Why I'm uneasy about the term 'missionary' but still am one

On The Role of Western Christians in God's Global Work

I work overseas as a missionary.

That is something that defines my life but that I still feel uncomfortable talking about in the West because of the baggage that goes with the term ‘missionary’. It’s baggage in two opposite ways. On the one hand, there’s a part of the American church that treats missionaries as the greatest, most spiritual of all Christians. Missionary stories are hagiographies, missionary visits to churches are filled with misconceptions and the expectation of stories of wild natives and many conversions and dramatic adventure. This is unhealthy and I do not wish to perpetuate it. On the other side, the secular world perceives missionaries as wild-eyed religious fanatics who manipulate the vulnerable and make native peoples give up their culture and beliefs in favor of Western colonial religion. I want no part in that either.

There’s some truth in most misconceptions.

Missionaries have often given up a lot to work in less comfortable or privileged places.

It’s true that they often assume a level of risk in their lives.

It’s true that they do all of that in the name of their faith in Jesus.

It’s also true that there have been wild-eyed fanatics that are missionaries.

It’s true that some missionaries have been emotionally unhealthy extremists that have not been great for the people they work with or the families they bring along with them.

It’s true that Christianity arrived in many places hand-in hand with colonialism.

Despite all the things I am uncomfortable with, I am a missionary. Why?

Here are three reasons.

I believe God is actively working in a broken world, calling people to Himself and calling His people to work for the redemption of all things.

Note that “the world” is not only the non-Western world. It’s also not only the West, or America, or whatever your particular home is. This reality means we’d best take seriously our involvement in God’s work in our own home, our own cities, and around the world.

God cares about the whole world in their spiritual lostness and in every other element of brokenness that is the result of a world twisted by sin. Those who follow God are called to respond. This means I can’t just live in the West and ignore the situation in the rest of the world. It also means that I can’t consider work in stereotypically “needy” or “lost” areas of the world as if my own culture is not also broken and in need. I look at Indonesia and I see spiritual lostness. I look at my island and I am taken aback by the physical needs. And I look at America and am deeply impressed by the spiritual need and emotional poverty there too.

Every place has needs, the needs are just different. Because I’m convinced that God calls us to move towards what is broken and to be a part of His work, we (meaning my husband and I) went looking for how to match our gifts and experience with God’s work and the world’s needs. That is how we ended up where we are. We could have just as well ended up in America, but around the world is one place you may end up if you look for what God is doing in the world.

A second reason that I am a missionary is that the church in America is ridiculously wealthy and resourced in the things that bring power and privilege in the world. I am convinced that it is the responsibility of Christians that are wealthy (which is broadly true of Western Christianity) to actively use this privilege, wealth, and power as a part of God’s redemption, active love, empowerment of others, and generosity.

1 Timothy 6:17-18 is a pretty clear charge:

^“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

I believe missions is taking the ways is in which we have inherited blessing and using it to bless – spiritually, physically, emotionally. It is part of our responsibility as Christians who are a part of the wealthy of the world.

And finally, it’s important that Westerners partner well as equals in God’s ongoing work in the world.

I really passionately think that Western missions needs a really hard heart check about paternalism in missions. Once a local church is established, most work should be done by local believers rather than by Westerners. There’s way too much white saviorism and colonial legacy in missions. Example: Everyone in the videos in this post is a church leader that I was with this week. They are not the people we have come to reach, they are our partners, and when we assume otherwise it reveals our unhealthy bias.

However, in pushback against colonialism and paternalism, some people act as though Westerners have no place in missions anymore and should just stay at home. That’s just not the picture the early church paints. The people of God are multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and across economic lines. All are partnered together in the people of God, and all are partnered together in being God’s witnesses as the news of Jesus spreads.

I was at a recent conference in which the head of a Latin American missions sending organization (note, not a mission TO Latin America, but rather an organization IN Latin America SENDING Latin American missionaries) spoke in tears to a primarily North American missionary audience. He referenced the growth of missions sending in the global south and said that it should not be just one side sending or the other. We should be partners, both using what we have together for the work of God. “Look, most of us in our organization are from cultures that were colonized. We struggle with feeling like we can’t do it. But if a brother puts his arm around my shoulder and says, you CAN do it, then…. I think I can do it.”

That’s so exciting to me because it is our work. Empowering and sending local Indonesian leaders. I think that among other things, we Westerners have a role to play in training, sending, partnering with, and caring for our brothers and sisters in the global south. And man, since that is our primary work (meaning, my husband and I), let me also say that is so encouraging to see that vibrancy from the global south as the church in our own culture struggles to maintain their witness. And so, the church of the global south encourages the discouraged church in the West as a part of this partnership.

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Those are some of the reasons why I am uneasy with the label ‘missionary’, and some of the reasons that I still am one. This week I got to go to a huge assembly of local Papuan-Indonesian churches that are independent but were once planted by by my North American mission organization, and who we now partner with as equals. I spent the afternoon weeping with gratitude and joy as I did the dishes, thinking over the beauty and vibrancy of this maturing national church. What a freaking privilege to see God alive in the church across the world. I mean, look the joy of these Asmat church leaders totally breaking it down while they sing, “I want to go to my Father’s house.”

PS - what’s a better word than the west, ya’ll? I know it’s not just the West.