How Can Christian Missionary Work Be Most Effective?
Over time, the definition and strategies for Christian missionary work have been changing. Where once a person or couple would dedicate a lifetime to their chosen mission field, more recent decades have seen an increase in short-term missions. These include youth missions, church groups and others who spend about a week in the field.[1] With this shift from long to short missionary work, the question remains of the effectiveness in contemporary missions.
How many people still don’t have access to the Christian gospel?
“Evangelized persons are those who have had an adequate opportunity to hear the Christian message and to respond to it, whether positively or negatively,” the International Bulletin of Mission Research reports. “Evangelization among a language or people group is measured by a series of variables including presence of Christians, availability of Christian media (film, radio, Scriptures in print and online), missionary presence, and level of religious freedom.”[2]
The report, in analyzing data from all over the world regarding missions and evangelism, points out, “Friendship across differences, whether they be religious, ethnic, or cultural differences, is an increasingly essential aspect of evangelism where words alone (printed, broadcast, or preached) have failed to have the desired impact.”[3]
GFA World missionaries serve in the country they are from and so are well positioned to make a long term difference in the country they serve. Their hearts are already inextricably linked to those they want to love well with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In particular, GFA women missionaries can enter into homes and villages in ways that men often cannot. They are able to cross barriers that might otherwise prevent the formation of crucial relationships with vulnerable women, widows, and children, those always at the most risk for violence, poverty, and human trafficking. Knowing someone cares if they go missing is a gift you can help give that person.
Your monthly gift of just $30 can help one faithful woman serve those in her own country with the love of Jesus Christ with tenderness, care and understanding. She’s ready to go now, and you can help send her. She knows the language. She understands the culture. She is burdened for her people. Send her and with her the hope of Jesus Christ.
Learn more about women missionaries[1] Gina A. Zurlo, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing. “World Christianity and Mission 2021: Questions about the Future.” Sage Journals. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/2396939320966220. January 2021.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.