The United States sends more Christian missionaries abroad than any other country. According to Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, in 2010 the United States sent out 127,000 of the world's estimated 400,000 missionaries. To put this in perspective, second-place Brazil sent 34,000.

The irony is that now, America needs them sent here.

The widely discussed American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), released in 2009, marked an alarming increase in "nones" - nearly doubling from 8 percent to 15 percent. This made those who claim no religion at all the third largest defined constituency in the United States, eclipsed only by Catholics and Baptists. Further, "nones" were the only religious bloc to rise in percentage in every single state, thus constituting the only true national trend.

It is difficult to think of America as a mission field, having been the exporter of faith for so many generations, but that is precisely what it has become.

So what kind of missionaries does America need? The same kind we've been sending out for 200 years.  And they need to do precisely what any good missionary would do.

Here are the big three:

The first task for any missionary is to learn the language of the people you are trying to reach, and then use it. A language barrier is the most elemental and primary obstacle to overcome. To learn the language means to educate yourself on how to talk in a way that people can understand and relate to, and in the end, respond to. America has a very unique and specific language, and it isn't simply "English." It is the communication of thoughts and feelings through an understood set of words, sounds and symbols. It is highly "tribal," and in constant flux.

Which brings us to the second missionary task.