the gospel impact today is the greatest in the history of the church
TRANSCRIPT
The Gospel impact today is the greatest in the history of the Church.
Made for a purpose God Himself lives for purpose Significance is to devote your life to a
purpose that is larger than your life — Especially the same purpose for which God
Himself lives! Can we genuinely worship God and not be
as concerned about the WORLD as He is concerned?
57% of Evangelicals believe there are other ways to God
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a massive survey on religion in America last year. 35,000 Americans were surveyed
David Van Biema of Time cited an disturbing statistic: 70% of those surveyed agreed with the statement, “many religions can lead to eternal life.”
57% of evangelicals surveyed “were willing to accept that theirs might not be the only path to salvation.”
Several countries have reached 35% Christian, mostly Evangelical
Whole countries have become open to the Gospel.
More Christians have gone places, learned more languages, translated more Scriptures and established more churches than in any period of history
With the population growth, more than 50% of the world’s population is alive today
Yet Less than 1/3 of the Globe has access to ever hear the Gospel once !
1920 1960 1980 2000 20201940
Before the mid-1970s there were more Muslims than Christians in Africa
Africa is experiencing the fastest church growth
The largest churches are Catholic, Anglican and Methodist
The crucial test for the African church in 21st century is how to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic
Christian Majority
Christian MinorityMuslim Majority
Area of Tension
Over 20%
10%-20%
5%-10%
Under 5%
Over 20%
10%-20%
5%-10%
Under 5%
1900 barely 50,000 believers
2000 more than 40 million Most of growth among
Pentecostal movements Largest population is
Brazil (33 million evangelicals)
Several cities over 10 million and one, Mexico City, over 22 million
Hundreds of unreached people groups
remain
Christianity has stagnated
Massive unevangelized areas
Mostly Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox
60% of Asia’s 312 million Christians actively witness
Most of unreached peoples of world in this area
Pacific Islands 16% are Evangelicals converted from cannibalistic, stone-age people
Hundreds of LA jungle tribes converted to Christ, yet hundreds more are unreached
10 million Quechua Indians in the Andes have begun to respond by the thousands after years of resistance
S. Korea is more than 25% Evangelical
3.75 million Evangelicals in the Philippines
9 million in Indonesia Great moving of God
in India is paralleled with great persecution
Missionaries forced out in 1950 Communist revolution
Est. less than 1 million Protestant members then
In last 20 years est. more than 50-70 million have become Christians in an underground house-church movement amid serious persecution
This is the largest turning to Christ in 2000 year of Church history!
65 nations – 4 billion people 2/3 of the world’s population 97% of those who have not heard 30-70% unemployment 82% of the poorest of the poor 3% of mission workers
Church Spending Church Spending WorldwideWorldwide
Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice when so many have not heard it even once?
GO Equippedinto the darkness
6500 languages spoken today 366 have the whole Bible in their
language 928 have the NT in their language 918 have the gospel of John in their
language
Nepal, Turkey, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq are responding to the gospel
“Tentmaking” missionaries are increasing as never before to have a “platform” for establishing a ministry in RAC. TESL Education Training Nationals in Certified Areas Business
1988 the number of foreign missionaries was 36,000 and growing more rapidly than Western missionaries– today they number more than 60, 000.
International students who convert to Christ in the US are returning to their country with great impact
Koreans are the leading nation with over 2,500 missionaries in other lands (most are “ethnic missionaries”
Difficult or dangerous for foreignersAlgeriaBhutan IranMaldivesN. KoreaSaharaSomalia
Some tent making ministry possible
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Comoros
Mauritania
Morocco
Tunisia
Yemen
Libya
Scope for open Christian witness
Cambodia
Mongolia
Nepal
Niger
Thailand
Turkey
Radio, now online transmission TV and soon online Christian TV productions Audio-visuals, computer projections and graphics Missionary aviation Computers Satellite transmissions, Internet connections Scientific linguistics Literature publications Christian Education, schools and colleges Church-based training tools Bible correspondence courses, Distance Learning
Research Centers are providing information and methodology that are effective
Now we are able to train missionaries effectively in the latest technology
Greater cooperation and partnering among missions has facilitated great expansion of the gospel
Focus has encouraged the conquest of unreached peoples among the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others
American missionary leadership is changing from pioneers to coaches of national movements
Churches are partnering with different groups to take personal responsibility for reaching cities and people groups
Training of leaders is shifting from institutions to empowering local churches to train their own leaders for their own mission
Tentmakers are becoming a new challenge of mixing business and evangelism
Short-term overseas experiences become primary beginning of mission commitment
House-church movements are sweeping areas previously closed to the gospel
Chinese character for the word “crisis” is made up of two smaller characters meaning “danger” and “opportunity”
Businessmen slogan, “No risk, no gain” Paul said, “for a wide door for effective
service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” 1 Cor 16:9
Opportunities always run parallel to problems and crises
To make every Christian a “World Christian”
To clarify the myths and misunderstandings regarding missions
Not everyone can be a foreign missionary, but all can be missions-minded
We must choose: Does God want us to be a “sender” of others to the world, or personally a “goer” to the unreached
Biblical Dimension —inductively formed convictions of truth
Historical Dimension —What God has been doing since Pentecost
Contextual Dimension —Understand what kind of world we have inherited
Geographic Dimension —Specific information about what missions has accomplished in each area of the world
Practical Dimension —How “missions” function through churches, missions, supporters and missionaries
1. Find yourself sitting on the bench while you could be playing a significant role – missions is the cutting edge of excitement
2. You will loose authenticity as a Christian– You say you love to worship Jesus, but you are disinterested in what He loves: the world. This is hypocrisy!
3. You will be poorly prepared for the judgment day when He tests how useful we were to the advancement of the Kingdom of God
Build prayer power, Mt 9:38, “Beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest”
Teach missions in the church and family Increase financial investment, 2 Cor 9:6, “He who
sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully”
Recruit new missionaries; be a sender or goer, but always a recruiter!
Send church or university teams on specific projects
Organize churches to develop partnership projects Team up with 1-5 missionaries with prayer/finance
2.2 million go into eternity daily 67% have little or no chance to hear the
Gospel Anyone who does not believe – for any
reason – is lost forever! Jn 3:18 J. Oswald Sanders, “Our responsibility for
the salvation of the heathen will be as great as our ability and opportunity to give them the gospel or to make it possible for the gospel to be brought to them”
Jesus’ passion is “I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” Mt 16:18 Are we with Him?