What does it mean to be a missionary? (Guest post by Thomas Stanley)

So you’re called to be a missionary? Great!

Start praying, find a missions agency which fits your direction, set a date, raise the funds and pack your bags.

Is it really that easy? Yes and no.

Yes, you can go through a checklist of steps needed to go on a trip, but, when you are in the realm of missions, the complexity of the process resides in the internal battles.

Last year I was fortunate enough to go on a month-long mission trip to Bolivia for Hospitals of Hope. My experience with short term missions (1 week to 2 months) raised several personal issues.

Were my motives pure? Was I simply doing it to appear pious? Is it merely a vacation to avoid the problems which exist in my current life? Isn’t there mission I could be doing in my own town?

I mean, poverty exists in Wichita. There are thousands who don’t know Christ in my own backyard. The problems of drugs, perversion, and violence are prevalent in my very neighborhood.

These issues paced through my mind in the months before the trip and lingered afterward.

This mild existential crisis mellowed after clarifying my purpose. The purpose of my trip wasn’t to simply do the lofty work of saving sinners, curing the sick, and fixing the country's problems.

My purpose was to serve the Lord in all capacities and view the trip as not an end, but a means to an end.

My mission trip didn’t end July 8 when I left Cochabamba, it merely began. The short-term mission trip gave a drastic paradigm shift in how I viewed the world. If you’re open to it, it can change the way you view your neighborhood, your city and your daily ministry.

I heard a pastor say, “If you’re a missionary, then what does that make everyone else?” It is not merely the job of a missionary to do missions. In Matthew 28:19-20, Christ calls us all to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Does this mean you shouldn’t go on mission trips? Certainly not, the experience of immersing yourself in a different language and culture is unlike any other. Serving the Lord internationally is difficult yet fulfilling.

But if you are thinking about missions, I would encourage you to not simply work toward a trip but toward a lifestyle change. Again, the trip itself is not the end; it is a means to a greater end of serving the Lord in diligently your entire life.