by Mark L. Russell
For most people, the word missionary implies living in another culture. I have spent a great deal of time overseas,
traveling to more than 70 countries. Totaling my travel time and years spent living in Russia, Germany, and Chile, I have 10 years of international experience (about a quarter of my life so far). Nevertheless, I have also spent a lot of my energies arguing that the essence of being a missionary is living in God’s mission wherever you are.
I do believe God calls us all to be missionaries, but God does call some of us to spend some time overseas living cross-culturally. That could be for a couple of years or maybe even for a lifetime. Increasingly, people from a business background are being called to live overseas and utilize their unique business calling and background to make an impact for the kingdom of God.
One businessman whom I know sensed a call to go to a country in a part of the world very hostile to the gospel of Christ. He started working for a telecom company owned and operated by a famous individual from the region. This man is internationally known to be hostile to the gospel.
My friend worked within the company to build trust and develop friendships. In the context of these relationships he began to expose colleagues to views on God and life that they had never before considered.
Several years ago, before most Americans were really catching on, my friend realized that Twitter could be a useful tool for mobilizing people, even in this hostile country. As a result, he worked through his colleagues and his company to educate citizens on the use of social media and how it could be used to communicate with others in short bits.
While my friend is first and foremost a citizen of the kingdom of God, he has equipped the people of the country where he now lives with tools to express themselves in a context where freedom of speech is violently stifled. Freedom of speech leads to freedom of religion.
Most American Christians don’t realize or grasp the fact that millions of people in many parts of the world are denied free access to hearing the gospel. They have no opportunity to respond to Christ. Throughout many regions, people are given one view of god/gods/God and life, and then are forced to accept it. No alternative ideas are tolerated.
Like a medicine slowly working its way through the veins of a body, so my friend’s strategy is slowly working its way through a country in desperate need of freedom. Let’s pray for the eternal healing of Jesus Christ to follow.
Mark Russell is a widely respected voice in the missional community. He has traveled extensively to carry out a variety of business, educational, humanitarian, and religious projects. He is the author of The Missional Entrepreneur.
