This past week our Project hosted the Cross-Cultural Project group (CCP) for Missions Week! The CCP group is also from the Minneapolis region, but they are leaving to do their Project down in South Africa for a month. They are going to partner with the CO group down in South Africa to help them do ministry and outreach at the University of Pretoria.
While down here with us, CCP explained to us about how God has worked in their heart’s towards this trip, what their trip is going to look like, and what God’s heart is towards the world and the lost. Our whole week of talks and content were focused on global missions. We sent them off to South Africa early last week and they have safely arrived in Pretoria and started their work down there!
Though Missions Week is always a fun week because we get to see some friends from back home and hear and talk about what God is doing in the world, the week is also a convicting one full of self reflection and good conversations.
The reality of the world’s situation is that there are 3.28 billion people or 41.5% of the world’s population today who would be considered part of an unreached people group. Unreached people groups are those whose population is less than 2% Christian, and so people in these groups have a very slim chance of ever hearing the gospel just from those around them. In America, we have churches on pretty much every street, and it is not very hard to meet a Christian basically anywhere you go. The same cannot be said about unreached people groups.
So when we talk about this reality, and the truth of the Great Commission that Jesus gives us in Matthew 28 to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” that should do some kind of work in our hearts. It should make us feel some kind of way. And that should make us act another sort of way.
Not everyone is going to go on mission to another part of the world, and that is ok. We need people here too. We need Christians who are doctors and lawyers and business people. But we also need to be aware about the status of the world and have a desire to reach the unreached.
At evangelism training we were told this sobering truth, “Americans spend more (separately) on twinkies, golf balls, and halloween costumes for their dogs than they do to reach the unreached.” What a sad reality!
So what can we do about this? At our theme training, one of the CCP leaders Daniel shared a few ways that we can be a part of God’s plan to reach all nations.
Pray. We should be praying that God would raise up laborers and also for people of unreached people groups. The Joshua Project is a great resource to learn more about different unreached people groups and specific things to pray for for each group.
Welcome. Many of us live in areas with high rates of immigrants who are actually part of unreached people groups! We have an incredible opportunity to welcome those around us, be friends with them, and share the gospel with them.
Send. We should be sending out missionaries. Sending can mean a lot of things, but in this case we are talking about financially supporting missionaries. We should be good stewards of what God has given us, and we should invest in making His name known to all peoples’ from all nations.
Go. Some of us are called to go. We must be open to God’s call and His will. Sometimes we don’t feel any type of direct “call” from God to go overseas, but we must be obedient to what God has laid out in the Bible about His heart for the world. As Daniel shared, we should be “ready to go, and willing to stay.”
At Project, we are all considering what our place is in God’s story for the world. We want to impact the world for Christ and be a part of His great mission to bring people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to Himself (Rev. 7:9). We hope that you will also join us and join God in His great plan.
Another fun and unique thing we do for Missions Week is an optional sunrise prayer for the nations! Last Sunday a bunch of us got up at 5:45 a.m. to go out to the beach and pray for unreached people groups and for the CCP trip. It was a sweet time of community and sacrificing some beloved sleep to intentionally set our hearts on God and pray for His will to be done in the world and in our lives.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1