But words are living things. They evolve, get bruised by history, and sometimes—if we’re lucky—get redeemed.
The new model is subtractive: You take away my comfort. You take away my agenda. You take away my assumption that I am the hero of this story. Missionary
The best missionaries in history weren't the ones who built the biggest churches. They were the ones who learned the local word for "pain" before they learned the local word for "sin." Here is my proposal for the 21st-century missionary mindset. I call it The Law of Subtraction . But words are living things
The Latin root: missio – "to send."
At its absolute core, a missionary is simply someone who is sent . Specifically, someone sent to love people who are not like them. You take away my agenda
Because of this, the word carries baggage. In many global south communities, "missionary" is still a slur, shorthand for religious imperialism.