The Gospel impact today is the greatest in the history of the Church.

 Made for a purpose  God Himself lives for purpose  Significance is to devote your life to a purpose that is larger than your life —  Especially the same purpose for which God Himself lives!  Can we genuinely worship God and not be as concerned about the WORLD as He is concerned?

 57% of Evangelicals believe there are other ways to God  Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a massive survey on religion in America last year. 35,000 Americans were surveyed  David Van Biema of Time cited an disturbing statistic: 70% of those surveyed agreed with the statement, “many religions can lead to eternal life.”  57% of evangelicals surveyed “were willing to accept that theirs might not be the only path to salvation.”

 Several countries have reached 35% Christian, mostly Evangelical  Whole countries have become open to the Gospel.  More Christians have gone places, learned more languages, translated more Scriptures and established more churches than in any period of history  With the population growth, more than 50% of the world’s population is alive today  Yet Less than 1/3 of the Globe has access to ever hear the Gospel once !

 Before the mid-1970s there were more Muslims than Christians in Africa  Africa is experiencing the fastest church growth  The largest churches are Catholic, Anglican and Methodist  The crucial test for the African church in 21 st century is how to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic Christian Majority Christian Minority Muslim Majority Area of Tension

Over 20% 10%-20% 5%-10% Under 5% Over 20% 10%-20% 5%-10% Under 5%  1900 barely 50,000 believers  2000 more than 40 million  Most of growth among Pentecostal movements  Largest population is Brazil (33 million evangelicals)  Several cities over 10 million and one, Mexico City, over 22 million  Hundreds of unreached people groups remain

 Christianity has stagnated  Massive unevangelized areas  Mostly Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox

 60% of Asia’s 312 million Christians actively witness  Most of unreached peoples of world in this area

 Pacific Islands 16% are Evangelicals converted from cannibalistic, stone-age people  Hundreds of LA jungle tribes converted to Christ, yet hundreds more are unreached  10 million Quechua Indians in the Andes have begun to respond by the thousands after years of resistance

 S. Korea is more than 25% Evangelical  3.75 million Evangelicals in the Philippines  9 million in Indonesia  Great moving of God in India is paralleled with great persecution

 Missionaries forced out in 1950 Communist revolution  Est. less than 1 million Protestant members then  In last 20 years est. more than million have become Christians in an underground house- church movement amid serious persecution  This is the largest turning to Christ in 2000 year of Church history!

65 nations – 4 billion people 2/3 of the world’s population 97% of those who have not heard 30-70% unemployment 82% of the poorest of the poor 3% of mission workers 65 nations – 4 billion people 2/3 of the world’s population 97% of those who have not heard 30-70% unemployment 82% of the poorest of the poor 3% of mission workers

Church Spending Worldwide

Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice when so many have not heard it even once? GO Equipped into the darkness

 6500 languages spoken today  366 have the whole Bible in their language  928 have the NT in their language  918 have the gospel of John in their language

 Nepal, Turkey, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq are responding to the gospel  “Tentmaking” missionaries are increasing as never before to have a “platform” for establishing a ministry in RAC.  TESL  Education  Training Nationals in Certified Areas  Business

 1988 the number of foreign missionaries was 36,000 and growing more rapidly than Western missionaries– today they number more than 60, 000.  International students who convert to Christ in the US are returning to their country with great impact  Koreans are the leading nation with over 2,500 missionaries in other lands (most are “ethnic missionaries”

Difficult or dangerous for foreigners Algeria Bhutan Iran Maldives N. Korea Sahara Somalia Some tent making ministry possible Afghanistan Bangladesh Comoros Mauritania Morocco Tunisia Yemen Libya Scope for open Christian witness Cambodia Mongolia Nepal Niger Thailand Turkey

 Radio, now online transmission  TV and soon online Christian TV productions  Audio-visuals, computer projections and graphics  Missionary aviation  Computers  Satellite transmissions, Internet connections  Scientific linguistics  Literature publications  Christian Education, schools and colleges  Church-based training tools  Bible correspondence courses, Distance Learning

 Research Centers are providing information and methodology that are effective  Now we are able to train missionaries effectively in the latest technology  Greater cooperation and partnering among missions has facilitated great expansion of the gospel  Focus has encouraged the conquest of unreached peoples among the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others

 American missionary leadership is changing from pioneers to coaches of national movements  Churches are partnering with different groups to take personal responsibility for reaching cities and people groups  Training of leaders is shifting from institutions to empowering local churches to train their own leaders for their own mission  Tentmakers are becoming a new challenge of mixing business and evangelism  Short-term overseas experiences become primary beginning of mission commitment  House-church movements are sweeping areas previously closed to the gospel

 Chinese character for the word “crisis” is made up of two smaller characters meaning “danger” and “opportunity”  Businessmen slogan, “No risk, no gain”  Paul said, “for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” 1 Cor 16:9  Opportunities always run parallel to problems and crises

 To make every Christian a “World Christian”  To clarify the myths and misunderstandings regarding missions  Not everyone can be a foreign missionary, but all can be missions-minded  We must choose: Does God want us to be a “ sender ” of others to the world, or personally a “ goer ” to the unreached

 Biblical Dimension —inductively formed convictions of truth  Historical Dimension —What God has been doing since Pentecost  Contextual Dimension —Understand what kind of world we have inherited  Geographic Dimension —Specific information about what missions has accomplished in each area of the world  Practical Dimension —How “missions” function through churches, missions, supporters and missionaries

1. Find yourself sitting on the bench while you could be playing a significant role – missions is the cutting edge of excitement 2. You will loose authenticity as a Christian– You say you love to worship Jesus, but you are disinterested in what He loves: the world. This is hypocrisy! 3. You will be poorly prepared for the judgment day when He tests how useful we were to the advancement of the Kingdom of God

 Build prayer power, Mt 9:38, “Beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest”  Teach missions in the church and family  Increase financial investment, 2 Cor 9:6, “He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully”  Recruit new missionaries; be a sender or goer, but always a recruiter!  Send church or university teams on specific projects  Organize churches to develop partnership projects  Team up with 1-5 missionaries with prayer/finance

 2.2 million go into eternity daily  67% have little or no chance to hear the Gospel  Anyone who does not believe – for any reason – is lost forever! Jn 3:18  J. Oswald Sanders, “Our responsibility for the salvation of the heathen will be as great as our ability and opportunity to give them the gospel or to make it possible for the gospel to be brought to them”  Jesus’ passion is “I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” Mt 16:18 Are we with Him?