Lately when talking to people and sharing our story of preparing to move to Portugal we’ve heard the phrase over and over again “I would love to be a missionary!” This usually comes after talking about the beaches of Portugal, sharing our travels to different places in Europe, or sharing pictures of our life in Ireland. Exciting right? For many, the idea of living as a missionary and traveling the globe is glamorous, a perception of living as a jet setter and moonlighting the world. Others see the lifestyle of a missionary as poor, dilapidated, and difficult, scraping by just to make ends meet. Living as missionaries we’ve never really felt like either of those two extremes...and to be honest, I’m not sure if we’ve known missionaries that have. The missionaries and ministers we’ve known over the years have all taken their ministries in stride; being a missionary is just something we are, sharing the message of God in good and bad, living out the particular gifting God has given us. That isn’t to say that our lives have been easy or that we haven’t been blessed to visit amazing places, it hasn’t and we have. The truth is it’s really easy to build up the life of a missionary as mysterious and exotic. We missionaries can easily fall into the trap of thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to in order to make ourselves seem important and daring. When someone says that they want to be a missionary it would be very easy to talk down the idea and discourage them in order to make ourselves seem important. “Oh no, don’t consider missionary work, it’s dangerous...leave that to the professionals.”

The truth behind the emerald curtain however is that mission work isn’t glamorous, it’s simply another gift bestowed by God for certain people for building up and encouraging the world-wide body of Christ to grow in numbers and maturity. That’s it. Sometimes it’s hard but so is getting up and going to work on the oil rig trying to live out your Christian faith. Sometimes it’s an adventure but so is navigating ambassadorial allegiances for a foreign government and King Jesus. We missionaries are regular people who saw a need, had the opportunity, and went. None of which would be possible without the senders who saw a need, had the opportunity, and sent. So if you feel the desire to go and serve, do it if you can. If you can’t go right now, you can always send. If you are thinking about mission work, here are some questions to ask yourself to see if mission work is right for you.

1) Are you a Christian who loves Jesus?

2) What about mission work makes you want to get involved?

3) Are you interested in visiting new places, meeting new people, and eating new (strange) things?

4) Do you like studying your bible and sharing what you’ve learned with others?

5) Are you frequently approached for advice or counsel? Does your counsel generally help when heeded?

6) Do you have the opportunity in your life to pull up and leave to start again?

7) Do you like other cultures and other languages?

8) Are you currently serving your local congregation?

9) Would you be content serving in your area if you couldn’t move somewhere else? Are you serving right now? If not, why?

10) Are you passionate about doing something else with your life? (other than ministry) What is that thing?

11) Have you ever travelled outside of your home country for extended periods of time?

12) Do you think about missions, church structure, church planting, the Bible, scripture, and other languages frequently?

13) Has anyone ever told you that you would make a great minister, Bible teacher, church planter, evangelist, church strategist, youth leader, and/or preacher?

14) Have you ever been asked to lead, preach, teach, counsel, plan, strategize, or oversee something in your local congregation?

15) If you’ve done #14 have people responded well to what you did?

These are some hard questions to seriously consider if you feel like going into foreign mission work. They are not meant to discourage those gifted for ministry but to encourage and build up. If you don’t have the gift to go however, there is plenty for you to do. You can pray, encourage, and give financially to those who do thus fulfilling your part in God’s great plan. Whatever your gift, God can and will use you in some great capacity if you let him.

Goers click here, we need your help

Senders click here, we need your help

(Updated) I hope this article was encouraging and uplifting to those who see the life of missionaries and think of someday doing the same thing. Mission work is fulfilling and amazing, something I wouldn’t trade for the world. As I get older and grow in my maturity I am beginning to understand my gifting at a deeper level which leads me to a greater understanding of the significance of the calling we’ve been given. If you have desire, the opportunity, and the gifting for missions let me encourage you to pursue it. If you don’t that’s okay, figure out where your gifting lies and pursue that with the strength God provides.

Tags: Missions