Character of a Missionary Candidate (In 1944)

I have been reading a book on Southern Baptist missions history (“Make Disciples of All Nations,” edited by Massey, Morris, and Grace. Review will be posted in a few days). In it, they quote from and summarize the characteristics sought for a missionary candidate drawn from the 1944 Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention. I decided to quote the entire passage from the annual. While I would disagree with bits and pieces of it, I feel that it was pretty well thought out at over 80 years old (I have much worse lists that are much more modern).

Qualifications for Missionaries
The basic essential for foreign missionary service is a personal loyalty to Jesus
Christ as Saviour and Lord. The candidates should be committed, heart and soul—
life, money, and all — to the cause of the world-wide missions. The original Great
Commission is still ours: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature” (Mark 16:15). The world mission of our Lord, however, does not rest
wholly on the Master’s Great Commission; it rests on all that he was and said and
did. It is inherent in the very nature of the Christian faith.

Physical Qualifications
Health. Good health is essential to successful service on all mission fields.
Extremes of altitude and climate, the prevalence of disease and the comparative
scarcity of medical facilities in some countries to which missionaries are sent,
make it imperative that missionaries and their families be robust in health. This
Foreign Board requires a careful and thorough medical examination of each
candidate, . and of the wife or husband, to determine physical, emotional, and
temperamental stability. Any physical disabilities and their possible relation to
the effectiveness of the missionary’s service are carefully considered before a
candidate is appointed.
Age. Missionaries should be between twenty-four and thirty-two years of age
at the time of their appointment. Persons past thirty-two are likely to have
difficulty in learning a new language and in making adjustments to a new
environment.
Personal Appearance. Neatness and attractiveness are as important on the
mission field as at home, both in their psychological effect on observers
and in the witness they give to the “inner self.”

Intellectual Qualifications
Other things being equal, the higher the educational attainments, the more
efficient is the missionary.

General Missionaries. All missionaries are required to have both college and
theological degrees or the equivalent.
Medical Missionaries. In addition to the college training the medical doctor
is required to have an M.D. degree from a Class A medical school, two years
of internship, and at least one year of missionary training in a theological
seminary or missionary training school approved by the Board.
The missionary nurse should have a college or university degree, the R.N.
degree and a missionary training school or theological seminary degree.
Experience, especially administrative, is desirable; and for some
appointments courses in pedagogy are required.
Educational Missionaries. Both college and theological seminary or missionary
training school degrees are required. Graduate degrees in special fields
science, music, sociology, education, and so forth— are desirable and often
required, especially for those who will teach in mission colleges,
universities, and seminaries.
Technical Missionaries. In addition to the required college and seminary or
missionary training school degrees, this missionary should have standard
technical training in his specialty: agriculture, building, vocational
training, printing, cinematography, and the like.

Whether those appointed are preachers or teachers, doctors or nurses,
agriculturists or builders, they are thought of as missionary-evangelists and so
regard themselves.

Spiritual Qualifications
“The missionary is God’s man, doing God’s work, in God’s way, in God’s field, for
God’s glory.” To be a missionary is to be engaged in the greatest work in the
world; to be an ambassador for Christ is to be a successor to the Apostle Paul. A
missionary is “one sent on a mission.” He must be sent of God. Herein lies one of
the greatest responsibilities of the Foreign Mission Board — to discover and appoint all whom God wants our Board to send to some foreign field of service.

The God-appointed mission of the missionary must never be minimized. Surely he must
feel the burden of lost souls. He should have the compassion of Paul: “Brethren, my
heart’s desire and prayer to God is for Israel, that they might be saved.” The
missionary candidate must have this qualification, here and now. Is he likely to be
missionary-minded in Africa, Asia, or South America, if he is not missionary-minded
in North America? Evangelism is the passion and work for all Christians. At home we
call it evangelism; abroad missions. It is the same.

It is essential for missionaries to have Christ’s attitude toward people of all
other races. No volunteer who cannot love and share and work as an equal with his
Negro friend in America, should ever go as a missionary to Africa, or to any other
place.

Candidates for appointment as missionaries, whether for life service or forspecial
terms, should bring a good witness of marked Christian character and culture, deep
conviction as to the essentials of the faith, and a strong desire to serve Christ
in wholehearted consecration, as already evidenced in Christian life and work at
home. The supreme value of a Christlike life renders a small number of such
candidates preferable to a larger number of those with inferior Christian
experience and less devoted consecration.

The performance of the central task of Christian missions, making Jesus Christ
known as Saviour and Lord, requires men and women possessed of

(1) a vital and growing Christian experience
(2) a wholehearted devotion to the interpretation of Jesus’ message to life
today
(3) an unusual insight into Christianity and essential human nature
(4) a love for Christ that compels a sharing of faith and experience
(5) an ability to state clearly and convincingly the teachings of Christian
faith

Social Qualifications
The difference in cultural environment on the mission field, as compared with that
of the missionary’s native land, makes certain social characteristics unusually
important. Among these are: tact, graciousness, poise, courtesy (especially in
regard to manners and customs of the country to which he goes), and ability to
maintain cordial relations with diplomatic and commercial communities. These
outward courtesies, however, must be founded in basic attitudes such as the
following: a co-operative spirit, willingness to defer to the judgment of
associates of wider experience, patience, adaptability to men of all classes and
circumstances, a genuine love for people, and a spirit of friendliness.

Qualifications of Temperament
Due again to the unusual difficulties and privations which may be incident to the
missionary life, only men and women of unusual emotional and mental stability can
be used. The importance of a cheerful and optimistic disposition, of an
irrepressible sense of humor, of persistent energy, courage, and resourcefulness
cannot be over-emphasized. The missionary must be mature emotionally,as well as in
his judgment and common sense.

Marriage and Family Qualifications
No standards as to family background are set up, since these factors, even more
than others, are conditioning rather than determining. Certain principles regarding
the candidate’s immediate family relationships are considered. It is required

(1) that the wife or husband also be called and dedicated to the missionary
task
(2) that financial or other domestic responsibilities be no greater than can
be assumed without too heavy a strain by the missionary
(3) that one’s husband or wife and children be as well able to adjust
themselves to the special circumstances of the missionary life as is the
candidate himself
(4) that the marital relationship (or attitude toward marriage on the part of
an unmarried candidate) be healthy and stable

Practical Experience Qualifications
More and more the Board is requiring that the new missionaries, like the doctors,
serve an internship in the homeland, thus allowing all the first personal and
professional mistakes to be made among one’s own people, who can more easily
understand and make allowance for beginners, than can those of different
backgrounds and cultures.

At least one year of successful experience in work similar to that to which the
missionary will be assigned is desirable and often required. Successful experience
here is one of the best indications of success there. Actual experience in any kind
of full-time salaried position is valuable preparation for missionary service.

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