A New Millennium Mindset

By Rex Furman, pastor Calvary Baptist Church, Everett, Washington
(Condensed from a message given at the 68th GARBC Annual Conference)

We need a world view as big as NATO, as big as China, as big as the Bible.

The world is changing rapidly. When I was in the Philippines on Project HOPE I read this editorial, "NATO marked its 50th year with an agreement to expand its role beyond collective defense." Today NATO intervenes in humanitarian crises outside western Europe. Its future mandate will include protecting human rights and improving the health of mankind. NATO is changing.

The year 2000 is the Chinese Year of the Dragon. China is flexing its economic muscles with imports to the United States increasing by 25% every year. By the year 2010 their gross national product will be $10 trillion a year. China is changing.

The world of missions is changing. While in many church missions displays, I see spears, bows and arrows, and native crafts, when I visit foreign countries I see VCR's, computers, and cell-phones. Missions cannot be "business as usual."

How will we reach the world for Christ? We must have the mindset that the lost are going to hell. "Ye were without Christ, being aliens, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12) Sin separated man from God, but Ephesians 2:13 continues, "Now in Christ Jesus, ye who are sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."

Christ "...came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:17). As believers in Jesus Christ, we are all in the same family.

We must have this family mindset as we "do" missions in this century. Family says, "You don't have a place to stay? Come to my house." If somebody I don't know needs food, I might give him a sandwich, but if it's family, I'd ask, "How about a steak?"

During my time in Leyte, I attended the biennial conference of the Filipino Association of Baptist Churches. People saved money for two years to be able to attend. The 3,500 attendees represented 1,800 churches who have a goal of 2,000 churches by the end of 2000. Sitting among them, I realized anew we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

I know about the indigenous church policy. I'm aware of the problems of dependency, but I'm not sure how it works itself out when the world is our home. We in North America make up 6% of the world's population, but own 59% of the world's wealth.

In Luke 12:48 Jesus said, "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required." On an island in the Philippines, a flood wiped out two Bible school libraries. All that remained were two volumes from a Matthew Henry set, and a Strong's Concordance with a broken binding. I told friends, "We need books." People sent over 1,000. A store donated a shipping container. A Christian businessman paid the freight. We began rebuilding the libraries. We need the mindset: this job of reaching the world for Christ is not a one-person thing-it is hundreds of people doing what they can.

NATO has a plan for the world. China has a plan for the world. God gave His plan 2000 years ago. He gave the strategic outworking in Acts 1:8. Start in Jerusalem, go to Judea, then Samaria, and the outer-most parts of the world. He did not say, "Go if you'd like to." He didn't say, "If you don't feel like it, that's okay." The Lord Jesus made reaching the lost a priority.

We need to pray, "Lord, open our eyes to see the world as is it and to commit ourselves to accomplishing the task of world evangelism for the praise of God."