French and Spanish sent missionaries to North America to convert Native Americans to Catholicism.
A missionary is considered a member of a religious group sent into an area in order to promote their faith or perform ministries of service, including education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.
A Christian missionary can be defined as "one who is to witness across cultures."
The Lausanne Congress of 1974, described the term, concerning to Christian mission as, "to form a viable indigenous church-planting movement."