What is a missionary?
What is a missionary and what is missions?!
Good questions.... What are you up to now, Renate?! Where is this leading?
Well... traditionally being a missionary has been traveling abroad to share the good news about Jesus to people who have never heard of him, and with that, also doing all kinds of jobs connected to that purpose - teaching, helping, leading, building schools and hospitals, living on income from a church, friends or others who believed in the persons "calling".... It has been going on in Norway and abroad, but traditionally we´ve been used to think of it as something that happends in foreign countries, mainly Asian and African, because the States have been portrayed as "Christian already" and Europe just the same. And - since we´ve been the country in the world sending out the most missionaries per capita, of course we haven´t seen much need for missionaries in our own country the last decades... maybe until now.
This is what the English Wikipedia says:
"A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development.[1][2] The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem (nom. missio), meaning "act of sending" ormittere, meaning "to send".[3] The word was used in light of its biblical usage; in the Latin translation of the Bible, Christ uses the word when sending the disciples to preach in his name. The term is most commonly used for Christian missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology."
However you choose to view it - a missionary is one sent from one place to another for a specific religious task. And whether this is in Norway or America or Africa - the role and life of a missionary has been changing a lot the last hundred years. From what was a traditional missionary life only a few decades ago, leaving Norway, maybe traveling by boat for weeks, some not coming home in 10 or 20 years, others dying of diseases, to the same place and the same country, speaking to and helping the same people group, to more mobility and change in recent years, for instance in long- and short term mission, short term meaning you might not learn the language, and your work may just as well be to assist and encourage the long term workers there - or complete one specific task and leave a month later...
- until today - in the time of globalization, a time of such rapid change in what we perceive as "time and space" - nowadays you can see globalization changing missions also - you can suddenly be living in multiple countries, travel huge distance for just a week-end, be a missionary in your hometown, but still being dependent on God and friends for money to survive. It could be educating students in US about trafficking, relief work after a catastrophe in the Philippines, talking to people on cafées in Bryne, do different work in several countries literally at the same time using internet, or go into rural places no one has ever heard of to live and serve...
Follow up will come soon!
Good questions.... What are you up to now, Renate?! Where is this leading?
Well... traditionally being a missionary has been traveling abroad to share the good news about Jesus to people who have never heard of him, and with that, also doing all kinds of jobs connected to that purpose - teaching, helping, leading, building schools and hospitals, living on income from a church, friends or others who believed in the persons "calling".... It has been going on in Norway and abroad, but traditionally we´ve been used to think of it as something that happends in foreign countries, mainly Asian and African, because the States have been portrayed as "Christian already" and Europe just the same. And - since we´ve been the country in the world sending out the most missionaries per capita, of course we haven´t seen much need for missionaries in our own country the last decades... maybe until now.
This is what the English Wikipedia says:
"A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development.[1][2] The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem (nom. missio), meaning "act of sending" ormittere, meaning "to send".[3] The word was used in light of its biblical usage; in the Latin translation of the Bible, Christ uses the word when sending the disciples to preach in his name. The term is most commonly used for Christian missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology."
However you choose to view it - a missionary is one sent from one place to another for a specific religious task. And whether this is in Norway or America or Africa - the role and life of a missionary has been changing a lot the last hundred years. From what was a traditional missionary life only a few decades ago, leaving Norway, maybe traveling by boat for weeks, some not coming home in 10 or 20 years, others dying of diseases, to the same place and the same country, speaking to and helping the same people group, to more mobility and change in recent years, for instance in long- and short term mission, short term meaning you might not learn the language, and your work may just as well be to assist and encourage the long term workers there - or complete one specific task and leave a month later...
- until today - in the time of globalization, a time of such rapid change in what we perceive as "time and space" - nowadays you can see globalization changing missions also - you can suddenly be living in multiple countries, travel huge distance for just a week-end, be a missionary in your hometown, but still being dependent on God and friends for money to survive. It could be educating students in US about trafficking, relief work after a catastrophe in the Philippines, talking to people on cafées in Bryne, do different work in several countries literally at the same time using internet, or go into rural places no one has ever heard of to live and serve...
Follow up will come soon!
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