The Task Remaining

It is about 40 days after the resurrection of Jesus. Acts 1:3, tells us that Jesus used the time between His resurrection and His ascension back to the Father to teach His disciples more about the Kingdom of God. Near the end of this time, Jesus gave His disciples what is now popularly called the Great Commission:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, as you are going, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.

Similarly in Acts 1:8, what I like to call the Acts Commission:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

It has been nearly two-thousand years since Jesus commissioned those original disciples to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. As His disciples today, His command is no less binding on us than ist was on the eleven standing on the mountain in Galilee. So, how are we doing in the task? How much has been accomplished? How much work is left to be done? Let’s look at a few statistics:

• Current World Population: ~6 billion.
  
  
• Christians: 1.97 billion (32% – From all traditionals and commitment levels)
  
  
  
  • Evangelicals:648 million (Christians actively involved in the Great Commission)
    
  
  
• Other Faiths:
  
  
  
  • Islamic: 1.3 billion (21%)
    
  • Non-Religious: 938 million (15%)
    
  • Hindu: 820 million (13%)
    
  • Buddhist 400 million (6.5%)
    
  • All Others: 572 million (9.5%)

Now I realize that these are big numbers and probably a little hard to get your brain around, so another way to think about this is in terms of people groups.  The total population of 6 billion people can be divided into 24,000 people groups. Each of these people groups each have their own dialect, history, foods, and relational structures.  Of these 24,000, 10,000 people groups are considered unreached.  This means that they have no viable witness within their culture through which they can hear the Gospel – no Bibles, no radio, no literature, no church on the corner, not a single believer to speak for Christ.

So it seems very clear that much work still needs to be done.  Thousands are entering a Christless eternity everyday.  So, what is being done to reach these people with the love of Christ.  Surely, with all of the missionaries that have been and are being sent, we are well on our way to bridging this gap.  Let’s take a look:

• 76% of all Christian Workers work in majority Christian areas (60%+ of the population claim some relationship with Jesus).
  
• 97.6% of all Missionaries are working among the Reached People groups.  This means that 2.4% of all missionaries are working among the 10,000 unreached people groups.
  
• Of the 6,909 recognized languages in the world today, 2,393 have no Bible in their heart language.

It would seem that something has to change.  We need to be creative in our thinking.  The old ways simply will not work any more.  The answers that can be offerred to solve this problem are almost unlimited.  However, I believe one of the keys to solving this problem is mobilizing the non-Western Church.  In years gone by, the center of Christianity has been in Europe and North America, but during the last century this changed.  There are now more Christians south of the equator than north.  There are now more missionaries from Non-Western countries than from Western countries.  Instead of the Western Church acting like the big brother of the Non-Western churches, we need to start partnering as equals, realizing that each has something of value to contirbute.  Furthermore, if we can equip and energize the Non-Western churches, their missionaries can go places and do things that no Western missionary ever could.

Now you may be asking, well what about you.  Aren’t you going to Kenya, one of the most Christianized nations on the continent of Africa and you would be correct.  We are going to Kenya, but we are going to help train and empower the churches in Africa to go and the do the work.  Furthermore, while I believe that God is calling our family to long term service, we are not necessarily tied to one type of ministry or one location.  My ultimate goal is work myself out a job.  I long to see the KIST (Kima International School of Theology) Extension program be completely staffed and administered by the African churches.  My desire is to see the Church fully equipped to carry out the work of the Kingdom.

I do not claim to have all the answers, nor the perfect solution to these issues.  What I do hope is that we might discuss and think deeply about these issues and seek God for the solutions.  May we have the courage move on from here.