Christian Missionary Quotes & Sayings

I became a Christian at the age of seventeen. I made a very conscious act of commitment and my only desire was to be kept in purity and holiness throughout the whole time of my earthly pilgrimage. I didn't choose Christ's narrow path for the riches, fame, or comfortable life it would bring, for I had experienced several times in my family before I became a Christian that true discipleship would mean a life of persecution. — Mikhail Khorev

Thus, it is taking more American churches to field one missionary than churches in other parts of the world. For example, whereas there is one crosscultural missionary supported by every 0.7 evangelical churches in Singapore, by 2.1 churches in Hong Kong, 2.4 in Albania, 2.5 in Sri Lanka, 2.6 in Mongolia, 4.2 in South Korea, 4.9 in Myanmar, and 5.3 in Senegal, in the United States the ratio is 7.6 churches to one missionary.[6] The proper conclusion from this flurry of numbers would seem to be that, while the United States contains a whole lot of evangelical churches, those churches are not now as proportionately active in crosscultural missionary activity as many churches in the non-Western world. Evangelical dynamism in these other churches has replaced, or is replacing, the evangelical dynamism of American churches as the leading edge of world Christian expansion. That expansion seems to be tracking the earlier pattern of American adjustments to Christianity-after-Christendom. — Mark A. Noll

What we can say for sure is that, at the very least, God calls every Christian to live with a missionary heart. — David Sills

The rediscovery of the value of one's baptism is the basis of the missionary commitment of every Christian, because we see in the Gospel that he who lets himself be fascinated by Christ cannot do without witnessing the joy of following in his footsteps ... we understand even more that, in virtue of baptism, we have an inherent missionary vocation. — Pope Benedict XVI

If the Lord is coming soon, is this not a very practical motive for greater missionary effort? I know of no other motive that has been so stimulating to myself. — Hudson Taylor

When I was growing up, I went to an Irish-Christian missionary school. — Deepak Chopra

Let methods be changed, therefore, if necessary, that prayer may be given its true place. Let there be days set apart for intercession; let the original purpose of the monthly concert of prayer for missions be given a larger place; let missionary prayer cycles be used by families and by individual Christians. — John Mott

I remember, as a boy, hearing a Christian missionary preach to a crowd in India. Among other sweet things he was telling them was that if he gave a blow to their idol with his stick, what could it do? One of his hearers sharply answered, "If I abuse your God, what can He do?" "You would be punished," said the preacher, "when you die." "So my idol will punish you when you die," retorted the Hindu. The tree is known by its fruits. When I have seen amongst them that are called idolaters, men, the like of whom in morality and spirituality and love I have never seen anywhere, I stop and ask myself, "Can sin beget holiness? — Swami Vivekananda

Nothing can happen to me that hasn't gone through His hand first. If He wants to deliver me, He will. If He doesn't, He has a good reason for it. — Dalaina May

Because even then I was ill at ease with the commitment to spiritual imperialism which most Christians feel to be the sine qua non of being Christian, as if one could not be a true Christian without being a militant missionary. — Alan W. Watts

The greatest conduct is love in action. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460 The evidence for Christian truth is not exhaustive, but it is sufficient. Too often, Christianity has not been tried and found wanting
it has been found wanting, and not tried. — Os Guinness

Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Until the arrival of Spanish troops in 1920, Chefchaouen had been visited by just three Westerners. Two were missionary explorers: Charles de Foucauld, a Frenchman who spent just an hour in the town in 1883, disguised as a Jewish rabbi, and William Summers, an American who was poisoned by the townsfolk here in 1892. The third, in 1889, was the British journalist Walter Harris, whose main impulse, as described in his book, Land of an African Sultan, was "the very fact that there existed within thirty hours' ride of Tangier a city in which it was considered an utter impossibility for a Christian to enter". Thankfully, Chefchaouen today is more welcoming towards outsiders, and a number of the Medina's newer guesthouses now include owners hailing from Britain, Italy and the former Christian enemy, Spain. — Daniel Jacobs

These bible people remind me of another calamity similar to this missionary scheme, when our people, or any christian power would go to Africa for the pious purpose of kidnapping negroes, the mother would cry out to her children "run, run, the christians are coming," so when ever you hear "bibles," run for your life, if you do not want your pockets picked, or to be insulted and slandered as I was ... and if you hear "hopeful conversions" or the "gospel," don't stop to look behind you. — Anne Royall

The missionary question is not, 'Where are there unbelievers?' and then send a missionary there. There are unbelievers everywhere! The missionary question is, 'Where are there people's who don't have any Christians in them or don't have a church strong enough to do the neighbor evangelism that we can do if we just want to do it?' That's the missionary question. — John Piper

We can serve humanity with passionate commitment to our divine purpose. — Lailah Gifty Akita

You see Jesus wrecked my life — Katie J. Davis

It is most important for the practice of the Christian ministry, especially in its missionary activities toward those both within and without the Christian culture, to consider pagans, humanists, and Jews as members of the latent Spiritual Community and not as complete strangers who are invited into the Spiritual Community from outside. This insight serves as a powerful weapon against ecclesiastical and hierarchical arrogance. — Paul Tillich

We can serve humanity with our divine passions and gifted skills. — Lailah Gifty Akita

My ACTIONS should draw people to the God I serve, not my SALES PITCH. If people want what I have, they'll ask me how to get it. If not, that's their business. — Stefne Miller

Not every believer has the missionary gift, but every Christian is called to some kind of involvement in missions. We are called to advance the gospel in some way and to participate in the fulfilling of God's purposes in our generation — David Shibley

I went from being a Christian missionary to an atheist. — Daniel Everett

Would the potential attraction to Mormonism by simply having a Mormon in the White House threaten traditional Christianity by leading more Americans to a church that some Christians believe misleadingly calls itself Christian, is an active missionary church, and a dangerous cult? — Rick Santorum

Living according to God's truth means that my ego must die, and I must live entirely for God and for my neighbors. Living according to God's truth means not following the crowd and not being dismayed when even your friends misunderstand you. For the God whom you serve will have the final word. On the day of judgement he will speak the final word over the whole of your life. — Mikhail Khorev

To promise to abide by this legislation, so inimical to God, would mean forsaking the gospel and turning away from God's law. This is why Christians have a choice to make, either to trade in their loyalty to God for freedom from persecution, or to remain true to Christ and consequently run the risk of persecution. — Mikhail Khorev

The missionary experience is part of Christian formation and it is important for adolescents and young people to be able to live it personally. — Pope Benedict XVI

Every Christian became a missionary the moment God breathed his Spirit into him or her. — Louie Giglio

Every day is predetermined by God. — Lailah Gifty Akita

To stay here and disobey God - I can't afford to take the consequence. I would rather go and obey God than to stay here and know that I disobeyed. — Amanda Smith

Looking round upon those eager, friendly faces, I compared them with the cold face of the [christian] missionary, who suddenly appeared to me as a great bird of prey — Marmaduke William Pickthall

A congregation that is not deeply and earnestly involved in the worldwide proclamation of the gospel does not understand the nature of salvation. — Theodore Wilhelm Engstrom

This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the earth! — Keith Green

The Christian missionary may preach the gospel to the poor naked heathen, but the spiritual heathen who populate Europe have as yet heard nothing of Christianity. — Carl Jung

To me there is no more tragic sight than the average missionary. ... We have given so much, yet not the one thing that counts; we aspire so high, and fall so low; we suffer so much, but so seldom with Christ; we have done so much and so little will remain; we have known Christ in part, and have so effectively barricaded our hearts against His mighty love, which surely He must yearn to give His disciples above all people. — Amy Carmichael

The printed page is a missionary that can go anywhere and do so at minimum cost. It enters closed lands and reaches all strata of society. It does not grow weary. It needs no furlough. It lives longer than any missionary. It never gets ill. It penetrates through the mind to the heart and conscience. It has and is producing results everywhere. It has often lain dormant yet retained its life and bloomed years later. — Samuel Marinus Zwemer

The hardest part of a missionary career is to maintain regular, prayerful Bible study. Satan will always find you something to do, when you ought to be occupied about that - if it is only arranging a window blind! — Hudson Taylor

Once divested of missionary virus, the cult of our gods gives no offence. It would be a peaceful age if this were recognized, and religion, Christian, communist or any other, were to rely on practice and not on conversion for her growth. — Freya Stark

Serve one another with great humility. — Lailah Gifty Akita

If you find a need, reach out to help. — Lailah Gifty Akita

A Christian mother's first duty is to soil her child's mind, and she does not neglect it. Her lad grows up to be a missionary, and goes to the innocent savage and to the civilized Japanese, and soils their minds. Whereupon they adopt immodesty, they conceal their bodies, they stop bathing naked together. — Mark Twain

The Christian family is missionary: it announces the love of God to the world. — Pope Francis

Jehovah Witnesses don't believe in hell and neither do most Christians — Leonard Ravenhill

I have learned that I will not change the world, Jesus will do that. I can however, change the world for one person. I can change the world for fourteen little girls and for four hundred schoolchildren and for a sick and dying grandmother and for a malnourished, neglected, abused five-year old. And if one persons sees the love of Christ in me, it is worth every minute. In fact, it is worth spending my life for. — Katie J. Davis

The business of the missionary, and the business of the Christian Church in any situation, is to challenge the plausibility structure in the light of God's revelation of the real meaning of history. — Lesslie Newbigin

The missionary church is a praying church. The history of missions is a history of prayer. Everything vital to the success of the world's evangelization hinges on prayer. Are thousands of missionaries and tens of thousands of native workers needed? Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest. — John Mott

A God-centered theology has to be a missionary theology — John Piper

Taking into account the different approaches to defining the term 'missionary' we can define a missionary as a Christian believer who takes the gospel to those who have never heard it before. — Marius Olivier

The Christian is not obedient unless he is doing all in his power to send the Gospel to the heathen world. — A.B. Simpson

In telling these stories of our Nation's past, however, let's not be so zealous in correcting liberal historians that we create our own historical revisionism. If the Founding Fathers were alive today, some of them would not want to go to the typical Evangelical church. Some were influenced by the pagan Enlightenment, as well as the Protestant Reformation. one historical figure (not a Founding Father) who's been misrepresented in our quest to find Christian heroes is Johnny Appleseed. He's routinely pictured as a nice man who went around scattering apple seeds everywhere and toting a Bible under his arm. The fact is, Johnny Appleseed was a missionary for Swedenbogrism, a spiritist cult. This cult taught many false doctrines and claimed that the writings of the Apostle Paul had no place in the Bible. When a child hears that Johnny Appleseed is a 'godly hero' and then discovers that he was in fact a cult member, what will he logically conclude about everything he's been taught? — Gregg Harris

Rah speaks prophetically. That is, if we don't learn diversity and racial harmony in our own country, how can we go into the world? To aspiring missionaries he writes, "If you are a white Christian wanting to be a missionary in this day and age, and you have never had a nonwhite mentor, then you will not be a missionary. You will be a colonialist. Instead of taking the gospel message into the world, you will take an Americanized version of the gospel."7 — Paul Borthwick

I am born for God only. Christ is nearer to me than father, or mother, or sister - a near relation, a more affectionate Friend; and I rejoice to follow Him, and to love Him. Blessed Jesus! Thou art all I want - a forerunner to me in all I ever shall go through as a Christian, a minister, or a missionary ... — Henry Martyn

Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she bears witness to God's love. Be missionaries of God's tenderness! — Pope Francis

You must put all your heart into everything you do. — Lailah Gifty Akita

It's quite simple and natural if you think it out. The old pagan Britons were in the habit of having fairs when they assembled at their holy centres for the big sun festivals. The fairs went on just the same, whether they were pagan or Christian, and the missionary centres grew up where the crowds came together. When the king was converted, they just changed the Sun for the Son. The common people never knew the difference. They went for the fun of the fair and took part in the ceremonies to bring good luck and make the fields fertile. How were they to know the difference between Good Friday and the spring ploughing festival? There was a human sacrifice on both occasions. — Dion Fortune

The Great Commission is the primary task the Lord left his church. The church must always be a missionary church; the Christian must always be a world Christian. — William J. Larkin Jr.

How little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. The churches and missionary societies have so bound Him in red tape that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves. — Charles Studd

The highest of missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God ... ), but rather zeal - burning and passionate zeal - for the glory of Jesus Christ ... Only one imperialism is Christian ... and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire.2 — John Piper

We have to work and serve humanity while we have the grace. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The Lord's gracious hand is upon us.
We will begin the good work. — Lailah Gifty Akita

That's his definition of mercy. This is the year of the Mercy Jubilee of the pope. I know that he's against abortion, but he talks about Christ's emphasis on mercy instead of his emphasis on judgment. He talks about the lack of Christian charity and the pride that are afloat in our world these days in terms of making moral judgments on other people. That's really it for Willie. He's really a missionary. — John H Richardson

Where is your Christian god now?" the turbaned assassin shouts. Lucine thinks it is a good question. Not one person answers him. Not Mairig and not the missionary. Perhaps they sense what Lucine already knows, that if God is indeed anywhere, he is not here. — Aline Ohanesian

Prayer is the mighty engine that is to move the missionary work. — A.B. Simpson

The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. — Amy Carmichael

The sinner does not need more grace than the saint, nor does the immature and undisciplined believer need more than the godly, zealous missionary. We all need the same amount of grace because the "currency" of our good works is debased and worthless before God. — Jerry Bridges

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY WAS DUE PRIMARILY TO A NEW BURST OF RELIGIOUS LIFE EMANATING FROM THE CHRISTIAN IMPULSE ... NEVER IN ANY CORRESPONDING LENGTH OF TIME HAD THE CHRISTIAN IMPULSE GIVEN RISE TO SO MANY NEW MOVEMENTS. NEVER HAD IT HAD QUITE SO GREAT AN EFFECT UPON WESTERN EUROPEAN PEOPLES. IT WAS FROM THIS ABOUNDING VIGOR THAT THERE ISSUED THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE WHICH DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY SO AUGMENTED THE NUMERICAL STRENGTH AND THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. — Kenneth Scott Latourette

May God give you overflowing grace for every good work. — Lailah Gifty Akita

I want you to see persecution and opposition and slander and misunderstanding and disappointment and self-recrimination and weakness and danger as the normal portion of faithful pastoral ministry. — John Piper