Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Grimalkin]

Okay christians get a lot of flak on here on account of missionaries and evangelising but....


...why do they send out missionaries?


Okay I can understand in olden times when the only way to spread the good news was to walk from town to town. Surely nowadays in developed countries, with all the tools of modern communication it's not neccessary. If anybody really wants to find out about christianity they can look it up on the Internet.


Wouldn't a christians duty to evangelise be fulfilled simply be responding fully to inquiries?


Can any christian enlighten me on this one?

[seoulunitarian]

[Grimalkin]

Don't have a bible to hand!


Can you tell me what Mathew had to say on the subject?

[RACETRAITOR]

[seoulunitarian]

[Grimalkin]

[SirFink]

If you believed that anyone who hadn't accepted Jesus as their lord and savior was doomed to eternal damnation, wouldn't you feel compelled to get the Good News to them?

If you saw a man you believed was drowning and you were holding a life preserver, would you just walk by and not bother to throw it to him?

[huffdaddy]

[igotthisguitar]

[Grimalkin]

[JMO]

Whats John3:16? I always see it at games on TV.

[ella]

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

[blynch]

[Buff]

Missionaries, for the most part, those who go overseas, or those try to reach a certain people group (in a foreign country or in their own) generally go to areas where a native church is not yet established or where the church is small enough that it warrants outsiders coming in to train/equip native Christians to carry out the work of evangelism (which is the broader term that includes sharing your faith with others in your own culture).

Why do they do it? They want to present what, to them, is the most important relationship a person can have (a relationship with Jesus). They care about the people that they are trying to reach. Some go about it the wrong way, for sure, but they're well-intentioned

Why do they go rather than rely solely on the internet?

1)Christianity values human relationships/community (not that others don't). So while the internet is a useful tool, it may not offer all that a personal relationship does.

2) There are people groups who have never heard of Christ and/or do not have access to the internet, or the Bible, or a an established Christian community.

3) In some cases, missionaries are Bible translators who go to parts of the world that don't have written languages so in order to tell them about God, they actually have to move in to these tribes/people groups, learn their unwritten language well enough to translate the Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew into their mother tongue. Then they devise an alpahabet. Then they teach people to read their own language, in addition to teaching them about Christianity, so that one day their people will be able to spread the Gospel to their own people.

4) In the case of more developed countries, they go because the countries' native beliefs are more resistant to Christianity and they don't want to just hope that people might change their mind some day. Could many of them be a little (or a lot) less in-your-face? Sure could. But there are many missionaries who are very sensitive and don't push but actually care about the people as individuals and let them come around in their own time. But if no one ever tells the people about Christ, how can they ever come to have faith in Him.

5) Many go in order to serve the people not just spiritually, but physically/practically as well. Working toward human rights and health care in countries where not much is being done or is able to be done by their own people(sexual exploitation of children, poverty, famine, war, caste systems, the effects of widespread AIDS/HIV, education, and so on.) In these situations, actually being there is more effective than the internet alone.


Sorry to write such a novel. I'm just trying to give a bigger picture of what many missionaries do. Again, I think a lot of missionaries and Christians go about evangelism the wrong way (confrontational and annoying) and Christ's message can get lost in the mix, but many of them work day in and day out to love people the way Christ loves them which is at the center of the Christian faith.

[blynch]

amen...