Transcript Motivation for Missions

MOTIVATION FOR MISSIONS
The Gospel impact today is the greatest in the
history of the Church.
PURPOSE
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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?
AMERICAN EVANGELICALS ARE
PLURALISTS
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.”
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INCREDIBLE GROWTH
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 !
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NON-WESTERN CHRISTIANS AS A
PERCENTAGE OF ALL CHRISTIANS
1900-2020
1920 1940 1960
1980
2000
2020
THE CHURCH IN AFRICA
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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
Muslim Majority
Christian Minority
Area of Tension
CHURCH IN LATIN AMERICA
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
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Over 20%
10%-20%
5%-10%
Under 5%
THE CHURCH IN EUROPE
Christianity
has stagnated
 Massive
unevangelized
areas
 Mostly Roman
Catholic and
Greek
Orthodox
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Roman Catholic
Orthodox
Atheistic
Protestant
THE CHURCH IN ASIA
60% of Asia’s 312 million Christians actively
witness
 Most of unreached peoples of world in this
area
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RESPONSE OF ANIMISTIC TRIBES
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
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IMPACT IN ASIA
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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
IMPACT IN CHINA
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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 housechurch 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 Worldwide
Local Church 82.6%
Home Missions 12 %
Foreign Missions 5.4 %
Unevangelized .02 %
5%
.02%
12%
83%
Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice
when so many have not heard it even once?
GO Equipped
into the darkness
PERCENTAGE OF FOREIGN MISSIONARIES AND
PERCENTAGE OF RELIGIOUS WORLD POPULATIONS
BIBLE STATUS IN WORLD LANGUAGES
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
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FORMERLY CLOSED COUNTRIES YIELDING FRUIT
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.
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 TESL
 Education
 Training
Nationals in Certified Areas
 Business
MISSIONARIES FROM
“TWO-THIRDS” WORLD
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”
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FORMALLY CLOSED COUNTRIES ARE
OPENING
Difficult or
dangerous for
foreigners
Algeria
Bhutan Iran
Maldives
N. Korea
Sahara
Somalia
Some tent making
ministry possible
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Comoros
Mauritania
Morocco
Tunisia
Yemen
Libya
Scope for open
Christian
witness
Cambodia
Mongolia
Nepal
Niger
Thailand
Turkey
NEW TOOLS FOR WORLD EVANGELISM
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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
STUDY OF MISSIOLOGY
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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
NEW PARADIGMS
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
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IT ISN’T GOING TO BE EASY
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
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OBJECTIVE OF THE COURSE:
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
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FIVE DIMENSIONS OF WORLD MISSIONS
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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
INDIFFERENCE TO BEING A “WORLD CHRISTIAN”
PETER WAGNER
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Find yourself sitting on the bench while you could
be playing a significant role – missions is the
cutting edge of excitement
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!
You will be poorly prepared for the judgment day
when He tests how useful we were to the
advancement of the Kingdom of God
MEANS OF MISSION
INVOLVEMENT
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
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URGENCY OF MISSION INVOLVEMENT
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?
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