Charisma & Christian Life: January 1999 Edition

The Unfinished Task of World Evangelism
By: Dr. Howard Foltz

Recently, a young man visited my office to apply for a job at the missionary agency I direct in Virginia. He came from a traditional church background and had been involved in a short-term mission endeavor, but that was the extent of his missions knowledge. During the interview, he asked, "Do you really think there's anybody left in the world who hasn't heard the gospel?"

His question did not surprise me. Given almost a decade of religious "freedom" in the former Soviet Union, the growth of the underground church in China and reports of other far-reaching evangelistic endeavors, it is hard to believe the whole world hasn't been reached. But the answer is unequivocally yes - there are still many people around the globe who have never heard the good news.

In fact, there are as many as 3 billion people who have never heard the name of Jesus one time.

However, God is working through His people to change this situation. In a very literal sense he is helping us to be His witnesses "to the ends of the earth," as promised in Acts 1:8.

Not long ago, a Nigerian friend named Dr. Okose planted a church among the Fali people, one of 11 North African people groups called the Kirdi. The name Fali can be loosely translated "the ends of the earth."

When Dr. Okose first approached the mountain here the unevangelized Fali lived, some villagers came to meet his team. One of them asked, "Are you the messengers sent to tell us about the arrival of God's Son?"

For hundreds of years, this people had believed that one day God would have a Son and would send messengers to tell them about the event. When they received that message, they would know the end of the world is near.

Amazingly, their belief ties in with the words Jesus recorded in Matthew 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all th enations, and then the end will come" (NKJV).

This is just one of many amazing stories we've heard in our office. It shows that God is breaking through man-made barriers to ensure that heaven will be populated with people of every "tribe, tongue, and nation" (see Rev. 7:9). But it is also highly symbolic, since the translation of this group's name represents the completion of the Great Commission.

How close are we to completing the task Christ laid before us almost 2,000 years ago? It's a hard question to answer. In some ways, we will have a lot of work to do. In other ways, we're closer than you might have imagined.

Much Work Ahead

Missions statistics indicate that at least half the world's population has yet to hear the gospel in a way they can understand. A recent article by Justin Long of the Global Evangelization Movement (GEM) underscored this fact, noting that of the 50.5 million people who die each year, only 19.4 million are Christians.

"The truly saddening part," Long wrote, "is that of the 31.1 million non-Christian deaths, 12.5 million never had any contact with Christians of any tradition." That's more than a million people each month going into eternity without ever "rubbing shoulders" with a Christian.

Most of those people live in ethnic groups that the missions community has labeled "unreached." Estimates regarding unreached peoples vary, but we know that thousands of ethnic groups will never hear the gospel without cross-cultural intervention.

Such intervention is especially difficult among ethnic groups who live in a region of the world we call the 10/40 Window - which includes North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. People in this region live under the oppressive shadow of religious and political regimes that are hostile to Christianity, where believers often feel the sting of persecution. The 10/40 Window is difficult to penetrate - but we serve a G od who strategically asked, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?'" (Gen. 18:14).

Statistics alone give a grim view of our success in spreading the gospel throughout the world. But here's the good news: We are making progress.

In A.D. 100 there were approximately 360 nonbelievers worldwide for every believer. By 1900 that ration was 40-to-1. Now, as we approach a new millenium, there are only seven nonbelievers for every believer worldwide.

Globally there are an estimated 900 congregations for every single unreached people group. Imagine what would happen if just 10 percent of those churches selected an unreached people group and agreed to pray and work with others to establish a church-planting movement in its midst. There would be the equivalent of 90 churches targeting each unreached people group. This strategy could exponentially multiply the rate at which the global church is expanding God's kingdom.

Would such a strategy work?

It already is. Local churches are getting "up close and personal" with the world's unreached. They are "adopting" unreached people groups and actively seeking ways to take the gospel to them.

Making a Difference

Newport Assembly of God in Newport, Pennsylvania, is one example. This congregation of about 400 in a rural community of 1,700 hasn't used its size as an excuse to avoid the hard work of spreading the gospel.

Several years ago, when the Iron Curtain crumbled, pastor Gary Bellis was among those who avidly watched the news. "I had no ties to Russia," he says, "but I was tremendously touched as I watched the reports. I even wept."

Bellis couldn't figure out why he felt so moved. Then God led him to Isaiah 65:1: "I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am,' to a nation that was not called by My name.'"

"It was like a 3-D to me," Bellis says. He knew God was calling His church to focus on this region, particularly the area east of the Ural Mountains, "because so few ministries were going there."

As a result, Newport Assembly adopted the Tuvin people, who live primarily south-central Siberia, along the border between Russia and Mongolia. Bellis says this is a "bite-sized group" of about 275,000 and his church chose it because "we're small, and we figured we could make an impact in a small group."

Since adopting the Tuvins, Newport Assembly has been busy. "We're the only church I know of with a warehouse and a forklift," Bellis says with a laugh.

The church just passed its 1,700-ton mark for food and medical supplies shipped throughout the United States and the world, with hundreds of tons going to Siberia. In addition, Bellis takes about three trips per year to Russia and helps mobilize other churches, often crossing denominational lines.

How has this impacted the Tuvin people? "When we went there," Bellis says, "there were two churches. Now there are 33." Newport Assembly planted some, they trained others to do the same, and now they are able to work through a full-time missionary who is on-site.

"When you support missions this way," he summarized, "you're not throwing money into a black hole. When a church adopts a people group, it 'owns' the outreach. church members go to the field and see the needs firsthand. This motivated them to give intelligently and passionately."

So what can you personally do to spread the good news?

I strongly recommend you do whatever you can to mobilize your church to adopt an unreached people group. The organization I work with, Accelerating International Mission Strategies (AIMS), is among the groups that can help your church accomplish this step, which I believe is crucial if we really intend to complete the task Christ gave us. Local churches can make a difference - and participation in this type of endeavor will ignite every other ministry in your church.

However, I'd like to point out that individuals can also make a tremendous contribution to cross-cultural ministry. Chrystal Wynne says she started out as "just an ordinary housewife." She had a general interest in missions, having grown up as a "preacher's kid," and her church was involved in global ministry. But, she says, "I couldn't see how I fit into the overall picture of reaching people on the other side of the world."

Then a friend left to teach English in Beijing. "When he would come back on furlough or whatever, he would stay with us, so we would hear more and more about China's needs." After three years, he came home and started a ministry called China Harvest, which began as a joint venture between AIMS and Weiner Ministries International. He shared his vision and then told her he needed an assistant.

"I'll keep my eyes open for someone," she said. Her friend replied, "You're not getting it - I mean you."

"The next thing I knew," Wynne says, "I was working at China Harvest." In addition to fulfilling her regular office duties, she has also visited China several times.

"In the last four years," she reports, "I've been amazed at how God has equipped me with new skills, but He's also using the talents, abilities, and gifts that are uniquely mine, and He's making them both blossom into something fruitful that will have eternal value. He's using me to my full potential to help build His kingdom."

I challenge you to follow Wynne's example. God wants to use you to build His kingdom. Prayerfully seek the role He has destined for you.

"People have a misconception about the Great Commission," Wynne explains. "It scares them out of their wits. But you know, once you get into it, it's really not frightening at all. Certainly God calls some people to go, and He calls others to stay. But He doesn't exclude anyone from being involved."

A Fresh Approach

Truly we live in an exciting hour that requires creative thinking. We can't be locked into old patters used by missionaries 50 years ago. Mission agencies are recognizing that in order to complete the Great Commission, we must adopt new strategies to speed up the process of world evangelism. These include:

1. Changing from country focus to people group focus. The missions community has moved from focusing on nations to focusing on ethnic groups. For instance, the nation of India cannot be reached with a single strategy because India's 950 million people are drawn from 3,000 people groups representing 350 major languages.

2. Encouraging prayer and spiritual warfare. The Soviet Union broke apart between 1990 and 1991 after a seven-year prayer campaign organized by Open Doors ministry. The Praying Through the Window initiative, launched by A.D. 2000 & Beyond, mobilized intercessors on behalf of the world's spiritual frontiers. Ministries laboring in those regions have seen unprecedented results.

One man from India told us that before Praying Through the Window he had planted five churches in 20 years. Since the initiative, he has been empowered to plant 45 churches in five years. Prayer ignites that kind of multiplication.

3. Empowering national missionaries. In the mid-1990s, AIMS partnered with Calvary Temple of Denver and the Evangelical Fellowship of Churches in Ethiopia (EFCE) to train and support 313 Ethiopian missionaries who are planting churches among Ethiopia's 60 remaining unreached people groups.

Since 1995, these missionaries have penetrated 40 of the 60 unreached people groups, winning more than 25,000 people. The planted 61 churches in just one year.

4. Providing resources for nationals. Many Westerners are providing resources for ministries in difficult countries. In China, for example, where as many as 20,000 people are coming to Christ daily, the need for Bibles is great. Western churches are providing Bibles and other resources for those who are already in place.

5. Establishing church-planting movements. Newport Assembly's success with the Tuvin people of Siberia occurred partly because the congregation actively planted churches among them. But it came also because they partnered with the Assemblies of God and the Russian Pentecostal Union to birth a vision for church planting in daughter churches.

This is true multiplication - developing churches that have a desire to reproduce themselves, with the vision to not only redeem their own people, but also do cross-cultural ministry.

6. Planting cell churches. Using the cell-church model, many ministries have seen their membership explode. An international student at Regent University told me his home church in Cote d'Ivoire on the West African coast was planted in November 1975 using a traditional model. In nine years, that church grew to 494 people.

But between 1985 and 1997, working within the cell-group structure, this church grew to 100,000 people. That kind of result is being duplicated worldwide. The cell-group structure pushes the gospel into hard-to-reach areas, penetrating poor communities and providing a format that can easily be duplicated "underground," in regions where Christians are persecuted.

7. Showing the Jesus Film. Based on the Gospel of Luke and translated into many different languages, this movie has opened a new venue for missionaries to share the gospel with indigenous peoples - even those who can't read. A recent showing of Jesus at a refugee camp in Liberia brought 6,326 of the 9,000 viewers to Christ.

8. Taking the gospel to difficult regions via TV blitzes. The Christian Broadcasting Network plans to blitz the most troubled parts of the world - Asia, India, Africa, and the Middle East - with the gospel by the end of the year 2000. The intention is to win 500 million souls to Christ using TV broadcasts.

9. Utilizing the Internet. The World Wide Web is opening doors for communication via computers, especially in areas where it has not been possible until now because of security issues.

10. Encouraging racial, gender, and religious reconciliation. Reconciliation initiatives allow individuals to identify with corporate identities for the purpose of publicly confessing national or cultural sins and seeking forgiveness. For example, Japanese intercessors have recently traveled to Asian cities devastated by Japan's forces during World War II, prayerfully seeking to put an end to racial division.

Other groups of intercessors have visited African ports to apologize for the slave trade. Another team of reconciliation-minded intercessors has walked from Germany to Israel to apologize for the atrocities committed against Muslims and Jews by the medieval Crusaders.

Such expressions of humility are breaking down barriers that have halted the spread of the gospel. These strategies and others are empowering mission organizations and individuals to reach the world for Christ.

The question remains: Can we fulfill the Great Commission in our lifetime? Three billion is a big number. - and it represents a vast sea of lost humanity.

But we shouldn't let the number intimidate us. God is empowering His people to accomplish the impossible.

For reprint information, please call the AIMS publication office at (757) 495-5850 or email the editor at aims@aims.org.

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