Missionaries go into various international and local communities to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and promote the Christian faith. The duties of a missionary primarily revolve around sharing the gospel, which includes community building and development. Depending on their skill set, missionaries may organize health outreaches, build schools, teach and contribute to the development of the community in addition to teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can decide to be a long-term or short-term missionary. Long-term missionaries dedicate years of their lives to service and stay on in those communities to build families or with their families. On the other hand, short-term missionaries only stay for a while, possibly to establish churches or see to certain projects after which they go.
There is no specific level of education required, but depending on the organization you work with and the type of projects they are involved in, your skillset may be necessary. Because of issues with language barriers, people who are fluent in certain languages are always preferred. Beyond this, a love for the people and sharing the gospel is required. The average missionary is paid about $20,000 annually.
What is a Missionary?
What Does a Missionary Do
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a missionary, we found that a lot of resumes listed 21.5% of missionaries included spanish language, while 10.8% of resumes included community outreach, and 8.4% of resumes included ministry. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
How To Become a Missionary
If you're interested in becoming a missionary, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 52.0% of missionaries have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 8.3% of missionaries have master's degrees. Even though most missionaries have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Missionary Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a missionary can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as pastor, progress to a title such as adjunct professor and then eventually end up with the title principal.
Average Salary for a Missionary
What Am I Worth?
States With The Most Missionary Jobs
Number Of Missionary Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia | 1 | $63,175 |
| 2 | Utah | 1 | $40,348 |
| 3 | Alaska | 0 | $72,023 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | 0 | $69,402 |
| 5 | New Jersey | 0 | $70,880 |
| 6 | New York | 0 | $70,830 |
| 7 | Rhode Island | 0 | $63,228 |
| 8 | Michigan | 0 | $61,960 |
| 9 | Delaware | 0 | $62,575 |
| 10 | Maine | 0 | $60,938 |
| 11 | Connecticut | 0 | $63,937 |
| 12 | California | 0 | $64,303 |
| 13 | New Hampshire | 0 | $59,756 |
| 14 | Arizona | 0 | $59,588 |
| 15 | Massachusetts | 0 | $61,909 |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 0 | $56,335 |
| 17 | Maryland | 0 | $60,716 |
| 18 | Ohio | 0 | $53,801 |
| 19 | West Virginia | 0 | $53,570 |
| 20 | Indiana | 0 | $54,386 |
| 21 | Vermont | 0 | $56,328 |
| 22 | New Mexico | 0 | $54,656 |
| 23 | Texas | 0 | $54,363 |
| 24 | North Carolina | 0 | $54,366 |
| 25 | Minnesota | 0 | $52,752 |
| 26 | Illinois | 0 | $54,792 |
| 27 | Nevada | 0 | $53,359 |
| 28 | Tennessee | 0 | $48,323 |
| 29 | Iowa | 0 | $49,048 |
| 30 | Florida | 0 | $49,669 |
| 31 | Alabama | 0 | $47,873 |
| 32 | Georgia | 0 | $48,105 |
| 33 | Oklahoma | 0 | $46,947 |
| 34 | Arkansas | 0 | $46,903 |
| 35 | Kentucky | 0 | $46,348 |
| 36 | Louisiana | 0 | $46,991 |
| 37 | Kansas | 0 | $45,973 |
| 38 | Oregon | 0 | $46,688 |
| 39 | North Dakota | 0 | $44,495 |
| 40 | Hawaii | 0 | $46,756 |
| 41 | South Carolina | 0 | $44,816 |
| 42 | Washington | 0 | $45,131 |
| 43 | Mississippi | 0 | $43,578 |
| 44 | Wyoming | 0 | $42,617 |
| 45 | South Dakota | 0 | $41,733 |
| 46 | Idaho | 0 | $43,658 |
| 47 | Missouri | 0 | $42,341 |
| 48 | Nebraska | 0 | $40,969 |
| 49 | Colorado | 0 | $39,708 |
| 50 | Montana | 0 | $39,103 |
Choose From 10+ Customizable Missionary Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Missionary templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Missionary resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Missionary diversity
Missionary Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among missionaries, 34.6% of them are women, while 65.4% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among missionaries is White, which makes up 64.7% of all missionaries.
- The most common foreign language among missionaries is Spanish at 63.0%.
Online Courses For Missionary That You May Like
1. Start Your Traveling Ministry - Itinerant and Evangelistic
Ministry Training Institute. How do you get started with a traveling ministry?...
2. Leadership: You Can Speak Like a Leader
Leadership: You can project authority and confidence and demonstrate leadership every time you speak...
3. Leadership Communication Skills for Influence and Impact
Develop the communication skills that will make you irreplaceable, influential and unstoppable as a 21st century leader...
How Do Missionaries Rate Their Jobs?
Top Missionary Employers
Most Common Employers For Missionary
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wycliffe Bible Translators USA | $92,285 | $44.37 | 5 |
| 2 | WorldVenture | $62,286 | $29.95 | 5 |
| 3 | World Gospel Mission | $58,524 | $28.14 | 10 |
| 4 | North American Mission Board | $53,101 | $25.53 | 15 |
| 5 | Mission | $51,984 | $24.99 | 16 |
| 6 | River of Life Assembly | $51,868 | $24.94 | 9 |
| 7 | WatchTower | $51,775 | $24.89 | 9 |
| 8 | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | $48,935 | $23.53 | 2,561 |
| 9 | Biblical Ministries Worldwide | $41,512 | $19.96 | 5 |
| 10 | Operation Mobilization USA | $40,927 | $19.68 | 10 |
Missionary Videos
