Should the Church Still Send International Missionaries?

In just a few weeks I’ll be participating in an evaluation of Christian Reformed World Missions’ work in Nigeria. One of the questions we’ll be asking is, “Is there still a role for Western missionaries in Nigeria?  If so, what should that role look like?”

We’ve addressed the question of how Western missionaries can be effective in today’s changing missions environment before on the Network and in a previous webinar, “Are Missionaries Still Needed?” (you can access the archived copy here).

I would also like to invite you to attend a free webinar coming up presented by Sixteen:Fifteen and Avant Ministries:

To Send or Not to Send?

Should the Local Church in America Still Be Sending Missionaries to the Ends of the Earth?”

One-full time national worker costs a fraction of what it costs to send an American missionary family overseas. But what about the thousands of people groups around the world where there are no "nationals," no witnessing churches? Nearly 2 billion souls live among people groups where there is no evangelizing church movement, often no witness of Christ at all. TO SEND OR NOT TO SEND? That is the question. Join us to learn more about this important yet often controversial topic.

January 24, 2013 2:00PM EST

Register now for this FREE webinar

In the meantime, I invite your discussion below. What do you think, are missionaries still needed? Is the need different than it was a hundred years ago?