Should everybody be a "missionary?"
Since the time of Christ’s issuing of the Great Commission, to preach the gospel throughout “all the world,” the history of the Christian church has been in great part a history of missions. Although, not every Christian is called to become a full-time missionary in the classic sense of the word, all Christians, without exception, are commissioned to share God’s message.
Too often so-called Christians maintain that their faith is “something” private when confronted by those who seek to discuss religion. Their refusal to engage in dialogue, more often than not, is a response to fear, fear of being exposed as phonies or hypocrites. Yet others are afraid to reveal their inaptness with regard to knowledge of the Scriptures. Of course there are those who simply are too shy or timid to speak out and thus the Holy Spirit may intervene by empowering them with a sudden boldness at the right moment.
To consider one’s faith a private matter is to disobey Christ for neither Christ nor His disciples kept the Gospel to themselves. Had they done so a whole lot fewer Christians would have found themselves on the lunch menu of some lion in the Roman circus. Jesus was very clear on what He expected of Christians then as well as now, which is to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the world. Thus, in a broader sense of the word, everybody is called to be a missionary, even if his “end of the world” is his or her place of employment or next-door neighbor.
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