We have been missionaries since 2014. Like every missionary I want to be an effective missionary, but sometimes it is not easy to understand how. Although it is clear that every missionary wants to be effective, how to be effective is not so clear. How can I be effective on deputation? How can I be effective during my first two years as an apprentice missionary? How do I become effective on the foreign field? How can I be effective to the churches that support me back in the States? These are all very good questions, but perhaps not all are easy to answer. That is what this series of posts aims to do, I would like to take a few weeks to share clear principles on how to be an effective missionary. I have accomplished some of these principles by God’s grace, while I am still working on others, but I believe they are all attainable.

• Being a missionary is a great honor to me, and it is also a great responsibility. We are representing Jesus, we are representing our home church, and we are representing the other churches who have partnered with us over the years.
• Being a missionary is a challenge. It is learning another language, it is living in a different culture, it is trying to understand things that sometimes don’t make sense.
• Being a missionary is a blessing! It is planting a Bible preaching church where there wasn’t one. It is preaching the Gospel, seeing people saved, baptized, and discipled, and seeing Jesus build something out of nothing!

As I said, I want to be an effective missionary and I am sure every other missionary has the same desire. I look forward to sharing a few principles about how to be an effective missionary.