“I thought you were going to say you were a missionary or something…”
I was shocked to be found out. Our conversation was ending, and I was surprised by this offhand comment. I had been chatting with a cashier in a grocery store.
“Where are you from?”
“My accent gives me away doesn’t it? I’m from the US.”
“Oh that’s cool. What are you doing here in South Africa?”
“I’m a volunteer doing development work.”
“Good for you. Are you enjoying your time here?”
“Very much so. I’m learning a lot from the people I work with.”
These conversations, usually with complete strangers or new acquaintances, usually unfold in the same way. I always introduce myself as a volunteer doing development work. I usually mention that I’m supported and sent by the Lutheran Church in US. But I never use the “m-word”: missionary. “Volunteer” is a safe, secular word, a very different sort of label. It has many positive connotations of giving of oneself and one’s time for the sake of bringing about worthwhile change. I like describing myself as a volunteer, because in those casual, fleeting conversations in the grocery store no one asks tough, uncomfortable questions about what I’m doing in this country.
I shy away from using the word “missionary” to describe myself in these conversations for several reasons. I haven’t taken ownership of the word, because my understanding of it is often quite different from how it is understood here in South Africa and abroad. When many people hear the word missionary they think of people handing out tracts on the street and trying to have conversations with people, the majority of which are very uninterested, even offended or threatened. For many, the faces of Christianity are often these missionaries on the street.
The history of the word “missionary” is a complex one. It is loaded with contemporary and historical understandings, many of which are not positive. Especially here in South Africa the word does not often have positive connotations. Missionaries came to this country with colonization. Although they brought the Christian faith, developed infrastructure through schools and hospitals, and translated Bible, they also often forced their new converts to adopt western cultural practices to prove that they truly “belonged” to the church. Though they often had a positive impact, in many cases missionaries also reproduced in the church the colonial structures of oppression and racism that were practiced in wider society. The white, western missionary was not often someone the black African or later the apartheid government understood as a positive agent in this country.
Being aware of the cultural and historical context in which missionaries worked, I am mindful of not wanting to undermine the churches that are already established here. Who I am, a Lutheran from the US, to be a missionary, in the traditional understanding of the word, when there is a Lutheran church here in South Africa with its own pastors and evangelists? Who am I to evangelize to the people of South Africa when there are many people here far more capable and equipped than I to do that work in this context? Instead, should my work here not be to accompany what is already taking place, to walk alongside and encourage these and other ministries?
Missionaries are almost exclusively associated with evangelism, sent to covert non-believers to the Christian faith. This understanding needs to be transformed and reclaimed by people serving in an international context and by Christians generally. This can only really occur, not in casual conversations, but in meaningful engagement through relationships. I acknowledge that evangelism is important part of Christian discipleship, but it should not be the only understanding of missionary work. To be a missionary is to be a witness. There are so many ways to witness to the Christian faith, in addition to evangelism.
Christians are called to live out their faith in daily, intentional acts of discipleship, in their relationships with others. Philip Knutson, an ELCA representative in Southern Africa, says that all Christians are missionaries. If all Christians are sent into the world for the sake of the Good News, we cannot be comfortable with safe labels like “volunteer.” To be a missionary is not reserved for a select, commissioned few. Christians are not just “do-gooders” on weekend service projects, though those projects certainly have their own value. To be a missionary requires an awareness of how daily actions witness one’s faith, which requires disciple and self-sacrifice in a way that it does not of the occasional volunteer. How would the church be different if each Christian felt called to be a missionary, felt the responsibility to witness through their words and actions? Though I am serving in South Africa, thousands of miles from home, should I be seen as different from any other Christian? Are we not all called to do God’s work in and for the sake of the world? I pray that it might be so.
I was shocked to be found out. Our conversation was ending, and I was surprised by this offhand comment. I had been chatting with a cashier in a grocery store.
“Where are you from?”
“My accent gives me away doesn’t it? I’m from the US.”
“Oh that’s cool. What are you doing here in South Africa?”
“I’m a volunteer doing development work.”
“Good for you. Are you enjoying your time here?”
“Very much so. I’m learning a lot from the people I work with.”
These conversations, usually with complete strangers or new acquaintances, usually unfold in the same way. I always introduce myself as a volunteer doing development work. I usually mention that I’m supported and sent by the Lutheran Church in US. But I never use the “m-word”: missionary. “Volunteer” is a safe, secular word, a very different sort of label. It has many positive connotations of giving of oneself and one’s time for the sake of bringing about worthwhile change. I like describing myself as a volunteer, because in those casual, fleeting conversations in the grocery store no one asks tough, uncomfortable questions about what I’m doing in this country.
I shy away from using the word “missionary” to describe myself in these conversations for several reasons. I haven’t taken ownership of the word, because my understanding of it is often quite different from how it is understood here in South Africa and abroad. When many people hear the word missionary they think of people handing out tracts on the street and trying to have conversations with people, the majority of which are very uninterested, even offended or threatened. For many, the faces of Christianity are often these missionaries on the street.
The history of the word “missionary” is a complex one. It is loaded with contemporary and historical understandings, many of which are not positive. Especially here in South Africa the word does not often have positive connotations. Missionaries came to this country with colonization. Although they brought the Christian faith, developed infrastructure through schools and hospitals, and translated Bible, they also often forced their new converts to adopt western cultural practices to prove that they truly “belonged” to the church. Though they often had a positive impact, in many cases missionaries also reproduced in the church the colonial structures of oppression and racism that were practiced in wider society. The white, western missionary was not often someone the black African or later the apartheid government understood as a positive agent in this country.
Being aware of the cultural and historical context in which missionaries worked, I am mindful of not wanting to undermine the churches that are already established here. Who I am, a Lutheran from the US, to be a missionary, in the traditional understanding of the word, when there is a Lutheran church here in South Africa with its own pastors and evangelists? Who am I to evangelize to the people of South Africa when there are many people here far more capable and equipped than I to do that work in this context? Instead, should my work here not be to accompany what is already taking place, to walk alongside and encourage these and other ministries?
Missionaries are almost exclusively associated with evangelism, sent to covert non-believers to the Christian faith. This understanding needs to be transformed and reclaimed by people serving in an international context and by Christians generally. This can only really occur, not in casual conversations, but in meaningful engagement through relationships. I acknowledge that evangelism is important part of Christian discipleship, but it should not be the only understanding of missionary work. To be a missionary is to be a witness. There are so many ways to witness to the Christian faith, in addition to evangelism.
Christians are called to live out their faith in daily, intentional acts of discipleship, in their relationships with others. Philip Knutson, an ELCA representative in Southern Africa, says that all Christians are missionaries. If all Christians are sent into the world for the sake of the Good News, we cannot be comfortable with safe labels like “volunteer.” To be a missionary is not reserved for a select, commissioned few. Christians are not just “do-gooders” on weekend service projects, though those projects certainly have their own value. To be a missionary requires an awareness of how daily actions witness one’s faith, which requires disciple and self-sacrifice in a way that it does not of the occasional volunteer. How would the church be different if each Christian felt called to be a missionary, felt the responsibility to witness through their words and actions? Though I am serving in South Africa, thousands of miles from home, should I be seen as different from any other Christian? Are we not all called to do God’s work in and for the sake of the world? I pray that it might be so.
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