How should missionaries think about their lifestyle—dress, food, and transportation—choices without becoming judgmental or ostentatious?
Hale frames the missionary’s standard of living as more than a private preference. It directly shapes how others hear the missionary’s words. In that sense, lifestyle is not primarily about “right or wrong,” but about how choices affect others and either strengthen or weaken testimony.
Lifestyle is not primarily about “right or wrong,” but about how choices affect others.
Hale applies the principle concretely:
Dress: Missionaries should consider local standards carefully and look for ways to incorporate local customs into attire, so that clothing does not signal distance or contempt.
Food: A missionary may politely decline certain dishes, but must eat something a host offers. Refusing everything communicates rejection rather than love.
Transportation: Choose what helps ministry function efficiently, but select “the least ostentatious option available,” resisting the impulse to display status.
Hale adds a needed safeguard: Above all, don’t judge others by your chosen standards. The goal is not competition in simplicity. The goal is a conscience guided by love and a witness protected from avoidable offense.
Missionaries should make lifestyle choices that please others and strengthen testimony, while refusing both ostentation and judgmental comparisons.
Disclaimer: Information in my “slip-box” doesn’t necessarily reflect my agreement with the source or all its content. Recording diverse perspectives helps strengthen one’s position beyond the echo chamber of like-minded thinkers. By documenting alternative viewpoints, we engage in the intellectual wrestling match that ultimately deepens our understanding.
I aspire to post one note from my “slip-box” every weekday. If you want to learn more about how to work with knowledge, click this link: What is knowledge management?
Pastor Dan Patrick, raised in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., holds both a Bible degree and a Master’s of Divinity. He has ministered across five states from coast to coast, serving in various capacities, including pastoral leadership. Dan’s primary mission is to help people love God’s Word and find their purpose in God’s work.
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