Market Place Worker (MPW) or Market Place Professional (MPP) are terms that often bring confusion and/or mis-understanding both in the USA and abroad. What exactly do we mean when we say Market Place Worker (MPW)? Is it a valid model of evangelism? Is it evangelism? Is it "real" missionary work?
These questions are further cluttered by what we in the West (aka America), historically have called "Missions." We have unintentionally restricted "Missions" to a select few "Missionaries." This highly trained, 1% of the general Christian population, are expected to have:
1) A "Call" to missions
2) Extensive biblical knowledge (i.e. seminary)
3) Great local language fluency (formal language education)
4) Funding from outside sources
5) A full time job of evangelism, discipleship, & church planting
Let me begin by saying this is an incredibly needed and valid models of "Going." Nobody anywhere (myself included) is saying this is not a great model of best practices for missions. But clearly, this is not a realistic model for every Christian.
So what are the rest of us mere-mortals supposed to do? Stay home? Give money? Let the professionals handle it? Or simply give up? Unfortunately, the last option is one that many Christians end up taking.
But what if you could do what you are good at, and designed to do, by God Himself? And what if you could do that thing you are passionate about, your profession, in a Hindu country? What if you could be a godly nurse in Turkey? A Christ-following pharmacist, in China?
What if you could go to the Unreached world, shine light in the darkness, pay your own way, and get a visa into a country that is closed to the traditional missions model?
If you did that, if you were intentional about your God-given gifts, and you used them to shine light in a dark place - you would be a Market Place Worker.
It's actually pretty simple; obey, go, be light. But it is also fairly complex. Sort of like the Gospel; It takes one day to accept, but a lifetime of growth and redemption.
Are you willing to take your skills and go where He is not yet know? Are you willing to try?
Come join us in the Unreached world. Come join His army of Market Place Workers in the spreading of His good news.
You may even come to think in meters, and not in feet!
