Missionary

Hong Kong Christians at Gateway Camp. In 2005, there were four times as many non-Western World Christians as there were Western World Christians.

A missionary is one who spreads a religion or faith. Christian missionaries were involved in many early colonialism efforts, explaining the spread and staying power of Catholicism in South American nations like Mexico and throughout the Pacific nations.

Due in part to missionaries, in terms of its geographic distribution, Christianity is the most globally diverse religion.

Bible verse about missionaries: "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." - Ephesians 4:11-13

10/40 Window

See also: 10/40 Window and Evangelism

The 10/40 Window is of the Greatest Interest to Great Commission Researchers and those focused on World Evangelism. This is because the vast majority of the World's Unevangelized or Non-Christian Population lives in these regions.

The nations in the 10/40 Window

African missionaries

African Christians clapping at an open air meeting.

In recent years, Christianity has seen a rapid growth in Africa. See: Global Christianity

See also: Christianity in Africa and Religion and Africa

Missionaries have been active in Africa for centuries, and there are currently many missionaries serving in Africa today. Missionaries come from a number of denominations, including Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican.

As of 2023, there are an estimated 718 million Christians from all denominations in Africa. up from about 10 million in 1900. . Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's Center for the Study of Global Christianity projects 750+ Million Christians for Africa by 2025.

In 2011, USA Today published an article entitled Study: Christianity grows exponentially in Africa which declared:

“

Meanwhile, the faith has grown exponentially in sub-Saharan Africa, from just 9% of the population in 1910 to 63% today. Nigeria, home to more than 80 million Christians, has more Protestants than Germany, where the Protestant Reformation began. "As a result of historic missionary activity and indigenous Christian movements by Africans, there has been this change from about one in 10 (sub-Saharan Africans) identifying with Christianity in 1910 to about six in 10 doing so today," Hackett said.

”

Between 2000 and 2020, the continent of Africa had more than 37,000 new Christians every day. For more information, please see: Study traces exponential growth of Christianity in Africa

A study conducted by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life says that Africans are among the most religious people on Earth. Africa has a high fertility rate and it is seeing a big population boom. According to the Institute For Security Studies: "Africa's population is the fastest growing in the world. It is expected to increase by roughly 50% over the next 18 years, growing from 1.2 billion people today to over 1.8 billion in 2035. In fact, Africa will account for nearly half of global population growth over the next two decades."

Evangelism - Christianity vs. Islam competition in Africa

Watoto Children's Choir from Kampala, Uganda. In recent years, Christianity has seen a rapid growth in Africa.

See: Christianity in Africa

See also: Evangelism - Christianity vs. Islam competition in Africa and Evangelism

In 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported:

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Across sub-Saharan Africa, religion today is in ferment as different versions of Christianity and Islam vie for believers—a contest that is transforming both faiths and disrupting long-established terms of coexistence. Owing to population growth and the intensity of their religiosity, Africans are now one of the more important constituencies of both Islam and Christianity worldwide, and sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s most active and contested religious markets. The region was 59% Christian and 30% Muslim in 2020, according to the World Religion Database. “There is a new scramble for Africa,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Lethome of Jamia Mosque in Nairobi, Kenya, drawing an analogy with the colonization of the continent in the late 19th century. “Christianity is growing, Islam is growing, and there is competition.” On a continent where indigenous religions dominated just a century ago, Christian missionary efforts, associated with European colonization, have borne fruit in massive conversions. By 2020, there were 643 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, a quarter of the world total, up from 7.4 million in 1900. By 2050, it is projected that there will be 1.3 billion Christians in the region, or 38% of all the Christians in the world.

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Protestant missionaries and their effect on history

The atheist and Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the Protestant societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."

See also: Protestantism and Protestant cultural legacies and Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Protestant reformation

The article "The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries" published in Christianity Today notes:

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In his fifth year of graduate school, Woodberry created a statistical model that could test the connection between missionary work and the health of nations. He and a few research assistants spent two years coding data and refining their methods. They hoped to compute the lasting effect of missionaries, on average, worldwide... One morning, in a windowless, dusty computer lab lit by fluorescent bulbs, Woodberry ran the first big test. After he finished prepping the statistical program on his computer, he clicked "Enter" and then leaned forward to read the results. "I was shocked," says Woodberry. "It was like an atomic bomb. The impact of missions on global democracy was huge. I kept adding variables to the model—factors that people had been studying and writing about for the past 40 years—and they all got wiped out. It was amazing. I knew, then, I was on to something really important." Woodberry already had historical proof that missionaries had educated women and the poor, promoted widespread printing, led nationalist movements that empowered ordinary citizens, and fueled other key elements of democracy. Now the statistics were backing it up: Missionaries weren't just part of the picture. They were central to it... Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations. In short: Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is simple—if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary." ...at a conference presentation in 2002, Woodberry got a break. In the room sat Charles Harper Jr., then a vice president at the John Templeton Foundation, which was actively funding research on religion and social change. (Its grant recipients have included Christianity Today.) Three years later, Woodberry received half a million dollars from the foundation's Spiritual Capital Project, hired almost 50 research assistants, and set up a huge database project at the University of Texas, where he had taken a position in the sociology department. The team spent years amassing more statistical data and doing more historical analyses, further confirming his theory. ...Woodberry's historical and statistical work has finally captured glowing attention. A summation of his 14 years of research—published in 2012 in the American Political Science Review, the discipline's top journal—has won four major awards, including the prestigious Luebbert Article Award for best article in comparative politics. Its startling title: "The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy." ...over a dozen studies have confirmed Woodberry's findings. The growing body of research is beginning to change the way scholars, aid workers, and economists think about democracy and development.

”

The atheist and Harvard University historian Niall Ferguson declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the Protestant societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."

In China, the growth in religion has accompanied China's fast economic growth over the last twenty years. Christianity is seeing rapid growth in China and the historian Niall Ferguson attributes this recent economic growth to the Protestant work ethic being more incorporated into Chinese society.

Raising missionary support

• The Ultimate Guide to Missionary Support
• How to Raise Funds for Full-time Missions
• Raising missionary support with global frontier missions
• Missionary Support Raising Guide + 5 Free Templates

Raising support for missionary trips

• Six Steps for Raising Support for a Mission Trip

See also

• Evangelism
• Growth of Christianity
• Growth of Christianity in China
• Internet evangelism
• Anderson Bergemot

External links

• What is a Missionary?, Campbellsville University
• What are some of the first steps to becoming a missionary?, Ask a Missionary website
• Taking the gospel to the least reached

St. Paul defends his preaching (Giovanni Ricco)

• Become a missionary. Go and make disciples., Crossworld website
• The Kind of Missionaries the Global Church Wants, Gospel Coalition website

Apostle Paul's journeys:

• Maps of the Apostle Paul's Journeys

Some Christian scholars take the position that Saint Paul was the first Christian missionary to travel to new lands to spread the Gospel (See: Great Commission). In 46 A.D., Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark were commissioned by the Christian community/church in Antioch to set out on their first missionary journey.

Videos:

• How to become a missionary - video playlist, video playlist