How do you become a missionary?

Answer:

Each board has different requirements but most will ask for a bachelor's degree and a degree from a seminary.

Try talking to a counselor at a seminary or contacting the board you want to work with such as International Mission Board (in association with Southern Baptist Committee).

You will want to have a bachelor's degree in the field you wish to work, ideally but typically not required (if you want to teach abroad, try a teaching degree).

Right now you want to search your heart and make sure this is the life God wants for you, this is a huge commitment and might require you to learn new languages, sleep on the ground or on cement, not eat your regular food, etc. If it is then great!

Eventually you will be asked to share your testimony and why you want to be a missionary and when you discovered this path for your life.

Answer: You've got a lot of thinking to do: First consider if you want to. A missionary is a person who is so convinced that they are right that they are willing to tell others that they and their cultural traditions are wrong. Consider how you would react if a number of followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster came to your town to convert you and your family - offering medicines and food to those who saw the light and a cold shoulder for those who didn't, who gave all the kids in town shiny new iPods for coming to "fun" meetings on the weekend.

Next chose which group you wan to work with. There are a lot of "not nice" charities out there who want to prey on volunteers and separate donors from their cash. You don't want to join up with them. Are they aboveboard or do they force conversion by with holding benefits to those who won't convert, Are they a sham group who have dumped volunteers in the wild when the funds ran low. Are they insured and do they offer health benefits. What is their policy on getting hostages back. What happens if you come back sick and crippled?

Then, what's in it for you? Do they pay and feed you or do they make you pay to work for them. What useful training do you get - first aid, trades skills (e.g. welding), foreign language training. Do you get yearly repatriation? Ask what message you want to spread. Maybe you're more interested in doing non-sectarian good work like "Doctors Without Borders"