jesus promised the inward empowerment of the Spirit to faithfully fulfill this calling (Acts 1:8 “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses…”). Jesus made it abundantly clear that from the very beginning His true followers are Spirit empowered disciple makers, on a mission, thus…MISSIONARIES!
The apostle Paul helped further develop our understanding of our calling as missionaries, in His second letter to the Corinthians. Within the context of addressing false teachers, misperceptions and His credibility, Paul reminded the believers in Corinth and us today that we all have been sent to make disciples, have the ministry of reconciliation and are therefore God’s ambassadors. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) Please take note of what directly preceded this passage. Paul is inspired to exhort the readers that as true believers this flows directly out of our new identity in Jesus. Christians are controlled by the love of Christ, no longer living for ourselves and now as new creatures in Jesus we are about the ministry of disciple making, reconciliation and witnessing. (2 Corinthians 5:14-17)
Please do not miss the point. We are all missionaries! The real issue is whether you and I are missing! Are you living as one on assignment from your heavenly Father, commissioned by the Lord Jesus Himself? If not, you are one of those missing missionaries! Called and commissioned, but absent on assignment. If that is you, ask yourself a few questions that need to be addressed. Why? And how can I realign my life to more faithfully respond to His call upon me as a missionary to my world for such a time as this?
Tom Harcus (An in process, needy, not always faithful, missionary)