We are seeing major shifts in how the missionary task is being carried out around the world. Globalization is complexifying evangelical missiology before our eyes, and it is opening up a diversity of strategic opportunities for gospel workers. In other words, there are myriad modes for missionary service today. Along with all this development has come a broadening missions vocabulary, particularly when it comes to the specific roles we take up for the advancement of the gospel among the nations. Many of these terms and roles sound very similar to one another, and the distinctions between them are often quite subtle. Even within Southern Baptist life, our IMB terminology can be a little dizzying. I would like to provide some clarity on the expanding vocabulary we have at our disposal for talking about the many strategic roles now operational in missions today. Just imagine, the Lord may be calling you to a mode of missionary service that is different from anything you have considered before.

In a recent article for Southern Equip, Keith McKinley laid down a helpful definition of a missionary: “A missionary is a servant of Christ, a messenger called and set apart for the gospel among the nations.” The Foundations document, compiled by mission practitioners, missiologists, and various leaders across the SBC, adds that missionaries are those who have been sent out by the church to cross various kinds of barriers for the sake of the gospel’s advancement among the unreached. As you explore the various modes through which you, too, could join in the missionary task, it is crucial to begin with this clear understanding of a missionary in view.

Missionary Assigned Globally, or MAG

Missionaries Assigned Globally, or MAGs, are men and women set apart to be about the advancement of the gospel in several places simultaneously around the globe, usually while living in their home culture. What is unique to this role is the breadth of its scope. MAGs often serve in highly specialized capacities, providing leadership and support to a wide array of gospel workers and ministries across many different cultural and linguistic contexts. Because their work is not specific to any one people or place, for practical purposes, MAGs tend to live in the culture they call home. Might God be calling you toward a MAG mode of missionary service?

Missionary In Residence, or MIR

Missionaries In Residence, or MIRs, are traditional, cross-cultural missionaries who are living and serving for a season in connection with some institution outside their field of service. Like a Scholar In Residence at a church or an Artist In Residence at a private school, MIRs live at or near the entity they are temporarily connected with to provide consultation and cast vision for their area of expertise within that institution. An example of an MIR would be a long-time American missionary to Africa who is living and serving at a seminary campus while on stateside assignment. The MIR would counsel students interested in missions, speak at Great Commission events, and perhaps even teach missions courses as an adjunct instructor—all with the added benefit of being in residence within the seminary community. If you are already a cross-cultural missionary, consider serving for a season as an MIR.

Non-Resident Missionary, or NRM

Non-Resident Missionaries, or NRMs, are servants of Christ set apart for the advancement of the gospel in a particular place other than where they currently live. Unlike MAGs, Non-Resident Missionaries have a scope of ministry that is zeroed in on a particular people or place. And unlike Missionaries In Residence, these NRMs are not endeavoring to serve—as far as their official missionary job is concerned—those with whom they live and interact in-person on a daily basis. An NRM may be a Canadian, Farsi-speaking communications expert who is set apart by the church to use digital media in reaching Iranian Muslims with the gospel while living in Toronto. NRMs may make frequent trips to the area their work is aimed at, but what is distinctive about NRMs is that they do not reside within their sphere of service. Has God given you a particular skill you could leverage as an NRM without even getting on a plane?

National or Local Partner

National Partners, also referred to as Local Partners, are those brothers and sisters in Christ who serve alongside cross-cultural missionaries and are indigenous to their shared field of service. For a long time now, missionaries have rightly acknowledged the crucial role national partners play in the execution of the missionary task in a given place. As insiders to the culture the missionaries are laboring to reach, and as native speakers of the local language, national partners are an essential part of missionary teams all around the world.

Great Commission Christian, or GCC Partner

Great Commission Christians, or GCC Partners, are servants of Christ who live and work in a place other than their home culture while serving alongside traditional missionaries there in the advancement of the gospel. GCC Partners may be immigrants, expat professionals, or even refugees. What makes a GCC Partner different from a National Partner is the fact that these servants of Christ are not native to the context in which they now live and serve. What distinguishes them from traditional missionaries is that they were not intentionally set apart and sent out by the church to carry out the missionary task as their primary vocation. Nonetheless, GCC Partners fill an important role in missions today. Even if you are seminary-trained and unmistakably called to be about the missionary task, your past experiences and your professional qualifications might just situate you perfectly to advance the gospel as a GCC.

Global Missionary Partner, or GMP

Global Missionary Partners, or GMPs, are servants of God, sent out by the church to cross barriers for the sake of the gospel in a given place who labor alongside other missionaries from different sending entities and home cultures. The role of the GMP represents the cutting edge of evangelical missiology today. As the church grows and matures in what used to be called the world’s mission fields, younger churches and organizations are sending out their own cross-cultural missionaries. In the best of cases, sending entities from all over the globe are coordinating their efforts and forming multi-organization teams, all for the advancement of the gospel among the nations. Regardless of where you come from or which organization sends you out, on the mission field today you can look forward to the blessing of serving as a GMP.

With the globalization of the missionary enterprise today, our missions vocabulary is growing. It is no longer enough to categorize missionary roles merely in terms of places or peoples. The modes of missions are myriad, and praise God for this reality! Each of these roles and titles represents a relatively new and highly strategic capacity for carrying out the missionary task in our ever-shrinking world. Let us celebrate these manifold ways the Lord has given us to labor together in bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth. To which of these missionary roles might the Lord be calling you?