“Where I live, I can tell that it’s spring because the pond is singing and the daffodils are blooming,” Ron Hutchcraft of Hutchcraft Ministries says.

“On a spiritual basis, there seems to be a blooming of a spiritual spring. God is on the move and accelerating His work.”

David Kinnaman with the Barna Research Group recently presented the results of an extensive survey done for the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. “Over the last couple of years, they have noticed that there’s a growing turn toward the spiritual for answers,” Hutchcraft says.

“It’s not so much about church-going and the institutional side, but a spiritual curiosity and openness is growing.”

This “spiritual spring” creates a Gospel opportunity for believers. “The number one thing people are looking for is peace,” Hutchcraft says.

“We’ve been through a huge recession [and] confusing political turmoil; a pandemic turned everything upside down. The mental health statistics are frightening.”

Do you know how to share your hope story? Resources from Hutchcraft Ministries can help.

Hutchcraft says, “We who know Christ have experienced the peace that comes from the One who speaks to a storm and says, ‘Peace be still.’”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Andréas BRUN/Unsplash.

Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says a lot of his conversations revolved around one core question: “What partnership will enable us to get to more people more quickly with the news on which their eternity depends?”

Today, the ministry is building on those conversations. Their team hopes to expand the reach of Hutchcraft’s radio program, A Word With You. Along with English, “We’re now in Mandarin and Spanish, Hindi, Arabic – the five most-spoken languages in the world. But, we’re looking at other very unreached places – Japan being one, Russia being one – others are on our heart,” Hutchcraft says.

“We’re finding out who has the strongest abilities to deliver a message in certain areas.”

Partnership: the new ministry model

The for-profit business world is a highly competitive space. No matter what the product or service, things like market space, price points, and consumption determine a company’s life or death. Success requires drive, creativity, and a loyal customer base.

Similar mindsets have crept into the nonprofit world, causing ministries to operate in what Hutchcraft calls “silos.” Many leaders often focus on positioning rather than partnership. However, that trend appears to be changing.

“I think there [are] more people caring less about their name, their turf,” Hutchcraft observes.  “[Instead, they are] making a fist in Satan’s face and saying you cannot have these lost people. You cannot have these lives.”

(Photo by rawpixel from Pixabay)

Please pray for Ron Hutchcraft Ministries’ leadership team as it seeks strategic partnerships. Pray for opportunities to begin Gospel work where it is so desperately needed.

“You have to hold what you have lightly and not care who gets the credit, not care who gets the glory.”

Partnership involves you

There’s a place for you in this story. Hutchcraft says they need partners at both international and individual levels. “We’re working on more and more tools that will equip the everyday believer to be the primary messenger of the Gospel,” he explains.

“While we’re in a world that seems like it’s getting farther from God, [they] also seem more ready for Jesus than they’ve ever been.”

Email Ron Hutchcraft Ministries or call (877) 741-1200 and mention this story. Ask the team about their new tools and see if there’s anything you can do to help.

Check out the ministry’s current resources and tools here.

Header image courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries.

MNN sent a team to the event, and so did Ron Hutchcraft Ministries. Ministry founder Ron Hutchcraft told us about a couple of trends he sees emerging in the world of Christian TV, film, and radio.

“I think there [are] two themes that seem to be coming through,” he begins, then describes how communication methods are on the rise and time is running out.

Gospel communication “by all means”

(Photo by Kristina Paukshtite from Pexels)

The media world is like a meadow full of wildflowers. The plant types are all the same – flowers – but the specific kinds are countless: poppies, sunflowers, daisies, cosmos, etc. In the media world, the end goal is the same – communication – but the specific methods are endless: TV, radio, film, social, etc.

“Everybody is trying to examine the enormous range of communication devices that are out there,” Hutchcraft says. “There is this feeling that we need to get the Gospel where people can reach it easily.”

Selecting the right method and media platform is essential, Hutchcraft adds, because the Gospel provides life-saving truth. He shares the following true story as an example.

Doctors diagnosed a woman in the South Pole with cancer, and she desperately needed medication which could only be delivered via plane. The plane couldn’t land in the village; its crew had to drop the package within a space identified by a circle of barrels. Thankfully, the aircrew completed its mission successfully and the woman received the life-saving medication she needed.

“Someone is dying, and what they need to survive has to be exactly within their reach,” concludes Hutchcraft. “It wasn’t enough that the plane was bringing it [or]…that it got dropped somewhere. It had to be dropped where [doctors] could reach it.

“We need to be dropping the Gospel where people can reach it.”

Hutchcraft’s daily “A Word With You” radio broadcast has touched countless lives with the Good News of Jesus Christ for more than 40 years. Another RHM ministry – On Eagles’ Wings – constantly utilizes various media to engage Native young people with the Gospel message.  More about those ministries here.

“Work while it is day”

While meeting with Christian communicators and fellow ministry leaders at NRB 2019, Hutchcraft identified a second trend. “I think there is a sense that time is short,” he says.

“We don’t know how close [Christ’s] return is. I can’t predict a date; I just would say it looks more like what He said He would come back to than ever.”

Ministry leaders are sensing a rapid move toward the darkness among cultures and people, and a move away from the light, Hutchcraft adds.

So what?

If you’re a Christian, these trends apply to you, too.

“Live urgently; live importantly, please don’t be content to be a pew sitter and a meeting-attender and a committee member – it’s not enough!”

Prayer’s a good place to start. Ask the Lord to help you see the opportunities He puts in front of you. Pray for an obedient heart to follow wherever the Holy Spirit may lead.

Take an audit of your latest social media posts – do they point people to Christ? Consider using social media as an easy way to “live out” your faith.

Finally, consider studying this with your small group: A Life That Matters. It’s a book and group curriculum that motivates and equips believers to reach lost loved ones and friends for Christ.

Header image courtesy of NRB via Facebook.

Frontier Ventures and William Carey International University (WCIU), two long-time leaders in the frontier missions movement who share a campus in Pasadena, Calif., have joined the Alliance for the Unreached, which is promoting the need for more focus on the 2 billion people around the world with no easy access to the Gospel.

The expansion of the alliance was announced on Wednesday at “Proclaim 18,” The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) International Christian Media Convention, in Nashville. The now 11-strong alliance is seeking to inspire churches and individuals by reports of what is being done among unreached groups, and involve them in further efforts through prayer, giving, and action. Centerpiece of the drive is the International Day for the Unreached, on May 20.

Held on Pentecost Sunday—the day when the Holy Spirit fell upon the early Church, empowering members to take the good news to the ends of the earth—this year’s concert, celebration, and challenge, will be held at the headquarters of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. The event will be live-streamed on the internet, with artists and speakers to be announced next month.

John Pudaite, president of Bibles For The World, helps distribute copies of the Gospel of John in China, where many have had no exposure to the good news. (Photo courtesy of InChrist Communications)

Founded as the U.S. Center for World Mission in 1976 by the late missionary statesman Dr. Ralph Winter and renamed in 2016, Frontier Ventures promotes mission among the world’s unreached people groups through research, education, and mobilization. Its subsidiary ministries include the acclaimed Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course.

Named after William Carey, a pioneer British missionary to India in the late 1700s and early 1800s, WCIU was established in 1977 at the former U.S. Center for World Mission to equip international cross-cultural workers for overseas service. The distance-learning school has equipped students in 20 countries.

“We’re delighted to welcome Frontier Ventures and WCIU to the alliance,” said chairman Jon Fugler. “Both are widely respected and appreciated for their many years of advocacy and action on behalf of those who have not yet heard the Gospel. Their participation in the International Day for the Unreached further demonstrates the growing importance of its message.”

While sharing a common goal—fulfilling Jesus’ “Great Commission” command to spread the Good News to the ends of the earth—alliance members work toward it in diverse ways, demonstrating the wide range of opportunities and needs.

As part of its focus on unreached people groups in South and Southeast Asia, Bibles For The World last year distributed more than 300,000 copies of John’s Gospel in key regions of 12 Chinese provinces. “With more than a billion people in China, it’s easy to think we’re barely scratching the surface,” says BFTW President John Pudaite. “But our focus is to reach those much smaller segments of the population that have had no exposure at all to the Gospel.”

Media and medical ministry Reach Beyond is focused on the unreached and those with limited access to the Gospel, building more than 500 local FM and AM radio stations in more than 100 countries, and partnering with indigenous believers to run them. It also conducts medical caravans and clinics in places where the Gospel has little presence, opening the door for its proclamation.

InChrist Communications is a full-service Christian communications agency serving missions group as well as faith-based organizations, churches, businesses, and individuals. Founder and President Palmer Holt served as world missions correspondent with the Communications Team for Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization.

The Alliance for the Unreached is urging a reclamation of the real meaning of the word “unreached,” which it says has been diluted and so lost its impact. Unreached peoples are not just all non-Christians, but rather those who have yet had no access to the Gospel because of political or religious barriers, geographical location, or simple neglect.

(Photo and header photo courtesy of IDU via Facebook.

“The unreached are those who have yet to have the opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel.  They are not our friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers who may not be Christians. These people are not unreached, because they have us. The truly unreached live in places where no one is there to tell them about Jesus.”

More than 6 million people learned about the International Day for the Unreached on Facebook last year. The IDU alliance is composed of Bibles For The World, Frontier Ventures, Missio Nexus, OM-USA (Operation Mobilization), Mission Network News, Partners International, Reach Beyond, William Carey International University, World Mission, ZimZam Global, and InChrist Communications.

To learn more about the International Day for the Unreached, click here.  

The International Day for the Unreached (www.dayfortheunreached.org) is an initiative of the Alliance for the Unreached, a group of evangelistic ministries and other organizations, including Bibles For The World (www.biblesfortheworld.org), Frontier Ventures (www.frontierventures.org), InChrist Communications (www.inchristcommunications.com), Mission Network News (www.mnnonline.org), Missio Nexus (www.missionexus.org), Operation Mobilization (www.omusa.org), Partners International (www.partnersintl.org), Reach Beyond (www.reachbeyond.org), William Carey International University (www.wciu.edu), World Mission (www.worldmission.cc) and ZimZam Global (www.zimzamglobal.org).

According to Raul Hernandez, the Christian Aid Mission "Go Tribal" mission program is an "amazing way" to re-engage missions outreach from cash-strapped, struggling smaller churches in the USA. It provides a low-budget way to help churches continue to complete the task of world evangelization in our generation.

"For as little as $300 a month, a small or medium-sized church can now sponsor an indigenous missionary team reaching out to an unengaged or unreached tribe, tongue, or nation," says Hernandez, a former church planter and newly appointed as development director for Christian Aid.

Read more about the "Go Tribal" program here.

Hernandez and donor relations staff from Christian Aid will be available to introduce the new program at both the International Reception on Saturday and at Kiosk K3 in front of the registration desk at the NRB Convention.

Mission's recruiters for Overseas Students Mission say that they personally envision thousands of new native missionaries being sponsored under Go Tribal. Many in the USA will be called to this from among international students or from ethnic churches, but most will be re-deployed by indigenous missions already on the mission fields.

"In fact," says Hernandez, "this is the only way that we can penetrate lands and places where American missionaries are no longer welcome or able to plant churches–lands like China, India, and all the Islamic countries of North Africa where American church planters are forbidden to go by law.

"At last there is no political barrier for American churches wanting to reach these groups, since they can now safely and economically sponsor indigenous missionaries who can do the critical ground work."

Hernandez adds, "This is what American pastors have been waiting for: a way to personally engage their congregations and sponsor effective native missionaries–gospel workers who are vetted by Christian Aid, men and women with real names and faces whom they can deputize and may someday be able to visit!

"Our prayer at NRB 2013 is that many media leaders will help us get the word out so that American churches, missions, and Bible schools can quickly adjust to the new realities of the mission field today."

Christian Aid was founded by a former missionary to China, Bob Finley, in 1953 as a way to send international students and foreign visitors back to their homelands as missionaries to reach all nations with the Gospel. It now represents over 800 indigenous mission groups which deploy over 80,000 native missionary workers among 3000 ethno linguistic groups.

E-mail raul@christianaid.org to find out how churches can "Go Tribal in Missions."

Mission Network News was nominated by its peers in the Christian broadcasting industry. According to Wright, "This decision is based on a thorough review and judging by the NRB International Committee. This award is presented to a U.S.-based NRB member having a global impact for the cause of Christ through electronic media."

"We're honored by this award," said Greg Yoder, Anchor and Executive Director of Mission Network News. "I want to thank God for allowing us to serve Him. The award is attribute to my great MNN team, listeners, radio stations, and internet friends who use the news and information we produce to pray, give, or get out of their comfort zones to do something for Christ."

The official presentation of the award will take place at NRB's 69th Annual Convention in Nashville, TN, February 21, 2012 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.

Mission Network News is a radio and internet news service aired on more than 1,000 Christian radio stations in 30 countries. MNN is also translated into Spanish. Get more information at MissionNetworkNews.org.