Blog: Men of Mission

When I was 20, I went on a 10-week summer mission trip to Europe. It was an incredible experience and brought missions into my life in a new and tangible way. One of the aspects of that time that made it so special was the fact that I was part of something bigger than myself. I was one of 86 young adults that had chosen to give their time to be part of something bigger.

Even as I was thankful to be joining in ministry with those people, I couldn’t help but notice a sharp disparity. Out of the entire 86-person group, only 19 of them were men. We were entering a continent where men comprise about 48% of the population, and only 22% of our group were men. Since we would be split up in different locations, some teams didn’t even have any men, making it harder for those teams to reach local males with the gospel.

Unfortunately, this imbalance is not unique to that one trip. Single women have outweighed single men on the Christian mission field for a long time (as early as 1900 the ratio was 2:1). Yet the advancement of the gospel to the nations concerns all followers of Jesus. Jesus delivered the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 to his disciples, who were all men—so where are the men in missions today?

There is a popular saying among missionaries when it comes to this subject: two-thirds of all active missionaries are married couples, one-third are single women, and the rest are single men. Though this “statistic” is exaggerated to prove a point, it is not far from the real numbers. About 5-10% of missionaries are single men, which makes 20% of the total number of single missionaries. Some would chalk this disparity up to the fact that there tend to be more women than men who are professing Christians—a true fact. But according to Pew Research Center, the ratio of male to female Christians is much more even, with just 10% more women than men.

These numbers reveal the reality of the state of Christian missions that seems contradictory to the instruction of Scripture.

It can be easy for American Christians to forget that relationships between men and women are drastically different in much of the world than they are in Western contexts, but those dynamics affect how the gospel can be effectively shared. According to Mike Delorenzo with Africa Inland Mission (AIM), it can be “difficult, if not impossible, for young women to minister to men in most cross-cultural contexts...for many of the countless men in Africa who need to hear the Word and learn to be followers of Christ, only another man can show them the way.” When men are unwilling to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel, men at the ends of the earth are not reached by the gospel. It is a charge that requires a joint effort, from both men and women, to carry out.

So, how do we get more men to go and make disciples? I think there are steps that can be taken within the church, within families, and within missions organizations to help soften the hearts of Christian men to living missional lives.

1. Churches—teach the Great Commission

In order to go, missionaries need to be sent from the body of Christ. In order to have missionaries ready and willing to go, discipleship with a missional focus needs to be happening in American churches. According to Paul Akin of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the reasons that men are not going to the mission field may be because churches are not being faithful to extend the call to go. He said in an article for The Gospel Coalition that a significant amount of responsibility to impress the Great Commission upon young men falls on the church, and not just the pastors.

“Older men in the church can purposefully disciple young men with the nations in mind. They can show the next generation that God is a missionary God and the Bible is a missionary book,” Akin said.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:12 that “the members of the body, though many, are one body.” As Paul saw it, every member of the church bore the responsibility to care for its body and to carry out its mission. This mission includes the taking the gospel to every nation, and if we are going to continue to hold to Paul’s teachings in our churches, then we must teach the importance of carrying out the Great Commission as a church body.

2. Parents—be willing to let your kids go

In Luke 14:26, Jesus said that anyone who “does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” He called people to leave their livelihoods and their families to follow him—a call that still stands today. Unfortunately, this principle appears to have been lost somewhat in the Western church today. According to a study in the National Library of Medicine, 83% of parents in the United States show tendencies toward helicopter parenting behaviors. This parenting style has not left the church, or the mission field, unaffected.

One of the hindrances for young people interested in missions can be family—either not wanting to be away from them for that long of a time, or concerns that their Christian parents won’t give them permission to go, even on a short-term trip. It would appear that the parents of the church have lost sight of the Scriptural emphasis on the Great Commission in favor of the comfort of home sweet home. While parents have every right to be concerned for the safety of their children, Christian parents also bear the burden to serve Christ first. I would argue that Christian parents not only need to be willing to let their children experience opportunities to take part in the Great Commission, but should actively seek to cultivate a missional mindset in their children. Akin asserts that teaching children about the importance of missions needs to return to the forefront of the minds of parents.

“[W]e shouldn’t wait until young men have started college or their careers before introducing them to missions. Casting a vision while they’re young is important. From preschool through high school, local churches can teach about global missions.” Akin said.

According to OMF International, a missions organization, approximately 25% of the population of unreached people groups is made up of single men, yet only 1% of missionaries currently are single men. Young single men are needed on the mission field, but if boys are not being taught about the importance of the Great Commission from a young age, it is unlikely that the percentage of younger single men on the mission field will increase. It is a mission that must begin within families.

3. Mission Organizations—acknowledge the difficulties/stigmas and work to support

Churches rarely send missionaries overseas without going through a sending organization. While many sending organizations lament the lack of men on the mission field, those same organizations often neglect opportunities and resources to help more men get involved. The hindrances that would keep men from going on the mission field are, and mission organizations do themselves a disservice by not acknowledging those issues or investing time and resources to address those setbacks for prospective missionaries. According to John Hawke, a former missionary who remained single throughout his time on the field, sending organizations can sometimes give interested men the impression that their marital status can greatly affect their time on the field.

“I’ve never seen an agency reject a man solely on the basis of his singleness, but I do see a disproportionally higher percentage of single men not being accepted. If we’re not careful, the underlying messaging can easily come across as ‘that’s nice, but come back to us once you’ve grown up and gotten married,’” Hawke said.

Though the lack of men on the mission field is widely acknowledged in the missions world as a problem, many organizations still have yet to do something about it. Perhaps it’s time for them to start looking at where they cause obstacles to men looking to go into missions and address those areas, before trying to attract more men to the mission field.

So what about women in the midst of all of this? Should we be sending fewer women to even out the playing field? Certainly not. This is not written to minimize the vital work that thousands of women are carrying out around the world, but rather to challenge churches, families, missions organizations, and men to ask themselves why this is the state of missions today. By bringing light to an area of lack, I don’t seek to diminish the areas where good work is being done but rather to call the body of Christ to hold each other accountable and push each other to higher places.

There’s a story about a conversation that well-known missionaries Elisabeth Elliott and Gladys Aylward some time ago. Aylward remained single for all of her life, and she talked about it with Elliott. According to Elliott, Aylward had asked God to call a man from England to go to China, who would be her husband. Recounting the conversation later, Elliott said, “[Aylward] shook her little bony finger in my face and said, ‘Elisabeth, I believe God answers prayer. And he called him...He called him, and he never came.’”

If the goal is to see Revelation 7:9-10 realized, with people from every tribe, nation, and language praising God in heaven, then we must address the lack of men in missions. This task is not undertaken as people working independently from one another, but as unified members of one body seeking to bring about transformation.