The term missionary never appears in the NT.

The term Witness does, however.


What exactly is a missionary and what exactly is ministry and how can we make our vocabulary come better into line with Biblical truth. For instance, Rich mentioned a healthy doctrine of Christian vocation...and not calling every single thing done as a "ministry."

What about the whole process that the church accepts as routine when someone goes overseas:

They get a "call", they raise "support", they are "sent" off as "missionaries" to do "ministry" overseas.

If there a better way? At least a better way of expressing the process and who these people are and what they do?

How should the church handle the whole process and how should the process work?

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

You are right. Anything beats the messed up system that is in place now.

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Scott James
South / Central Florida
Still looking for a home Church...

"Let a thing here be noted, that the prophet of God sometimes may teach treason against kings, and yet neither he nor such as obey the word, spoken in the Lord’s name by him, offend God." -John Knox

Pergamum, a tentative thought might be not so much to re-define terms that are not defined by Scripture or councils/creeds so much as popular usage such as 'missionary' (which seems generally used for those whose work esp. overseas is financially supported by and overseen by the church- at least to that practical degree they are sent or commissioned by the church), as to re-emphasize and teach the significance of the Scriptural ones, like elder, and emphasize the biblical teaching of the call to being an elder. One could then distinguish 'missionaries' in general from missionaries who are called to be elders or doing the work of elders (sometimes an elder-qualified man is not ordained until installed in a local work, and that may take years) and teach people to start making such distinctions without trying to wipe the slate completely clean first (or denigrating the sacrifices of those who are not called to be elders but are working through the church on a foreign field)?

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Heidi
Indianapolis, Indiana

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.