Missionary Activities

Since Jesus issued the mandate to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, Christians have been doing so. The first missionary activities took place during the height of the Roman Empire. Initially, the Romans considered Christianity to be a sect of Judaism, and left it largely alone. However, as Christians began to differentiate themselves from the Jews, the Empire began to try to stamp it out. The Jews themselves, led by Saul of Tarsus, were at the forefront of this attempted eradication, which began in Jerusalem.

As the persecution intensified, Christians fled. As they traveled away from Jerusalem, they shared their faith. The Roman attempt to extinguish the glowing embers of Christianity was like using water to put out a gasoline fire. Within 200 years, the gospel had spread to most of the Roman Empire. Saul of Tarsus was converted and known as Paul, and his missionary activities were relentless. He would enter a city, preach to the Jews first, and then speak with non-Jews. Eventually he would be thrown out of the city and would move on to the next, leaving a core of converts in his wake. These churches would grow and eventually send out missionaries of their own. Paul wrote letters back to these churches, and several of them still exist today, in the New Testament.

Like Paul's efforts, modern missionary activities have the main goal of eventually planting a church that sends out its own missionaries. Going about this can look very different depending on the country and subculture. Jim Elliot, missionary to Ecuador, spent a great deal of time providing medical services to the natives. Medical missions in the Philippines and other places continues to be an effective way to meet physical needs and build rapport with the indigenous peoples before sharing the gospel with them.