Expanding Church Planting

Indonesia, July 2019 (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Now, Bruce Allen with FMI says they see the fruits of the labor. But with exponentially growing church plants comes a need to support new church planters. In this year alone, FMI has helped support five new church planters who are doing multiple church plants. But, there are still six church planters who need support. Will you help?

“There are guys in seminary, even now, in Indonesia. They’re saying ‘Hey, we want to be mobilized to share the gospel with our own countrymen. We just need some help and doing it, especially as we go out into the very rural areas.’ That’s where FMI really stands alongside of these guys to help them in their early years of church planting as they can be empowered to lead their congregations to maturity,” Allen says.

Will you Help?

Christians can help support the Church in Indonesia by giving to FMI’s Overseas Partners account. This account allows FMI to establish partnerships with church planters. It only costs USD 120 to a single church planter for a month.

Indonesia, July 2019 (Photo courtesy of FMI)

“For the price of that [daily] coffee, you could be having a significant impact across a whole village community, and help empower a pastor to lead his congregation to maturity in the world’s largest Muslim majority nation. We would provide you as a partner with material so that you know about the culture profile, about the individual pastor that you’d be partnering with, and his community,” Allen explains.

Small groups, families, and church congregations can come together to support a church planter with a recurring $120 monthly gift. This gift equips church planters with Bibles, Sunday school curriculum, medical expenses, and supplementary income. The financial assistance allows church planters to focus on their ministry rather than devoting the majority of their time to providing a basic income to support their families. It helps these church planters give the best of themselves to their ministry.

Seeking Maturity

Indonesia, July 2019 (Photo courtesy of FMI)

“One of the things that we are strategically trying to avoid is to increase an unhealthy dependence on foreign funding. Our whole goal is not just to send money every month. The goal is that we empower the church planter to lead his congregation to maturity,” Allen explains.

One of the ways FMI measures maturity is a congregation’s independent ability to support its pastor and the ministry.

“They know that it’s a short term system. They understand what the goal is, and that we will be evaluating their progress along the way,” Allen says.

Will you help support a church planter in Indonesia?

To learn more about supporting a church planter, click here.

To give, click here.

Header photo courtesy of FMI.

From Finance to Ministry

Shannon, a graduate of Liberty University, spent 30 years in finance working in positions such as a financial controller, Chief Financial Officer, and a Division Chief Financial Officer. He planned to return to this work once the non-compete clause expired. At least, that was his plan. Then, his missions pastor at the time invited him to a Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class.

e3 Partners CEO Jim Shannon. (Photo courtesy of e3 Partners’ website)

The 15-week class on the state of missions and evangelism crushed many of Shannon’s misconceptions. He grew excited about God’s work within and through the Church on a global scale. A passion sprouted in Shannon to rapidly train leaders, both locally and globally.

“God is doing an unprecedented work in this generation, and the church is advancing triumphantly all around the world. It brought to my mind an uncle of mine, who, at the time of World War II, he was underage. He lied about his age, and he got into the Navy,” Shannon explains.

“I remember as a kid asking him, ‘why did you do that?’ I’ll never forget his answer. He told me he knew that this was going to be the defining event of his lifetime and that it was unthinkable not to be engaged in it.”

Convicted, Shannon started pursuing ministry work as a lay-leader at his church. Eight years later, after numerous short-term missions trips and asking God to lead him, Shannon is the new CEO of e3 Partners.

The Three Es

e3 Partners stewards movements of rapidly multiplying evangelism training and discipleship. This work is happening across the globe, including within the United States. Through local indigenous leaders, more leaders are trained to “run hard for the Kingdom”. The scale of work e3 is involved with is exactly what Shannon has longed to see.

The three Es in e3’s name also relay its vision in missions. The ministry exists to equip God’s people for evangelism and establishing healthy, multiplying churches through partnerships with indigenous churches.

The short version–e3 equips, evangelizes, and establishes.

Ministry Requires a Deep Abiding

However, e3’s work has brought Shannon’s attention back to the U.S., where he says the Church desperately needs to do a better job of training and multiplying disciples.

“We’re really good at giving people a lot of knowledge, a lot of spiritual knowledge. But we’re not so good at obedience,” Shannon notes.

Shannon explains a “yes” to God and Kingdom work starts with a deep abiding in Him first. Shannon has learned first-hand how saying “yes” to God takes a person to a place of great dependence on Him and the end of their resources.

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

“As long as you’re consistently inviting Him in, He’s going to make provision for your calling. I found that peace can be conditional. You can get really stressed out in ministry, but when you’re working, fighting deeply, and you’re following His call and trusting His provision, it can be a pretty serene existence,” Shannon says.

“When you think about God’s economy it can feel pretty counterintuitive because sacrificial obedience to God’s call can actually be the most self-interested act that you could possibly make. My advice is just [to] do yourself a favor and say yes. Abide deeply. Seek the call of God, and then say yes.”

Saying “Yes”

Perhaps your yes involves e3 Partners.

“The Great Commission is the church’s responsibility. As followers of Christ, it’s yours, and it’s mine…e3 is asking for permission to come alongside you, or to come alongside your church, to help you achieve your goals.”

E3 does this through three specific tracks: training, mobilizing, and media.

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

The ministry facilitates hundreds of short-term trips each year. It assists churches in mobilizing missionaries abroad and domestically. It also produces and distributes media content through its “I Am Second” platform.

“At the end of the day, we package all that up into…this comprehensive strategy that we call the Great Commission pipeline,” Shannon says.

Will you let e3 come beside you to help accomplish goals to further the Great Commission?

To connect with e3, click here.

Header photo courtesy of e3 Partners

“Aaron lives in a community where the majority of people did not know the message of the Gospel. The few that had heard it rejected it, and it was frowned upon there. When he heard it, something stirred in his heart, and he accepted Christ into his life. But when others from his community found out about his newfound faith, they kicked him out. They banished him.”

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

Isolated, Aaron eventually discovered an e3 team who discipled him and trained him to share the Gospel. The training included a three-touch process.

Aaron joined a training trip and observed his teachers share the Gospel. On the second trip, Aaron helped with 50 percent of the work. On the third trip, Aaron did the work of sharing the Gospel alone.

As Aaron spiritually matured and his confidence grew, his mentor, Ramos, encouraged him to return home as a light for Christ.

Multiplying Workers for the Harvest

Terrified, Aaron prayerfully made the journey. He asked God to lead him to people whose hearts were open. When Aaron arrived, the first people he saw welcomed him back. Trusting God, Aaron shared the Gospel with these people and they almost immediately accepted Christ.

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

“Today, Aaron has shared the Gospel with over 130 people from his own community. Many of them have accepted Christ into their lives and been baptized. Now, two churches have been planted in that community,” Johnston explains.

“What started as a community that was just completely hostile towards the Gospel, has now grown into a community that is thriving, and it’s multiplying believers and churches daily.”

God is moving in some of the hardest to reach places through e3 partnerships with national believers, like Ramos and Aaron. e3 strives to provide a teaching and discipleship model resulting in exponential growth. Testimonies like Aaron’s prove its working.

“I think that’s really, ultimately, the only way that the Gospel is going to be able to reach across the entire world,” Johnston says.

Will you support e3’s work?

To learn more about the ministry and find ways to donate, click here.

Pray God continues raising up workers for the harvest. Pray these workers share the Gospel and disciple others. Ask God to bless these workers with resources to fund their work and host training events. Pray for ways YOU can join e3 through short-term trips and even work in your own country to help further the message of the Gospel.

Church Dedication

Church dedication – Bangladesh (Photo courtesy of FMI)

FMI helped supply resources to construct the church building. Allen was to preach at the dedication and document it through photos and a written report, to later share with donors and the FMI board. However, things did not go as planned.

The morning Allen was to make the last leg of the journey to the church site, there were special intelligence military officers waiting for Allen.

“These officers were saying, ‘We cannot let you go any further. We know you have the permission. We see your papers. But, we had to track you down because last night while you were sleeping, there was a terrorist incident. Six local officials in that area were assassinated by terrorists. In addition, 50 other people were wounded and they had to be hospitalized,’” Allen recalls.

For context, the closest hospital to this area was still five hours away and required traveling through remote, jungle-like terrain.

National Believers at Work

Allen was traveling with two local ministry colleagues who were allowed to enter the area, under the condition that Allen willingly submit to a temporary house arrest. While Allen stayed behind, these two men traveled on and split the tasks of preaching at the church dedication and documenting the event.

“It just reminded me of how vital this strategy is of partnering with local believers because, number one, this is an area where foreigners aren’t allowed anyway. We cannot send someone from Canada, the UK, the US to go into these restricted-access places to serve as missionaries. It’s just not allowed by the government.

“And yet, that’s not a barrier to God’s Spirit. He has already raised up Christian leaders in these tribal areas that have restricted access,” Allen explains.

Church dedication – Bangladesh (Photo courtesy of FMI)

In these remote areas, local Christians are living the Great Commission and not only sharing about Christ, but discipling and strategically maturing their congregations.

FMI exists to help empower these local believers in their work. God is using the faithfulness of these Christians to make Himself known in Bangladesh.

“It just reinforced that fact that partnerships with the local believers are so invaluable,” Allen says.

Pray for believers in Bangladesh. Pray for their protection, perseverance, and obedience to the Gospel. Ask God to help these local Christians endure the trials they face, the persecution they sustain, and for God to build their ministries and fortify them.

Also, pray for the congregations these FMI-supported pastors and church planters disciple. Finally, pray these same congregations would catch the vision for a growing Church.

Will you partner with the Church in Bangladesh and support national FMI pastors and church planters?

To support a national believer through FMI, click here.

Learn more about FMI’s work in Bangladesh here.

Header photo courtesy of FMI.

Larry Andrews, President and CEO of Partners International, says he’s excited about the global engagement level of churches and ministries who are involved with and have adopted unreached unengaged people groups (UUPGs) through Finishing the Task.

(Photo courtesy of Partners International)

But, as the numbers drop for those who are currently UUPGs, the groups which remain have their own challenges when it comes to Bible translation work.

“Those last couple of hundred are really difficult groups. I think there’s a caution that I have about how that relational connection with these organizations is going to happen because reaching those groups will take a relational, intentional effort that, hey, it might take more than two years,” Andrews says.

Andrews, who also serves with Alliance for the Unreached has a vision for every church in the United States to be a part of fulfilling the Great Commission.

“Every Christ follower is required to fulfill Christ’s mission. This passionate call to have every church engaged, every Christ-follower engaged, is one that the Alliance for the Unreached is all about,” Andrews says.

International Day for the Unreached

One of the ways Alliance for the Unreached raises awareness is through the International Day for the Unreached (IDU), which takes place on Pentecost Sunday. The day is devoted to learning about and praying for UUPGs. However, in the past, the Alliance has focused on raising awareness. Now it is time for action and revival.

(Photo courtesy of Alliance for the Unreached)

Jesus calls His people to personally engage with the Great Commission. Therefore, Andrews says it is time for every church to take steps towards fulfilling the Great Commission. However, Barna Research reports only 49 percent of the Church in America knows about the Great Commission.

“The Church in America essentially needs to be woken up. We’re asleep at the wheel and how do we prayerfully move the 51 percent of churches out there to engage and to be part of the work that Christ is doing across the world. It’s sad from one perspective, at least how I look at it, because part of finding joy in Christ and really having an intimate relationship with Him, is doing, being about the things that He cares about the most,” Andrews says.

Get Involved

Pray for God’s guidance for ways the Church in American can engage with the Great Commission. Ask God to reveal ways to get involved.

For example, Andrews’ church began the process of collaborating with partners in North Sumatra about three years ago. Through this work, his church has become engaged with reaching the unreached in efforts to help fulfill the Great Commission. Pray God would lead His churches in how he wants them to get involved, too.

Get involved with Alliance for the Unreached here!

*Final quote omitted and paraphrased at the request of the source. 

“Pray, give, go is a typical approach for churches to take in getting involved with a mission agency or, even you’ll see that on a lot of mission agency websites. In listening to church leaders, what we’ve discerned is only a certain number of people in the congregation, a limited number, are going to feel like they’re really pray-ers [or go-ers], and maybe get involved,” Jerry Meadows with Global Disciples explains.

Passions Meet Great Commission

This begs the question—how do we engage those who don’t fall under the “pray, give, go” formula? Global Disciples has some ideas for how people can get involved with Kingdom work.

(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples via Facebook)

“[When people call] our next thought is not a statement but perhaps a question. How would you like to get involved with missions? What are you already interested in doing? How has God gifted you? What involvement do you already have in your church? If we can lock into the individual or group’s interest or affinities or gifts and skillsets, then we can help them craft a very personalized way to be involved,” Meadows says.

For example, someone who enjoys running can use their passion to help reach the least reached people. This can look like signing up for a 5k race and using the race to bring awareness and advocacy for the cause. Meadows also suggests in the practice runs, use the time to pray for unreached peoples or the cause the individual has chosen.

“Inspiration without information is just hype. Information without inspiration is just boring. But, inspiration and information without involvement, it’s no good at all. What we need is involvement…[If] we can lock into an affinity like running or even some form of hobby or habit, then we can get traction in their personal life, which will lead them to a life of worship and stewardship,” Meadows explains.

“And really, that’s where we want to get people, too. We want to help churches ingrain a life of worship and stewardship into the average person attending church.”

Get Involved

Want to find out how to inspire your church to engage with the Great Commission? Then visit goglobal1day.org to find resources to help. These resources include church and group leader resources, event fundraising ideas, social media resources, a 40-day prayer guide and more.

Find resources to use your passions to get involved with the Great Commission here!

Or, feel free to contact the Global Disciples’ office for more information at 717-290-7550.

Just over one-third of those surveyed by Pew Research Center in 2015 – or, 2.3 billion people – claimed to follow Christ.
(Graphic courtesy of Pew Research Center)

The Great Commission has become a bigger task than ever before. According to Worldometers.com, our world currently holds more than 7.6 billion people. Pew Research Center reports that an estimated 5.3 billion belonged to a religion other than Christianity in 2015.

Furthermore, approximately 32 million people have no way of even learning about Christ. They have no believers living among them, and no churches or agencies who are trying to reach them with the Gospel.

To “finish the task” ahead of us, is it better to send church workers overseas? Or should we equip local Christians to do the work?

“There is somewhat of a false dichotomy between sending or coming alongside to support a local indigenous Christian population,” notes Chris Lang, the Director of Mobilization for Frontiers USA.

“I don’t think the call that Jesus has on the Church has changed. We are called to go and make disciples of all the nations. Regardless of where we are, regardless of where the Church is…the call remains the same.”

How to reach Muslims for Christ

As described here, Frontiers is helping bring the Good News to Muslim people groups, one of the world’s largest unreached and unengaged people groups (UUPGs). They’re concentrating on groups in six regions: Northeast Africa, the Caucuses, the Arab Gulf, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Southwest Asia.

“There are over a thousand unreached, unengaged Muslim people groups today,” Lang notes.

In order to reach Muslims for Christ, Frontiers employs both sending and equipping methodologies.

Frontiers partners with local believers in places where a local Church body exists, Lang explains. They help support and equip those Christians with theological education and training.

“Part of what I think we bring to the indigenous Church worldwide is vision – vision to finish the task; vision to engage all of the unreached people groups that remain,” he adds.

However, in many instances, there is no body of believers to support.

“Throughout great swathes of the Muslim world…[there is] just not a local Church that can engage that population.”

Your role in the Great Commission

As a Chadian pastor recently described to Lang, the task of the Great Commission is too large for a single church or organization to accomplish alone. The task also requires more than one approach or methodology.

“He said, ‘Don’t just send us your money,'” Lang recalls. “‘We need people because the task is so big, it’s so great that the African Church can’t accomplish it on its own.’

“They’re asking us to come alongside and to help,…to be in the role of co-laborer with them, and I think that’s what we need to do as a sending entity in the West.”

Just as the approach differs by organization, the role you’re called to play in the Great Commission may vary as well.

(Photo courtesy of Frontiers)

“As individual Christians, we need to continue to advocate for missions in our local congregation. Let’s put together prayer meetings so that we can pray for the nations,” Lane suggests.

Download a free prayer guide or sign up for prayer updates here.

Some people “may be hearing that still, small voice calling them out to something beyond themselves, something beyond the work in their local congregation….

“I would encourage [readers] to pay attention to His leading because they might be called not just to pray, not just to send others, but to go themselves.”

Visit Frontiers’ website to learn how you can enter the mission field.

“We still need to send, we still need to ‘go and make disciples’ until Matthew 24:14 is accomplished, ‘til all the nations have heard.’”

(Header image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Joshua Harrison with Audio Scripture Ministries reflects, “We have realized and seen that there is a place for everyone in God’s Great Commission. There is one Body with many different members. We’re all on the same team, but we may have different roles on that team.”

Get Creative With Your Gifts

ASM has seen this truth carried out in profound ways. Their ministry gives people access to God’s Word in the form of audio Bibles. To do that, they have a whole force of volunteers and staff with many different giftings.

“For example,” says Harrison, “we have Don Lang who is a retired electrical engineer. He travels and shares the stories and the needs for God’s Word in audio in Mozambique and the many other places where we serve. He visits different conferences and shares that all across the US.

A faithful group of volunteers from Hamilton Reformed Church serve at the ASM office. (Photo, caption courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

“[There are] others we have who have been painting and gardening and keeping our facilities in good running order here in the Holland, Michigan office. We’ve had groups from local churches who come a few times a year to stuff praise and prayer guides or help send out newsletters for mailing to our supporters.”

There is also no age limit to how God can use you! One of ASM’s volunteers named Lena is a great example of what it looks like to creatively serve the Lord.

“She is 93-years-old but she recently took the time to knit dozens of hats that we were able to bring to our compassionate care patients in Mozambique!

“Old and young alike, they fight many different kinds of illnesses and chronic diseases, so they struggle to maintain proper body temperature. But to see the joy on their faces when we brought these beautiful hats that someone cared enough to make…for them, [it was] just confirming the message of the Gospel that we’re bringing them with our weekly visits.

ASM’s Compassionate Care Team preparing hats. (Photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

“One of our patients,…as she put the hat on, she said, ‘This is so pretty, I feel like I’m going to church now every day!’”

Harrison shares, “I hope and pray for you and me that at 93, that you and I are still diligently using whatever skills we can to connect people to God’s Word and to share His love for them.”

What about you? Are you skilled at crafting or writing or music? Maybe you excel in hospitality or encouragement. There are several opportunities to be involved in the Great Commission by getting creative with how God has gifted you.

ASM even has an opportunity right now for an accounting coordinator to join their ministry!

“We’re looking for someone right now who is good with numbers and loves Jesus and has a passion for global missions!… Maybe you are interested in joining the team here as accounting coordinator or maybe you know someone who fits that or wants to volunteer in some way. Contact us! We would love to talk with you.”

Look For Opportunities

Another aspect of involvement in the Great Commission is simply looking for opportunities.

(Photo courtesy of Crista Ballard Photography)

Harrison suggests, “Do you know a friend or a neighbor or a colleague who speaks a different language than you? Have you considered bringing them an audio Bible [and] perhaps connecting them to God’s Word in their own heart language? Or maybe, do you know someone who is sick or shut-in? Could God’s Word in audio bring comfort and hope to them?”

You can get audio Bibles from ASM to give to friends and family who you think would be encouraged by God’s Word in audio!

“Recently, we had a distribution partner report they brought an audio Bible to someone who was shut-in. He had had degenerative eye surgery just done and he was facing a long recovery time. He was so excited to receive an audio Bible and the joy it brought to his heart was so amazing!”

Earlier this month, we even shared a call for more recordists to join ASM’s team in Mexico. The recordist job is not for the faint of heart since it requires someone who can get outside their comfort zone to live in rugged conditions while recording Scripture translations.

But someone saw the opportunity to serve in ASM’s recordist position and stepped up!

Harrison shares, “We are praising God for Luis who has been involved with his father in prison ministry before and preaching the Gospel. Now, he is excited to join the team as a recordist! So, thank you so much for your prayers, and let’s keep praying for more laborers for the harvest field of our Lord.”

Ask God to show you how you can get involved in the Great Commission by creatively using your time, talents, and treasure for His glory.

To find more ways you can serve with ASM, click here!

(Header photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

However, despite growing Deaf awareness, there are still many misconceptions surrounding Deaf communities and sign languages. These misconceptions don’t just impact society’s interaction with the Deaf. They also affect how well the Church can serve with and reach out to Deaf people in carrying out the Great Commission.

(Logo courtesy of Deaf Bible Society)

Deaf Bible Society provides free access to sign language Bible translations and enables further sign language Bible translation projects in partnership with other ministries. Beth Gray with Deaf Bible says if we are to be effective witnesses for the Gospel, these are just a few misconceptions that need to be cleared up in the Church about the Deaf.

Misconception 1 – Sign language is universal

Some people mistakenly believe that sign language is a universal language for all Deaf people. But this is not the case.

Gray explains, “Sign languages are a special type of language that are used by Deaf people in countries all around the world. There are about 70 million Deaf people worldwide, according to the World Federation of the Deaf, and there are hundreds of sign languages that are used by these different Deaf communities.”

A Deaf Christian with Asia Pacific Sign Language Development Association illustrates this point well when she writes, “For example, the sign ‘father’ in American Sign Language may be understood as ‘chicken’ in Korean Sign Language or ‘very-big’ in Myanmar Sign Language. ‘Woman’ in Japanese Sign Language has the same handshape as ‘bad’ in Malaysian Sign Language.”

While the exact number of sign languages in the world is still unknown, Deaf Bible commissioned a team about a year ago to compile a list of known sign languages.

Misconception 2 – The sign language in a particular country is similar to the spoken language in that country

(Photo courtesy of Deaf Bible Society)

When you see a Deaf translator in a church service or at a public event, it’s easy to assume, for example, that the translation from English to American Sign Language is roughly word-for-word.

However, Gray explains, “The interesting thing about these sign languages is that they’re not really the same as the spoken languages that are used in the same country. So for example, here in America, English and American Sign Language have a completely different grammatical structure, have different grammatical features, and it’s not a word-to-word correlation between those two language types. So this the situation of sign languages all over the world that are used by these millions of Deaf people.”

This emphasizes the fact that sign languages and spoken languages, even if they originate in the same country, are totally different languages.

Misconception 3 – If there is a written Bible translation available in a country, then the nation’s Deaf already has access to Scripture

One final misconception Gray addresses is the idea that a written Bible translation gives Deaf people access to Scripture.

While it is true that some Deaf individuals can read the local written language, it is essentially a second language to them. They may have difficulty understanding complex biblical truths without engaging Scripture in sign language — their heart language. And for many other Deaf people around the world, a sign language may even be the only language they understand.

(Photo courtesy of Deaf Bible Society)

“This has an impact on how we have to see our responsibility as Christians to see the Gospel taken to all language groups, to all people groups. So the understanding of the nature and extent of sign language variation is an essential tool in helping us complete the Great Commission,” says Gray.

“We see all throughout the biblical narrative that God’s heart seems to be for every tribe, tongue, nation, and language to know Him. It seems to be a high priority of God’s that there would be a remnant, a group of people that are following Him from every language group around the world.”

This remnant is talked about in Revelation 7:9 when John the Apostle wrote, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” (NIV)

Every language group will be represented before the throne of God. And that includes those whose heart language is a sign language; that includes the Deaf.

Reaching the Deaf for the Great Commission

According to Deaf Bible, the vast majority of the Deaf are unreached with the Gospel. As an important community for the Great Commission, Christians and ministries like Deaf Bible are focusing their efforts to reach all Deaf people groups for Christ.

Please pray for sign language Scripture translation efforts to get the needed funding and personnel. Pray for the teams working on Bible translations in sign languages to be spiritually encouraged, especially since Satan may be working to thwart their ministry. Ask God to reveal Himself to unreached Deaf people groups and draw out a remnant for His Kingdom.

You can also support Deaf Bible Society’s ministry! Just $47 reaches 25 Deaf people in local Deaf Bible Together groups.

Click here to give at Deaf Bible’s website.

(Header photo courtesy of daveynin via Flickr under Creative Commons: https://goo.gl/rmbU2D)

A good work ethic is never a bad thing. But for American Christians, the temptation is often to sacrifice personal discomfort for the sake of the Gospel on the altar of this American Dream.

We are too often stingy with our time, talent, and treasures. Rather than employing these things towards effectiveness for His Kingdom, we use these things to advance our own kingdom.

Ron Hutchcraft with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says, “There is no paycheck, there is no title, there is no award on earth that can equal the satisfaction and the sense of peace and fulfillment that goes with serving Christ in the fulfillment of His final orders. It’s the highest calling that there is.”

You Really Can Reach the Nations

The final orders of Jesus to His disciples before He ascended to Heaven are commonly referred to as the Great Commission.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:16b-20, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This command to “go and make disciples of all nations” must have seemed like a daunting task to the 11 disciples Jesus spoke to.

But then, Hutchcraft points out, “Only weeks later at Pentecost, literally the world had come to [the disciples] because people from all over the world were at the feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came. They were able to plant the seeds of the Gospel right there in Jerusalem that could spread then around the world.”

Here in America, Hutchcraft says Christians have a similar opportunity to reach the nations with the Gospel. And it is our responsibility to do so.

“We have now immigrants, we have international students, we have people that maybe in some cases we’re afraid of, we have been unwelcoming to, we’ve avoided. ‘They are not us. They are not like us.’ Well, my goodness. That’s who Jesus went to in His day.

“We have orders from Jesus and you’re either obeying them or you’re disobeying them. And whether or not you know the phrase ‘the Great Commission’, you now know that the final orders of your Lord is to get this Good News out of the cocoon, out of the walls of the Church, and into a lost and dying world.”

No Higher Calling

Reaching the nations does not always require a passport. But then again, sometimes sharing the Gospel does require travel. And right now, the world is in desperate need of Christians willing to take the Good News of Jesus to the farthest-flung and least-reached communities.

According to The Joshua Project, 41.6 percent of all people groups around the world are unreached with the Gospel.

“I love the fact that Charles Spurgeon said, ‘If God calls you to be a missionary, don’t stoop to be a King. There is no higher calling on earth.’”

Unfortunately, Christian young people do not always get an enthusiastic response when they share they would like to go into the mission field as a career.

“Many times when they go to their Christian parents and tell them that, instead of getting, ‘Praise the Lord!’ they get, ‘Well, you know, you really need to think practically.’”

Hutchcraft adds, “By the way, I would suggest you not let God hear that conversation. If you think being a missionary is beneath or not important enough for your son or daughter to do, don’t tell God that, because His Son was one. His Son was a missionary.”

How to Get Started

So how can you get started reaching the nations for the Gospel? Hutchcraft says all it takes is a little creativity and responding to the needs you see, in love.

“The world is right on our doorstep. Wherever you live, there are people who need to learn English. The fact that you can speak English gives you a skill that could help you carry out the orders of Jesus to people in your community.

“You start where you are and look for the people on your doorstep.”

Hutchcraft adds, “Secondly, you pray for a piece of God’s broken heart for a whole world of lost people. You know, you get mail from all these Christian ministries and you say, ‘I can’t care about all this stuff.’ God doesn’t expect you to because only His big Father’s heart can contain all the needs and all the burdens of this lost world. But what He would like to do is take one or two of those needs and tattoo them on your heart and deeply break your heart for some place in this world.”

Finally, be what Hutchcraft calls a “laser giver”!

“Some people — and it’s a good thing, they’re trying to do a good thing — they give a little money to a lot of ministries. And that’s not bad. That is well-intentioned. But…focused light rather than diffused light can do so much more. A focused light can help repair your vision, can help cut through steel, [and] can do surgery; that’s what the power of a laser is. Why don’t you laser your giving on one, two, or three things that you care deeply about? And instead of making a little difference for a lot of things, why don’t you make a lot of difference for a few pieces of God’s work on earth?”

Love in Action

Hutchcraft shares one inspiring example of Christians on a Native American reservation seeing a need and doing something about it:

“At a reservation church on a southwest Indian reservation, a friend of mine told me he’s involved in a men’s group there who go out every Thursday night now. They literally go out across their reservation community and they pick up homeless people, they pick up people with drug issues and street people, and they bring them back to the church and they feed them a good meal. A couple of the men share their hope stories and they tell them about Jesus.

“They said, ‘We don’t have to literally cross an ocean or exchange our currency. We’re carrying out Jesus’ orders right here.”

If you know there is a need in your community that needs to be met with God’s love and grace, ask the Lord to show you how you can be the hands and feet of Jesus.

“I think there might be somebody listening right now who has this voice inside of them and though they’ve never articulated it, this voice is saying, ‘You’re made for more. You’re made for more.’ And you know it. And that more may very well be to graduate from whatever career path you might be on right now to a calling from the Son of God Himself…to send you to one of the needy places of this world. It might be right in your own town.”

If you would like to learn more about Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, click here!