Archive for Missions
Why Cities?
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In 1800, only about five percent of people lived in cities. A century later this had risen to about fifteen percent. By 1975, the percentage of urban dwellers in our world had risen to forty-one percent. Estimates are that by 2050 almost 80% of the world will live in urban areas. In Asia the present growth rate will produce by the year 2000 at least fourteen cities with a population of over ten million – three of these exist already in India, namely Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, and Calcutta. There will be thirty-two cities with over five million citizens and more than a hundred with over a million inhabitants. In India, cities like Madras, Hyderabad, and Bangalore already have climbed over five million in population, and they are numerous more cities over or near a million in population. It is true that India is primarily a rural society; however, the cities are growing and will continue to grow. There needs to be a concerted effort and a strategy on the part of the church to penetrate these spiritual strongholds of Satan.
We live in an urban world. However, only about nine percent of evangelical Christians live in the cities of a million or more inhabitants. Read More→
The Heart of God — Are We There Yet?
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“The command has been to “go,” but we have stayed — in body, gifts, prayer and influence.”
- Robert Savage
“Are We There Yet?”
Posted by: | CommentsToday, we can identify the people groups that remain untouched by the Gospel. For the first time, it is conceivable that all people groups can be reached in the coming years with a Gospel presence. According to IMB’s 2009 statistical data* there were 506,019 baptisms, 204,192 churches. Church membership overseas was at 10.7 million, and there were 24,650 new churches.
Yes, there is still a long way to go, but progress is being made every day.
Now is the time to also take a fresh look at the challenges ahead and be ready to finish the task. With 45,560 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, there is much work to be done.
- 4,743 people groups are not engaged at all with the Gospel
- 6,426 unreached people groups (those with less than 2 percent of people who profess to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ)
- 1.7 billion with little or no access to the Gospel
- 1.5 billion Muslims – 22 percent of the world’s population
- 950 million Hindus in the world
- Christian witness among China cities less than 1 percent
- 3 percent evangelical believers among Ethiopia’s 82 million people
- 355 million in South America do not know Christ
- Less than 1 percent Christian among more than 270 million living in the Central Asia region
- 650,000 Lezghi in the Causcasus Mountains fear evil spirits
- 97 percent of all Palestinians are Muslim
- 89 percent of North African and Middle Eastern people groups are unreached
- 311 people groups in India have no known evangelical believers
- Only 1,600 believers among 1.6 million Muong of Northern Vietnam
I Am Lottie Moon
Posted by: | CommentsMany years ago, God used an obedient servant named “Lottie” to establish a legacy of sacrificial obedience for the sake of the Kingdom. Today we recognize and celebrate that legacy as a new generation of “Lottie Moons” demonstrate sacrificial obedience as they bring the gospel to those who have never heard.
The Harvest Field Is White
Posted by: | CommentsHere is a video called “Tears In The Saints” that is pretty powerful as it expresses the attitude and response every believer with a Biblical worldview should have towards the unreached peoples of our world.
Tears In The Saints from Rob Stevens on Vimeo.
If you are one of our regular prayer warriors, faithfully standing in the gap for the lost and perishing of Yueyang, China, thank you. Thank you for giving up those few minutes every morning before waking the kids for school or before leaving for work. Thank you for sharing with your small group or those at your Wednesday night prayer meeting about your burden for a struggling house church leader or for unbelieving spouses that seem very far from God.
Thank you!
Here Am I, Send Me!
Posted by: | CommentsThen I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8
10 Ways to Help Kids Love Missions
Posted by: | CommentsSource: Desiring God blog – John Piper
There are things we can do to help our kids love the nations and the cause of Christ, even though a heart and calling for the Great Commission is ultimately something only God can grant.
1. Pray for missionaries as a family. We keep a stack of prayer cards on the dinner table and rotate through them during mealtime prayers.
2. Read missionary biographies to your children. The stories of Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Gladys Aylward, and other missionary pioneers are captivating ways to orient a child’s heart on the most important things in life.
3. Draw the whole family into supporting missionaries financially. Teach your kids from a young age that being a good steward of their money involves channeling resources toward the the cause of Christ in missions. Older kids can donate some of their lawn mowing and babysitting money. Younger children can earn money doing chores around the house which can be set aside for missionaries.
4. Find your child a missionary kid pen pal. Many children of missionaries around the world would be delighted to get mail from a child their age in their parent’s culture. Your child (and the whole family) will learn valuable insights about living abroad through the eyes of a child. Additionally, when the missionaries visit your church, your child will already have a relationship with the MK and will be able to include them more easily.
5. Entertain missionaries in your home. Inviting missionaries over will be as much of a blessing to your family as to the missionaries. Host them for dinner or for a whole furlough. Build or buy your house with this in mind.
6. Take risks as a family. There are ways to live life which help children grasp the reality that discomfort and suffering are normal and rewarding parts of the Christian experience. Volunteer at a rescue mission; house a single mother; move to the inner-city.
7. Affirm and nurture qualities in your children which could serve them on the mission field. As your children grow in knowledge and skill, encourage them to think about how they could use their gifts in missions work. Then, if God says, “go,” release them to go!
8. Teach your children to be world Christians. Don’t expose them to only the American perspective on news and realities around the world. Go out of your way to make them more aware than the average American Christian about geography, world history, and the plights and perspectives of people across the globe.
9. Read missionary prayer letters to your children. Ask them questions about the content and look up facts about the missionaries’ location on the Internet.
10. Use missions fact books and resources such as Operation World, the Global Prayer Digest, the Joshua Project, and Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). Kids of Courage is the youth-oriented arm of VOM and offers activity books, spotlights on the persecuted world, and more.
Most of all, pray every day that your kids will develop hearts that mirror God’s compassion for the nations and love for his glory in them!
Do you have any ideas to add?
Good Intentions
Posted by: | CommentsSometimes our best intentions can create more problems than they solve.
This relates to missions as well (or should I say “especially”!)
When in another culture, whether it’s for a week or a summer or for a few years, we don’t have the cultural insights that locals do, so it is imperative that we defer to their judgment in matters of security and cultural sensitivity.
If we are going to effectively communicate the gospel to the people of Yueyang, we must strive to remove Western cultural distinctives from the message and present the simple truth of the gospel. Quite often, we approach the task of spreading the gospel with the best of intentions, but when we don’t take care to avoid our tendencies for ethnocentrism, we sometimes do more harm than good!
Abortion is NOT an ‘American’ issue
Posted by: | CommentsToday is International Women’s Day and a great time to take a look at the serious issue of abortion, worldwide.
When looking at what is being done by Christians to reduce the abortion rates, it’s easy to believe that abortion is a major problem / challenge only in America. Easy, that is, until you gain some perspective;
46-50 million children worldwide lose their lives to abortion each year.
Abortions in the U.S. and Canada amount to 3% (1.4 million) of abortions worldwide. That means that the remaining 97% of abortions occur somewhere other than North America. People don’t often connect the cause of missions to the problem of abortion, however, we believe the success of missions can dramatically impact the abortion rate. When a society is transformed morally, far fewer unwanted pregnancies will occur and when they do, the decision to abort will be weighed much differently than in a society that does not cherish the life of an unborn child.
Are you serious about abortion? Do you want to have a hand in saving the lives of children who’s mothers are on the brink of getting an abortion? Get involved in missions. Pray, Give, Go.
Want to know how you can make a difference in Yueyang? Write us and let’s have a conversation about it!