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The End of the Earth—Are We There Yet?

By Donna Messenger, Message Editor

Jesus assigned the task recorded in Acts 1:8 to His disciples as He left the earth: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

The modern missions movement has been active in world evangelization for a couple of centuries now, but how long do we need to keep sending missionaries? Some countries have second- and third- generation missionaries. Is there still work there for them to do or should we move them to other parts of the world? These are some of the questions that missionary teams face as they determine strategies and goals for the next decade and beyond. 

Recently, the Message interviewed the eleven regional administrators who lead the ABWE ministry fields. We asked them to answer the questions, Are we finished? and Where else do we need to go? In order to protect the missionaries and national partners that live in sensitive areas of the world, we have withheld the last names of the administrators.

Are We Finished?

“I don’t think we can say that the task is finished anywhere,” Dave said. “There is a cumulative effect in Acts 1:8. It is all inclusive: ‘Be my witnesses here and there’ on all fronts at all times until Christ returns. It’s not chronological or in order of importance.”

“Our regional vision,” Kent said, “is to develop indigenous church-multiplying movements that mature into national missionary-sending movements and endure until Christ returns.” Kent’s statement regarding the vision for the Asia-Pacific region reflected a common passion in all of the regional administrators.

“The Great Commission will never be fulfilled until each generation reaches its own generation,” Norm added. “As long as there are lost people, there will always be a need for missions.” He talked about the need for church reproduction. “A church should grow as large as it can and reproduce as often as it can. Every church should be involved in reproducing itself.”

Norm’s focus is North America. He explained that often the idea of reproducing seems contrary to the idea of promoting your church’s growth. “Study your own community,” he said. “There might not need to be another church in your part of town, but several churches could work together to plant a church in a neighboring area.” And there is a great need for churches in growing ethnic communities of North America.

“Church planting should reflect the make-up of the neighborhood,” Norm explained. “Each local church has the responsibility to study its community to apply the Scriptures to all people of their ministry area. They don’t have to call themselves an international church, but they need a worldview that includes all nations.”

Kent added, “The black borders on maps that distinguish one country from another are becoming gray with the integrating and partnering that is happening around the world. You cannot exist in isolation any more. Interdependence is necessary.”

North American churches have sent missionaries to the end of the earth, sometimes thinking that we had sole ownership of the task. However, countries that may still need Western assistance in theological education, for example, are becoming sending nations. Many are already involved in cross-cultural partnerships in neighboring countries, often going where North Americans cannot. The task belongs to all nations.

Duane said, “Countries of the world have to come to the table as sending nations for us ever to make an impact in the whole world. With the rise of Islam, practical atheism, and agnosticism, it is necessary for every nation to become a sending nation.”

So the answer is no, we are not finished, and there is still much to do.

Where Else Do We Need to Go?

Western Europe

“The mainstream of Western Europe is still unreached,” Jack reported. “Half of Europe is still one percent or less evangelical. Today’s culture is secular, postmodern; and postmoderns seek authenticity. This should not be a problem for us. We should always present authentic Christianity everywhere we go.”

Jack added that opportunities for Muslim ministry in Western Europe are increasing. “There is a huge immigrant population of Muslims coming into Europe,” he continued. “The unrest and lack of integration into European society present some unique opportunities for the gospel.” Missionaries in the region have developed the Antioch Project to train local believers to be effective witnesses for Christ. “We train them first of all to not fear Muslims, but to learn how to love them and to have the skills to reach out to them on their jobs and in their neighborhoods,” Jack said.

10/40 Window

“Entry into the countries of the 10/40 window is difficult,” one administrator commented. Roughly two-thirds of the world’s population lives in this area of the world, though it receives the least amount of Christian investment, both in personnel and finances. He continued, “Lack of missionaries leads to lack of evangelism, making these areas the least evangelized in the world. Because they are least evangelized, there are few believers to help with the work. Add to that a large amount of persecution, and you have an area of the world that has formidable challenges.”

“I have had the privilege of working in several Muslim-majority nations,” one administrator commented. “Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t go there. These are people for whom Jesus died. These are people whom Jesus loves. He loves these people as much as He loves westerners who have free governments.”

Eastern Europe

“We have moved from church-planting movements to missions movements,” Duane stated. “Now, thirty to forty percent of our time is spent connecting churches with each other so they can reach their own region and beyond.” Duane added, “Some of the best missionaries in the Middle East are going to come from Eastern Europe into Muslim majority nations. How do we best get behind the churches and believers here in formerly Soviet-controlled countries that have now had fifteen years of freedom? We are watching them go where we can’t; they are reaching out to areas where the gospel has never gone.”

Partnerships with churches in Moldova are already providing inroads into Central Asia. “We have had opportunities to meet with pastors in Turkmenistan who are able to go into Iran,” Duane said. “Russians can walk right in.”

South America

According to Dave, missionary teams in Brazil have done a great job of planting churches in the big cities, but the goal now is to move out into secondary cities. There are many regions of Brazil with relatively major cities (several hundred thousand people). Churches in these cities could facilitate church planting in smaller villages in the region.

Dave added, “One of the things we need to continue to emphasize is training leaders for cross-cultural ministry. Significant finances, personnel, and energy need to go into seminaries and Bible institutes. Brazil is a sending nation, but we need to send people trained to minister cross-culturally.”

Bob wants to open Ecuador as a team ministry with the Bogota, Colombia, missionaries. “Quito is only an hour from Bogota,” he said, “so they can work together.” The idea is to team up with Colombian missionaries to reach into this neighboring country. “Another new field on the horizon is Uruguay,” Bob continued. “This is a westernized, university culture. Church planting is slow and difficult in this fast-paced society.”

Asia

“There are literally thousands of people group pockets out there,” stated one administrator. “Bengalis are the largest unreached people group in the world.” He added, “Three percent of the population of India is Christian. God is clearly at work; my dream is to identify people in that region who can lead missions movements as directors, with North American missionaries being mentors and trainers.”

Kent said that ABWE Tsunami Relief has provided new initiatives around Southeast Asia, particularly in the southern peninsula of Thailand. “The Nation (a Thai newspaper) published an article about Christian happenings in southern Thailand. Our relief work was one of the few designated as a church,” he commented. “We now have a foothold in a vast area that is strongly Muslim and Buddhist, and the opportunity for multiplying in southern Thailand is great.”

Missionaries in Australia are researching initiatives with the Vietnamese immigrant population, the largest ethnic group of Asian descent in Australia. They desire to develop a ministry that can turn around and impact their homeland. The Australia team has long-term goals to start new ethnic church plants. Hispanic and Korean churches have already been started.

East Asia claims the largest population in the world. “We would love to build a church-planting model in one city that can be reproduced in other cities,” one administrator noted. “Work right now is limited for North Americans,” he cautioned, “but personnel who commit to learning language and culture while they teach business or English will be ready when the doors could be more open.”

Africa

“One of the most resistant Muslim groups in Africa is the Wolof people group in The Gambia,” Ron observed. “Yet we are seeing people respond to the gospel as communicated through medical evangelism, literacy, and personal relationships.”

Ron continued by identifying the Hausa and Fulani tribes in West Africa. “Their territories span many countries,” he said. “These are two of the largest, least-reached people groups in West Africa. Hausas are more in Niger and Nigeria. Fulani are herdsmen who are semi-nomadic.” ABWE is initiating a work with Fulani in the northwest province of Cameroon. This is very rural work. Missionaries have to travel to different camps where the Fulani are.

Kenya has many religious tribal groups, according to Ron. “It’s like a whole generation of people with Bible names who are very religious, but lost,” he said. ABWE is focusing on the youth, the new generation. Much of this ministry is urban, taking place in large cities, such as Nairobi.

Ron added that one of the largest unreached people groups in South Africa is the close-knit Chinese population. “Some are second and third generations who have lived their whole lives in South Africa.”

North America

Norm cited over 400,000 Chinese people in Canada and stated, “That population is growing immensely. In the 1990s there was a large exodus of Cantonese-speaking people from Hong Kong, but now more are coming from Mandarin-speaking mainland China.”

He described a Chinese church in Toronto that has one service in English, one in Mandarin and two in Cantonese. Norm also referred to great needs of the French-speaking population of Quebec.

Who Needs to Go?

“We don’t need more people to keep doing what we’re doing,” one administrator commented. “We need people who have the vision to get nationals involved and be willing to train others. This is not the day and age where we can go somewhere and put down roots so deep that we can’t be moved. We need to be global people and be willing to move.”

Larry added, “We should be about multiplication. We are looking for people who want to reproduce themselves—not taking ownership of their own congregation, but to influence others to do their ministry.” He cited 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

One administrator observed, “I would like to see a passion-driven English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) team—not passionate for English, but passionate for Christ.” He continued, “ESL is one of the best tools we can use anywhere in our region.”

Another administrator said, “We want all kinds of people—we are starting a training center that will not just teach English, but nursing, computers, and business. We need all kinds of people, even ones who would go for a semester to teach a course in a university.” Then, not to diminish the value of short-term opportunities, he continued, “We want people who will be willing to think career—long-term—with a long view. It may take eight to ten years to learn the language and culture and build relationships. They will have to be patient.”

Clearly there is much to do, and the evangelistic task is ours until the Lord returns. Teamwork is crucial to reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. God has blessed North American churches with abundant resources for world evangelization, but now the team must include other nations with similar passion for reaching the lost—on all fronts at all times until Christ returns.