Missionary Needs

Missionary Needs

Here are the ten most pressing needs concerning missionaries today.

1.  Far more missionaries are needed.

The world's 800 million Protestants currently field about 140,000 missionaries, including 60,000 fielded by the 130 million American Protestants. The 14.5 million Southern Baptists, the largest American Protestant denomination, field 3,600, which is woefully few compared to the 71,000 'missionaries' fielded by the comparably-sized 15.9 million Mormons (see International Mission Board and Mormon 'missionaries').

2.  Far more missionaries need to serve on the frontlines.

Of the world’s 16,562 people groups, about 6,700 have yet to hear the Gospel. Only 10% of missionaries were working among the unreached people groups in 1999, while 90% work among the already reached people groups (source: Winter and Koch, Finishing the Task, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, 1999, p. 543). Today, the percentage of missionaries who work among the unreached people groups is even lower.

3.  Best-trained Christian soldiers need to volunteer for frontline duty.

Armies send fit, young men into battle. Mormon 'missionaries' are 18-24 year olds. By contrast, 97% of Christian college graduates choose secular careers, with only 3% ending up in full time ministry, invariably in USA. Most seminary graduates also stay in USA, while the few who go to the mission field typically return after a few years, just long enough to have rounded out their resumes (see Master of Divinity).

4.  Much more money needs to be given for foreign missions.

Ninety-six percent of the money collected by churches in USA is spent in USA. For every $1 it spends on missions, both domestic and foreign, one large Protestant denomination spends $5 to pay the interest on its church building mortgages. According to World Evangelization Research Center, annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed the amount of money spent on foreign missions worldwide.

5.  Money given for foreign missions needs to reach the frontlines, especially the indigenous missionaries who do most of the pioneer missions work.

Of the money that trickles abroad for foreign missions, 87% goes to work among people who are already Christian, 12% to work among the already-evangelized non-Christians, and only 1% to work among unreached people (source: Mark Baxter, The Coming Revolution: Because Status Quo Missions Won’t Finish the Job, Tate Publishing, Mustang, OK, 2007,  p. 12). Moreover, 90% of all foreign mission funds is being used by cross-cultural (Western) missionaries, who do 10% of the pioneer missions work, while only 10% of all foreign mission funds is used by indigenous missionaries, who do 90% of the pioneer missions work (source: Bob Finley, Reformation in Foreign Missions, Xulon Press, 2005, pp. 178 & 244).

6.  Unqualified missionaries need to stay home at least until they become qualified.

Many cross-cultural missionaries in the field today are spiritually, mentally or emotionally unprepared and/or physically or culturally unable to adapt. Others are abroad not to serve God but to reboot their lives after a divorce or broken relationship, trying to escape poverty or run from personal issues instead of dealing with them, for international adventure, etc. Many are unsaved.

7.  Missionaries need to do actual missionary work.

The majority of cross-cultural (Western) missionaries in the developing world live in major cities with Western amenities. Some of them do nothing to serve God, while others live in 'missionary ghettos,' ministering to each other in expatriate churches, hosting Bible studies for each other, counseling each other, teaching each others' children, etc. Only one-quarter of cross-cultural missionaries from North America are even assigned missionary work (e.g., preaching, teaching, church planting, Bible translation), while three-quarters are assigned humanitarian work (e.g., agricultural, community or literacy development, medical or relief efforts). The average Western missionary spends only 3% of his or her time actually sharing the Gospel (source: K.P. Yohannan, Come Let's Reach the World, 2004, pp. 35 & 63).

8.  Most missionaries need to stop doing more damage than good.

Among those who do preach and teach, most preach and teach the health & prosperity false gospel, charismania, the Four Spiritual Laws and other heresies that leave the hearers hell-bound and make them resistant to the true Gospel when they hear it later. As a result, too many churches and even Bible schools founded by missionaries abroad are now filled with unsaved 'rice Christians' who attend for the free food, education, shelter or other material benefits, and vanish when the handouts cease.

9.  Missionaries need to rely on faith and prayer instead of fundraising.

Apostle Paul worked at times to provide for his own needs and even those of others (see Acts 18:3), and received support at other times (see Philippians 4:15-17). He raised funds for the Christians suffering through a famine in Judea (see 2 Corinthians 8:1-4) but never raised funds for himself, nor did any of the other missionaries in the Bible. Instead of constantly begging people for money, today's missionaries need to make the choices that are Biblical and conducive to missionary life (see women missionaries and missionary men), do the work that is worthy of financial support, trust and pray to God to provide as He sees fit.

10.  Missionaries and missions organizations need to stop deceiving.

Instead of flowing to the missionaries who do the most missionary work, funds tend to flow today to those who beg the loudest or exaggerate the most, and they are often prodded to do so by their mission agencies, which also report inflated figures, obsolete details, untrue profiles, etc. to boost fundraising (see Biblical fundraising). According to World Evangelization Research Center, some 250 of the 300 largest international Christian organizations regularly mislead the Christian public by publishing demonstrably incorrect or falsified progress statistics. Even frontline missions organizations are mostly led today by people who pay themselves unconscionable salaries from the donations collected, as detailed here. The 'Whoever begs the loudest gets the money' mold has become so normalized among missionaries and missions organizations that even honest missionaries admit immense pressure to exaggerate. The steps to break that mold by qualifying and helping missionaries and mission agencies stay honest are detailed here.