WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

What’s wrong with this picture?

Graduation time is just around the corner and the job market will be swamped once again with high school & college graduates vying for available positions.  With that, comes the stark reality that only 5% of grads from Bible colleges & seminaries will pursue opportunities in cross-cultural ministries among 94% of the world’s population, while the remaining 95% will look for ministry positions HERE in North America which has around 6% of the world’s population.  What’s with that?

These statistics don’t take into consideration the masses of Christian young people that will graduate from Christian liberal arts colleges, secular colleges, or high school and technical/trade schools who also will enter the workforce.  It is currently unknown how many of them may be considering cross-cultural ministry although these numbers are assumed to be low.

So what does this mean in the ongoing spread of the gospel to unreached peoples?

We are finding fewer and fewer young people grasping the immensity of the job Jesus left us to do.  …And fewer still are aware that it’s up to their generation to finish the task.  Higher education and college educators aren’t to blame; so who is???

We believe that the low turnout of Harvest workers among the unreaped and ripened fields of the world has to do with the church instilling in its people a mindset of making disciples among the nations.  We hear a lot about reaching our own Jerusalem and surrounding communities; that’s good.  The church has done well to rally the focus of missions with an occasional weekend emphasis to consider the nations, but what are we doing objectively to turn the tide in getting people prepared, equipped and sent out to take the gospel to the ends of the earth?

Somehow we’ve gotten the idea that the function of the church is to meet solely for worship and edification rather than taking the equipping we receive and going out to reach a lost world.  The measure of understanding how well we are doing with the mandate is to individually ask ourselves, “who have we reached with the gospel in the last twelve months?” or “who is it we are currently pouring our lives into through discipleship?”  And moreover, where is our compassion for those living beyond the reach of the gospel?

These are some tough questions to face.  These are tough questions I face.  You see, I’m not pointing a finger to say I’ve arrived at doing this and you haven’t –no, we all (myself included), can do better at disciple making and contributing to the work Jesus desires from each of us in getting the job done.

The picture of Christ gathering unto Himself a church from every tribe, tongue, people and nation will make more sense to us when we are engaged in the work of making disciples.

Part of our work as mission’s mobilizers and global mission’s advocates is to assist local churches to develop a continuing mission’s focus that will instill in its people a heart for God and the world.  We believe a vision is caught when it is taught; therefore, having a plan in place to bring such focus to all ages of the church on a consistent basis will result in churches sending harvest workers from their fellowship.  We’re here to help you motivate that purpose.