Where Do Missionaries Come From?

Childhood Aspirations!

Children often have some very lofty career goals…

"I want to play in the NBA!"… Great! 🏆

"I want to be a doctor!"… Super! 🏆

But how about, "I want to be a missionary!"… Say what??? 😮

Have you EVER heard a child say they want to be a missionary someday?

Whose Job Is It To Make Missionaries?

In past posts we talked about the Great Commission and God’s calling for Christians to the mission field.

But whose job is it to encourage our teens and young children, so that if it is God's will they might decide - "I want to become a missionary someday!"

After a lot of reading, research, and conversations with church leaders and missionaries (old and new), we‘ve found that the task of encouraging the next generation to live missionally is divided among three key shareholders:

• Missionaries
• Individual Churches
• Families

The Missionary’s Role

Almost every article we read and every leader we spoke with agreed that missionaries are the number one influencer in this process. When missionaries share their stories, young people listen!

Here is just one great story of the impact missionaries can have when pouring back into their sending churches:

As I was growing up, my parents and their five children didn’t have the opportunity to visit a mission field, but two of us would serve on the foreign field for over four decades each. As a preschooler I was encouraged to “Pray for Jim and Betty,” as I said my bedtime prayers. They were a missionary family working with tribal people in Brazil. One week that family came to visit us on furlough, and this would become one of my earliest memories. Five decades later, the black and white photos of that missionary family and their tribal ministry are still there in the family album. I treasure them as part of my family’s missionary heritage. Joanne Landon - GFA Missions, (Full Article)

Some ideas for missionaries:

✅ Remember how you become a missionary and resolve to pay-it-forward by encouraging others to follow in your footsteps.

✅ When designing short-term trips for your supporters, try to design trips that allow families to bring their children. Young people need to see that being a missionary is something they CAN do.

✅ While on furlough, spend time and speak with families and Sunday School classes, encouraging young people to consider mission work.

The Church's Role

It appears the number one tool a church has for encouraging congregants to consider mission work is - INVITING MORE MISSIONARIES to come visit their church!

Most churches invite a few missionaries to speak from the pulpit each year. But the next generation of missionaries have questions that need to be answered and that is just not going to happen from the pulpit.

Some ideas for churches:

✅ Intentionally invite missionaries to come and visit your congregation regularly.

✅ Look for small intimate settings (like youth groups or Bible study groups), where missionaries can have meaningful Q&A time with young people and answer real questions.

✅ Make it a goal to house missionaries with families from your congregation - preferably families with children.

✅ Make the trip worthwhile for every visiting missionary - have at least two days of meetings ready for them to engage.

The Family's Role

If you want your child to play piano, you take them to piano lessons. You want your child to be an engineer, you make sure they take the right math classes.

If you want your child to consider being a missionary, what do you do? You interact with missionaries.

Some ideas for families:

✅ Volunteer to house a missionary who is visiting your church! (Our children grew up with a constant parade of missionaries passing through our house. No surprise our son Erik became a missionary!)

✅ Emphasize to your children that being a missionary is important work that every Christian - including them - should consider.

✅ Volunteer your family to be a primary contact for a missionary your church supports.

✅ Emphasize prayer for missionaries during family prayer time.

✅ If your finances allow it, take your kids on a mission trip and make sure they spend intentional time with the missionaries you support and work with.

It's Not Just Chance

As we prepare for life, nothing of real value typically occurs by chance.

So why do we leave "Christians becoming a missionary" up to chance?

At One Village Group, we realize that any work for God must be considered in the context of God's spiritual calling and giftings, but that only determines the kind of work, not IF the work needs to be done!

Let's get intentional about presenting missions work as a great and noble occupation for our young people to consider.