Where do missionaries come from?
Do you know which countries in the world send the most missionaries? I expect few of us would be surprised to learn that the United States sends more missionaries than any other country. But how many of us would be able to name the other big senders? A study by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary found that in 2010, the top four missionary-sending countries were the United States, Brazil, France and Spain.
The biggest surprise, though, comes in seeing the figures for missionaries sent per million Christians in the country. The top four senders are now Palestine, Ireland, Malta and Samoa. Who would have guessed any of those? World mission has truly become not just a mission to all nations, but also by all nations. Almost every country in the world is now a missionary-sending country.
These findings are a source of great joy and also great humility. There must be great joy in what God has done. Who would have guessed that this would be the fruit of the Lord Jesus commissioning twelve disciples to be his witnesses “to the ends of the earth”? Well, we should have believed him! And he hasn’t finished yet! But there should also be great humility. Almost half the top missionary-sending countries are now in the global south. Again, that’s cause for great joy. But should we not also be humbled by their zeal? Do we need to re-learn what they may have learned from us in the first place?