missions: appointing and going

After this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. – Luke 10:1

“…the Lord appointed 72 others…”

I’ve heard this text used to support missionaries choosing those locals with whom they work — or rather to argue against a form of self-selection by local people for service in evangelism. After all, there are a lot of locals out there who see working with a missionary (and evangelism in general) as a means to financial gain and social power.*

missions: two by two

I wrote a little the other day about short-term missions and mentioned I intended to write more on the subject soon.  I even made an outline.  But then that outline got really long, and I became overwhelmed.  So I’ve decided instead to do something even longer!  I’m going to use some space up on the blog writing about missions in general — and eventually I’ll get back to the specific topic of short-term missions (though I think each of these general missions posts will help to inform our study of short-term missions).  So here goes part one (or two?) of what will surely be a meandering study of missions (that really ought not be numbered).  Let’s look some at how Jesus sent (short-term) missionaries out.

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Jesus sent missionaries out two by two (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1).  Why was that important?*