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What is a Missionary

This question is better answered by asking the question, "What is a mission." A mission is quite simply a specific task with which a person or a group is charged. For example, a military mission might be to save Private Ryan, or take Bunker Hill. A missionary is one who has been given a mission. The question for Christians becomes then, "What is the mission?" Jesus Gave his disciples this mission:

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." - Matthew 28:18-20

So then every Christian has been given the mission of making disciples. (Please note that the mission is not to go out and make converts, but disciples.) Now when we talk about missionaries, we're usually talking about something a little more specific. The roots of this usage are found in Acts.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. - Acts 13:2-3.

So Paul and Barnabas are the first ones in the New Testament to be set apart specifically to go to other people. Remember, all the first Christians were Jews. And they preached the Gospel to Jews. It wasn't until Peter's incident with Cornelius that it was even considered that a gentile could become a Christian without first being a Jew. But now, God has called two Christian Jews specifically to go to the gentiles (people who were not their own) and preach the Gospel.

So then today we get our modern usage of the term missionary being one who is sent to another culture or place that is not one's own to preach the Gospel of Christ.

Missions and me