Evangelical Missiological Society, "EMS Southwest Regional Meeting", April 4th 2024

Mikko Sivonen, Agricola Theological Seminary, Finland

Missionaries as Provisional Pastors

As suggested by some missiologists, is it biblically accurate to say that missionaries cannot or should not fulfill a pastoral role? Within the scope of this article, we are not saying that every missionary sent to serve on a church planting team should serve as a pastor in a local church. However, we will argue that missionaries serving provisionally in the office of pastor is a biblical model for healthy church formation. As an implication, some elder qualified missionaries must be sent out to form new churches, serving as pastors temporarily to form sound doctrine, right worship, and model faithful eldering that leads to healthy local leadership in the church.