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Introduction
My background as missionary, mission leader, author in evaluating the world situation
My ministry: to encourage with what God is doing in the world and that we have a finishable task to challenge that we finish world evangelization as soon as possible.
We are a privileged people. Never before has any generation had such a real prospect of actually seeing the fulfillment world evangelization. The tragedy is that few Christians realize this and miss the sense of privilege and awe that God has called us into the Kingdom for such a time as this. The clever schemes of the enemy have made missions seem irrelevant or unimportant to the average congregation and Christian.
We are also an accountable people. It will involve costly commitment, wholehearted resolve and sacrificial co-operation if we are to achieve this in our generation.
My basis for sharing: The statements of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matt 24:14 concerning world evangelization.
1. Unprecedented global church growth - but not everywhere
The WILL of the 'Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached.
The definiteness of the Lord Jesus Christ's word - even in the midst of the global chaos He has just described (Matt 24:3-13). It WILL happen; nothing will stop it, though I believe our disobedience delays it.
A. The encouragements
(1) The 200-year expansion of Protestantism
1792-1850 : Denominational missions to the Coastlands
1850-1910 : Faith Missions to the Inland areas
1910-1970 : International Missions to the Countries of the world
1970-present : Global Missions to the Peoples of the world
(2) The 30 years of Evangelical growth
- The Great Congresses - Berlin, Lausanne, GCOWE
(3) The decades of growth
- The '60s for Africa, the '70s for Latin America, The 80's for East Asia, The '90s for Eurasia
- The Future breakthroughs-Islam?
(4) The Global plans for world evangelization
- David Barrett's book 700 Plans for world evangelization.
- Thomas Wang's message “Is God saying something to us?"
- The birth of the AD2000 and Beyond Movement
- The networking for global plans:
- The Radio Missions and their plans for every language spoken by over 1 million by 2000.
- The Bible translation Missions and plans for every language spoken by over 100,000 people.
- The Jesus Film plans for every language spoken by over 75,(XX).
- The Saturation Church Planting/DAWN Movement and plans for nations of world.
(5) The collapse of ideologies
- Communism - challenge of Brother Andrew, '84 for a 7-year prayer warfare to bring down the Iron Curtain.
- Islam - The surprising impact of fundamentalist Islam on increasing the number of converts to Christianity.
- Buddhism - discredited in Sri Lanka on defensive in S.E. Asia.
- Hinduism- Religion in politics in India the turning to God in Nepal
(6) The increase in the number of peoples with a witness Ibis century.
Many examples: The Kurds, The Tuareg. The Kabyte, The Iranians, The afghans, Indonesia
B. The Challenges.
(1) The West: The emerging post-Christian society with its secularism, “tolerance”, New Age world view.
- The loss of confidence that the Gospel is the ONLY hope of humankind
- The loss of vision, people, and enthusiasm for missions.
- The need for the re-evangeliaztion of Europe.
(2) The 10/40 Window region.
- Islam. Hinduism, Buddhism - the major challenges.
2. Unique message - but it is often compromised
- The Gospel of the Kingdom - the message that changes lives, that gives eternal hope, that is worth dying for.
A. The popularization of Evangelicalism.
- A plea for evangelical SIKXESS not to allow a watering down of the content of the Gospel.
- The astonishing growth of Evangelicalism in the world since 1960.
- The danger of shallow teaching, easy-believism, doctrinal fads.
- We need to restore to our people the power of the GospeL the glory of the Cross, the joy of the Christian Hope, the essentiality of missions.
- The teaching of the whole councils of God is also part of the Great Commission-Luke 24:45-49.
B. The syncretization of the Biblical message.
- The West- with materialism. The preoccupation with material things even in missions
- Africa and Latin America -with paganism.
- South Asia- with Hinduism,
- East Asia - with Buddhist works and Confucian ancestor veneration
- The loss of confidence in the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the message of the Gospel; a creeping universalism that is afflicting the West and South Asia. Tolerance is very intolerant of any absolutes.
C. The building of empires rather than the Kingdom
- Denominationalism, isolationism, personality worship among Christians are a sad characteristic of much Christian work today - examples: what Christians did in the Eurasian Communist Bloc with the collapse of doctrinaire Communism.
- A plea for Co-operation - the trend of the future. The networking now the major source of effective long-tenn missionary endeavor.
3. The unprecedented clarity of our information - but it is not being used enough
- The broad and total double coverage of the world required by the Lord Jesus Christ
- These fit the basic Mark and Matthew versions of the Great Commission
A. Global - Mark 16:15 : Preach the gospel to every person. The Evangelism challenge.
(1) The Evangelized and the unevangelized How many have never heard?
(2) The 10/40 Window and what it means to us today.
(3) The Countries with the fewest Christians.
(4) The provinces and districts with the fewest Christians.
B. Ethnic - Matt 28:19 : Make disciples of every people. The church planting challenge.
(1) The 12,000 peoples in the countries of the world
(2) The 12 Affinity Blocs
(3) The 140+ Gateway peoples
(4) The Joshua Project
(5) How close are we t seeing a church planted in every people in the world?
4. The exciting global mobilization for missions - but not always in partnership
- The challenge of the Lord Jesus Christ that there be preachers and testifiers.
- The eras of mission endeavor - Early Church 100-400, Celtic Church 400-800, Eastern Churches 800-1300, Roman Catholics 1300-1800, Protestants 1800-2000
- The last 15 years - Missions go global.
- Recent surveys: Larry Keyes, Larry Pate, Operation World.
|- The impact of Pacific. African, Latin American, and Asian missionaries on the world
The lessons we must learn:
(1) We must work together. Partnerships are the wave of the future. We are running out of countries and even peoples. The time of the lone ranger missionary is past
(2) We must learn to handle cultures and multi-cultural teams
(3) We must share resources, skills, information
(4) We must plant the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and not our own denomination or culture.
5. The finishability of world evangelization in our generation - if we commit ourselves to it.
- The end and world evangelization are intimately linked. Jesus will return when the job is done.
- What can be achieved by the year 2001?
- The need for every Christian, theological training institution, congregation, denomination to be committed.
- The cost is great - What that cost will mean in time, money, pain, loss, death- that life may come to others.
- Let us be willing and eager for this!
- We want Jesus back as soon as possible! We therefore want, by God's grace, to finish the job He has given us!
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