OpenHeartMissions

Published: 3-31-13

Edited: 6-14-13

When our teacher for the week said that this week could change our lives, I laughed, as I thought it was a basic teaching and he was kidding, it turns out he was right and he wasn't joking. The topic of the lectures was "The Biblical Foundations of Missions", and it was epic.

Joe covered the history of missions, but first, he gave an accurate definition of missions:
What is Missions?
Any cross-cultural effort outside of your local congregation to obey the great commission by proclaiming the gospel of Christ, making disciples and gathering these disciples into local groups of any size, committed to one another and to obeying Jesus' commission:
Matthew 28:16-20
Mark 16:15
Luke 24:47
John 20:21
Acts 1:8

Cross-cultural by definition means outside your own backyard, your own church, your own community, town, state and most likely- your own country.

What is even more interesting is the amount of times the commission exists throughout the Bible. Our teacher showed us his Bible he used during one of his training schools when he was younger. He went and had bought a blue highlighter and began reading the Bible, cover to cover. As he flipped through the Word, pages and sections and paragraphs were highlighted. Joe ran out of highlighters twice before he finally finished reading the Bible through a "missions" perspective. Everywhere he looked, everywhere he read, it shone clear as the sun. The word 'Go' appears 1,372 times in the old and new testament! It was amazing to realize how much God the Father emphasized it. In class, we read through several major historical events in the Bible and noticed there were two main things that occurred in each: the command to go and the result brought glory to God.

We also studied basic world statistics to give us a clearer view of the need that still exists in the world today for people to go:

World A: people who have never had an opportunity to hear
World B: people who have heard but refused to accept
World C: reached part of the world: 34% of the world
.5 billion people: atheist (communist countries)
.5 billion people: Hindu
1 billion people: Muslim
.5 billion people: Buddhist and tribal beliefs

1 out of every 10: active Christians
2 out of every 10: nominal Christians
3 out of every 10: non-Christians
1 out of every 10 active missionaries are reaching the already reached people groups.

The most shocking and heart-breaking statistics I saw were these:
Only 426,000 full-time international missionaries.
3.4 Billion people in the 10.40 Window- 59% population of the World.

Joe helped bring those numbers to life for us by a class demonstration. He had each of the DTS staff to represent half a billion people and divided them up into the unreached people groups. He also had stacks of chairs with signs on them for the active Christians, nominal Christians and reached people. Joe then had ten of the students (including me) to be missionaries. He sent us and we randomly chose who to go to. It was awesome to see that there were two people for each unreached people group and one each for the reached ones and nominal Christians. Joe smiled and said gently, "Yes, I think you guys got it right. This is what missions is supposed to look like in the church," He then rearranged us according to the reality of what is really happening. He moved all of the missionaries, except one, to the already reached people. That left one for all of the other people groups. I stood in shock. We were all quiet. There were so many people.....and only one person to tell the good news! Joe started to weep as he said, "This is wrong. But this is how it is. This is why we need to pray for God to send more workers. This is why we need to ask God to send us. This is why." I started to almost cry as I realized the gross neglect the church in the western world has taken to inform people about missions. People just do not know of the true need, we hear the numbers but they are not real to us. We never bother to leave our own comfort zones for the sake of the lost who don't know. It is the body of Christ, the churches responsibility, to share the good news all over the world and to the ends of the earth! This is not God's fault for how the world is~ He calls and equips His people to help and be His hands and feet to a world in need of a Savior. Why are we not going?

My favorite part of this week was this video, shown on Friday. I wanted to share it because it touched me so much. It describes my journey through the Discipleship Training School of the beaut of God and fascination of it, then the realization of the evil truly existing so heavily in the world, followed by an anger as to why it is like this, and then my response: Here I am. Send me. Enjoy:
http://vimeo.com/7873201

For the last part of the class, we also studied the history missions within the past 200 years:
Three Eras:
Reaching the unreached is what is on God's Heart. <3

First Era:
Coast Lands: William Carey: 1793: Calcutta.India. Wrote a small book on the reasons that people should use their means to reach the heathen- changed every area of society. Founded the first missionary society to send someone to India. Started a girls school, opened a Bible printing press, started a seminary to train pastors, began horticultural projects~ India had none of these things before he came. Carey went to the government and helped put in place a law to outlaw bride burning.

Second Era:
Inlands: Hudson Taylor: 1854: Wrote a book on the spiritual needs of Asia's millions. Dressed like the locals, Cambridge Seven (Cambridge University Students Throw Their Lives Away to Go to the Mission Field~ newspaper headline). C.T. Studd was one of the students, went to Mainland, India and Africa. Started mission group WEC/WEF (World Evangelism Fellowship).

Third Era:
Hidden People's: Townsend. McGravern. Winter. 1934. Wrote articles about unreached people groups. Townsend started Wycliffe Bible Translators after he handed a tribal person a Spanish Bible and the person handed the Bible back to him, saying "I don't speak this language." It seemed to him that the tribal person was saying, "Surely if your God is so smart, He could speak my language."

Fourth Era:
Current:10.40 Window:New Missionaries going out to uninvited areas.
Tribal
Hindus
Unevangelized Chinese
Muslims
Buddhists

So what can we do?

Roles in Missions:
How can I be involved?
Go.
Send. (prayer, give, challenge people to go)
Give. (financial support) (1% of Christian income around the world go to help reach the unreached.)
Tell. (mobilization, share what we have learned)
Pray. (pray for more, what they can do, Luke 10:2)

No matter where you are or what you do, you can be involved and help with missions! It is an exciting part of God's kingdom, and in fact, it is all what He is about. We would not know about Him unless someone had told us. So please join and pray for a heart for the nations!

Remember:
Reaching the unreached is what is on God's heart!
Whatever skills I have, abilities, etc, can be used on the mission field.

~*~Leave a Legacy that will Make a Difference in the World Around You.~*~