What is a missionary?

Nobody really knows what that means. There's these terms out there, living on mission, being a missional church, missions driven, and all of them have largely changed. They've drained the meaning from the Great Commission. No one really knows what that means. If everywhere is a mission field, then everyone is a missionary.

Brooks Buser: “missional” language has drained the Great Commission.

We are sent, those who are sent out. That's another discussion. I don't think that all of us, in the technical sense, are sent out ones, though we all participate in the Great Commission. To use the language of those who engage in mission, What is a missionary?

Not all of us are “sent ones”, but we all take part in the Great Commission.

Matthew 16:18, Matthew 18:17 are the two places in the Gospels where Jesus directly mentions the church. He does not explicitly mention the church here in the Great Commission, but the command to baptize assumes the church. The new disciple is not to baptize himself. He is to be baptized. By the church, the watermark of baptism identifies us with Christ and the church.

The command to baptize assumes the church.

We're we're really dedicated to that because there's so many churches that don't think about that. Missions is a big umbrella term. And there's a lot of good within that term, but most of that is actually ministries that are valid and we support them, too. Missions is taking the gospel, like Paul talks about, and his heart built on no man's foundation. That's what we define as missions.

Brad Buser: “missions” is a big umbrella; his church means building on no one else's foundation.

So I'm I'm going to answer this generically and then I'm going to bring some specificity that might take some people off. And I'm OK with that. But let me start here. A missionary technically is someone who is sent. That's what the word means. Someone who is sent. So we think about Romans 10, 13. Everyone who calls the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on the one whom they've not believed and how can they believe?

Chad Vegas: a missionary, technically, is someone sent.

No, that means you kept the great commandment. That's not the great commission. And by the way, you should keep the great commandment and you can't really keep the great commission and not. Keep the great commandment effectively. You guys understand what I'm saying? But let's not confuse being a good Christian, a faithful witness with gospel ministry. Those aren't the same thing.

Keeping the Great Commandment isn't the Great Commission.

What is the mission of the church? And the subtitle is something like making sense of social justice, shalom and the great commission. And you can hear if you remember from 2011. Some of you are we little kids that there's a certain kind of danger that we were sensing.

Kevin DeYoung on mission drift.

If the things that you seek to accomplish can be done by Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson, I know they're not on the same team anymore. Let them do it. because they are not going to be about this mission of winning the lost, planting gospel churches, the drift can happen in both ways.

If Oprah and Bono can do it, let them.