During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, God used young, unmarried men powerfully on the mission field — many of whom were deeply shaped by the life and writings of David Brainerd. Among them were Robert Morrison, the great missionary to China; Henry Martyn, who first translated the Bible into Persian (Farsi); and William Chalmers Burns, a man known for powerful preaching as a missionary in China.
Today, the picture is somewhat different. In my thirteen years overseas, the single male missionary proved the rarest of sights. On short-term teams, they came in droves, but for the long term, they were few and far between. They appeared more often in support ministries — as airplane pilots, schoolteachers, or accountants — than as frontline church planters.
What has changed over the last couple of centuries? Let me offer three reasons for why I think young, unmarried men rarely make it to the front edges of gospel advance, along with three remedies that might help get them there.
