Keep Learning and Stay Humble

“I'm tempted to just point to the fruit of the Spirit, but obviously this question goes beyond that. As I have looked, there are so many amazing missionaries with such a variety of gifts, but I think the most successful missionaries are people who are humble and willing to continue to learn their whole lives. You need humility because you are always an outsider. You can never fully become an expert on how things should be done in a new culture, because you will so often be dependent on others and there is always some level of language barrier even when you become fluent in a language. Being willing to learn is so important for many of the same reasons. You need to continue to learn how to not only speak a language, but how to relate with people in the new culture, how to understand underlying motives and desires, how to care for people and how to work well together with teammates and local partners. Missionaries will not thrive if they stop growing.”

Spiritual and Practical Characteristics

“There are two ways to answer this. One is the spiritual side, which is important. You need to have full dependance on God and to be growing each day in an intimate relationship with him, because it is a real spiritual battle and it is only through God that we can find strength to fulfill his mission. No one is perfect. We are all going to fail at one time or another, but the key is to always go back to the Father for guidance, hope, and renewal.

Second, practically speaking, there are several characteristics that I think are helpful for missionaries. These characteristics do not make anyone better than someone else. They are just things that can be of use, especially living in new cultures and contexts. Some of those would be flexibility, adaptability, lots of patience, self awareness and knowing when or how to ask for help.”

A Good Missionary Isn't Distracted

“This is a common question, but I do not think it is the right question. It is like the question, are you a good Christian? We know what we are asking, but really it’s more about being a Christian or not being a Christian. We are all sinners saved by grace. Being a 'good' Christian isn’t the goal, being saved by the gospel is. Same thing with a missionary. Either we are or we are not. Either we are out there relentlessly disseminating the gospel or we aren’t; even though we live in a different culture and live on support. A 'good' missionary is someone who focuses on being a missionary. This sounds like common sense, but is actually harder than it sounds. It is easy to get more focused on leading ministries than sharing the gospel with the lost, serving our mission agencies rather than seeing churches planted, or depending on our language abilities rather than on the Holy Spirit.

A good missionary is a missionary who is focused on being a missionary in the truest sense of the word. This takes commitment, flexibility, endurance, a deep understanding of the gospel, and lots of prayer.”

3 Characteristics to Work on Now

“1. Flexibility! Things are often different than you expected on the mission field.

2. Be willing to make mistakes and be able to laugh at them and yourself! In the midst of language and culture learning, making mistakes is inevitable.

3. Be a learner. No matter how many years you’ve been on the field, you will never be an expert and you will always be learning.”