RandomPokesI am Not a Missionary Steve Dennie
"Everyone is a missionary," the speaker says. "You may not be called to go overseas, but you can be a missionary right where you are."
I cringe every time someone says that. I appreciate the concept, but the fact is, I'm not a missionary. I don't even vaguely resemble one. If I were a missionary, I would cherish that honored label. But I'm not.
My heroes have always been missionaries. All my life, I've heard missionaries come to my church and tell what they do in foreign lands. I've sat through a bunch of seen-one-seen-them-all slide shows and heard a lot of snake and food stories. Things kind of blend together after a while.
But it doesn't matter to me. Here's a person who has done something Really Big. Taken a risk. Left the comfort zone. Perhaps abandoned a secure career in response to God's prompting. Took a big pay cut. Sold a nice home and a still-under-warranty car. Stepped into the unknown. Been plugged into God firmly enough to hear him call, and faithful enough to say, "Here I am. You want meÑI'll go."
God hasn't knocked on my door with any of those requests. If he does, I hope I respond obediently. And as a perk, I'll enthusiastically don the title "missionary." But to say I'm a missionary right now downplays the unique demands of serving God in a foreign country, and trivializes what I've always considered to be a special calling.
I've never been overseas. I can pick up a phone and talk to my parents within a few seconds. I have access to the world's best health care, abundant food with the ingredients and fat content spelled out clearly, and endless spiritual resources. I enjoy 24-hour electricity, relatively pure water, a somewhat dependable car, paved roads devoid of armed checkpoints, a stable political system, first-run American TV shows (and way too many channels), a superb postal system (which we chronically gripe about anyway), and an air-conditioned sanctuary. I don't encounter language barriers (except when talking to computer technical support people). I don't have to eat strange foods. And I've never, ever, taken slides.
And people want to call me a missionary? The shoe looks beautiful, but it doesn't fit and I refuse to force it on.
I also cringe a little inside when someone says, "We're all ministers." Sure, I minister to people in various ways, as all Christians must, but that's as far as it goes.
I never endured Greek 101 or three years of seminary. I don't have to prepare a sermon every week. I'm not the shepherd for a large flock of needy people. I don't conduct funerals or weddings. I don't counsel people with deep troubles. I don't get blamed for the church's problems. I don't suffer abuse from cantankerous, impossible-to-please laymen. I don't live in a parsonage, and the IRS (unfortunately) won't let me take a housing deduction. And Pam isn't a minister's wife.
My Dad's a minister. I'm not. So don't call me a minister. I don't qualify.
If every layperson is a minister, then every minister is a laypersonÑ right? Consider the implications. Preachers could accept church responsibilities on a volunteer basis, could skip services whenever they want, and could demand that laypersons (who, of course, are ministers) be moved to another church. Wouldn't that shake things up!
But of course, it's absurd. A minister is a minister, and a layperson is a layperson, and roses by any name don't grow from tulip seeds.
As long as we've watered down the definition of a missionary and minister, we might as well do the same for other roles, so that we can all pretend to be what we aren't.
- I'm a mechanic, because I occasionally work on my car, and on rare occasions even fix something.
- I'm a secretary, because I type my own letters.
- I'm a painter, because I've painted assorted window frames and model airplanes.
- I'm a singer, because I participate in congregational singing.
- I'm a cook, because I can prepare such foods as corn and hamburger (sometimes they're even edible).
- I'm a teacher, because I sometimes teach Sunday school.
- I'm a film critic, because I express opinions about movies.
- I'm a model, because I sometimes pose for snapshots.
Why do we insist on making every part of the body an eye? So that none of us feel we have a lesser calling? Maybe. I sometimes feel that when missionaries come to my church and say, "You're all missionaries, too," they're trying to make the rest of us feel significant.
Well, I already do. I'm right where God wants me.
I'm a layperson. I don't need to semantically contort myself into being a missionary or minister to feel spiritually significant. That all comes with being a committed layperson. And that title will do just fine, thank you.
Copyright 2005 Steve Dennie |
