No Place Left

We played this song a few weeks ago during prayer at our 3/3 group, where we ask God how we can be obedient to the Bible passage we read that morning, who we can share it with, or how we can teach others with it, and then we listen for the Holy Spirit to speak to us.
The song goes perfectly with some thoughts that have been brewing long before that time, so later that week I began writing them down. The following contains some of those ideas, as well as some copied and pasted passages from a book called, 24:14. My purpose for posting this is to, at the very least, invoke some consideration in how we are currently trying to reach the lost and unreached, and what we could do differently in order to be more fruitful and effective. I'm also hoping that there will be some people who this resonates with and who would be willing to get involved in laboring for the harvest, for the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

"It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: 'Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.' This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you. But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain." - Romans 15:20‭-‬23

God's will and vision is for every person, every people group, and every place to hear about Jesus until there is no place left that has not heard about Him. So, if that's true, we need to consider some important questions and begin to discuss how we as a global church can work together to fulfill the Great Commission. Here are a few questions for each of us to consider:

1) Is reaching the lost and unreached and fulfilling the Great Commission my main priority as a Christian, or does the idea of church, being a Christian and following Jesus mean something different to me? If it is not my main priority, do I believe that reaching the lost and unreached people all over the world is God's main priority, or do I believe that God has a different priority?

2) What will it take to fulfill the Great Commission? 

3) Is it possible to accomplish this task in our lifetime? 

4) What must be done to accomplish such a task?

 
5) Who else can be a part of accomplishing it?

6) How can the global church help each other to accomplish it?

7) Is it even possible for churches, Christians and organizations to work together to accomplish this task.

Mindshifts

Next, in order for the Great Commission to be fulfilled, a mindshift must occur regarding many of the things we have always been taught, always thought, and always thought we knew about Christianity, church, discipleship and missions. That sounds like heresy, like "new" teaching, even cult-ish. But I assure you it's not. It's turning our thoughts towards trying and implementing more effective, biblical ways, of accomplishing the Great Commission for the glory of God, than what we have been doing. It's changing our strategy from what isn't working to what is. Below is a list of statistics where you'll see why it matters and why it's so important.

Most of the ideas listed below are from a book called 24:14, and some are ideas that are taught by Biglife. They are important if the church is going to reach everyone on the planet with the good news of Jesus. 24:14 is based on Matthew 24:14, and is a coalition of organizations, individuals, disciple-making movements, church planting movements, etc. who are making tremendous efforts to fulfill the Great Commission in our generation by engaging every people group and place in the world with a movement strategy by 2025. It can be done, but the church has to make it their priority and work together to make it happen. 

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."- Matthew 24:14

• No longer, "What is God's will for my life", but now, "What is God's will, and how can my life best serve God's will?"

• No longer, "What can I do", but now, "What must be done to fulfill our part in the Great Commission?"

• No longer, "I will go and win some people to the Lord, and start some churches", but now, "What will it take to see this one ethnic group or these multiple ethnic groups discipled?"

• No longer, "I view a disciple as someone who goes to a building and gains more knowledge under the teaching of a trained Bible teacher, or as a parent who teaches his child about God", but now, "I view a disciple as someone who hears from God, obeys God out of a heart of love, and shares with others what he knows and is learning."

• No longer, "I view church as a building that I go to, in order to gain more about God from a professionally trained Bible teacher", but now, "I view the church as different members within the body of Christ, from all over the world, who love God, love others, and make disciples, with Jesus at the center."

• No longer, "What can my group, church, or organization accomplish", but now, "Who else can be a part of accomplishing this impossibly great task?"

• No longer, "We are looking for ministry partners", but now, "We are looking for brothers and sisters to serve God together."

Statistics
There are currently two billion people representing 8,000 people groups that still have not heard about Jesus. In 1900, 33% of the world was Christian. In 2000, 33% of the world was Christian. It is estimated that in 2050, the world will be 33% Christian, unless things change. The church is growing at the rate of population, showing that it is not bringing the gospel to "the whole world as a witness to all the peoples" (Matthew 24:14). In order to reach those who have never heard of Jesus and to fulfill the Great Commission, something needs to change. The current strategy and the way the church has always done missions is not working. None of our existing efforts will reach all the people in all the groups anytime soon. Here are several primary reasons why:

1) Most Christian effort goes to places where the church already exists, rather than where it does not. Most money given to Christian causes is spent on ourselves and most missionary money is spent in majority Christian areas. For every $100,000 in personal income, the average Christian gives $1 to reach the unreached. Only 3% of cross cultural missionaries serve among the unreached. Only 0.37% of all full time Christian workers serve the unreached.

 
2) Most Christians are out of touch with the non-Christian world. 81% of all non-Christians worldwide do not personally know a believer. For Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, the number rises to 86%. It's 90% in North Africa and the Middle East, 93% in Turkey and Iran, and 97% in Afghanistan.

3) The churches we are sustaining exist largely in places with slow population growth. Over the last century, Islam has almost doubled due to population growth, and the percentage of Christians have remained the same.

4) Christians lack unity to work together to achieve the Great Commission. There are about 41,000 different denominations worldwide, and about 5,400 mission agencies, few of which are communicating, coordinating, and working together to make disciples of all nations. 

5) Many churches have inadequate emphasis on discipleship, obedience to Christ, and willingness to follow Him whole-heartedly. Low commitment produces little reproduction. This is represented by the number of people who leave the church in an average year. There are about 5 million new believers, but about 13 million who leave Christianity. If this trend continues, from 2010-2050, 40 million people will come to Christianity, while 106 million leave.

6) We have not adapted strategically to being a global church. The church is growing rapidly in certain parts of the world where different strategies are being used, and where the believers hold a different mindset about the church and Christianity. Other parts of the world like the U.S. contains a large proportion of Christian wealth and hold a narrow and sometimes prejudice view of other nations and the people who live within them. Therefore, we prioritize sending people from our own cultures as missionaries. We continue to use most of our resources to support distant-culture missionaries, rather than prioritizing and adequately resourcing near-culture teams to reach neighboring unreached groups.

7) As a result of the previous six points and other factors, we are losing ground. The number of both lost and unreached people is increasing. The number of lost people has grown from 3.2 billion in 2015 to 5 billion and unreached people have grown from 1.1 billion in 1985 to 2.2 billion in 2018. 

We need to face the fact that our current efforts are not working, and that we need to change our strategy if we want to see God's vision of every person, every people group, and every place reached with the gospel until there is no place left that has not heard of Jesus. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.