World Faiths

World missions

When one think of this we normally imagine skinny people in army helmets reaching out to cannibals in Timbuktu. Yet we all have a role to play when it comes to world missions and there are various ways we can get involved.

I want to give you a picture of where the world is, in terms of the Gospel. With the world’s population at 7 billion and growing, how many are Christians? How many still needs to hear? Is the task of missions complete? To make this simple I’m going to paint you a virtual picture using ten people.

Christian

About 12% of the world’s population is Christian meaning that 1 out 10 people are born again, Bible believing, Evangelical Christians.

Nominal Christian

About 21% of the world’s population is nominal Christians meaning that 2 out of 10 people are people who would call themselves Christian because they go to church regularly or not so often. They say they are Christians, but have no real inward change with Christ dwelling in them. Do you have some of these in our congregation???

Reached non-Christians

They represent 40% of the world’s population meaning that 4 out of 10 people are reachable; they have heard the Gospel message, but have rejected it and continue to hold to their former religions and beliefs. These are Evangelized non-Christians.

Unreached

27% of the world’s population is unreached meaning that 3 out of 10 people have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ clearly. They have no missionary or church near them, or no witness for Christ.

Who are the Unreached?

MUSLIM- They believe in one God, Allah and his prophet, Mohammed. They say Jesus was a great teacher and a prophet too but not as great as Mohammed. They also say Jesus is not the son of God. Islam is a religion of works. They believe that if your good deeds outweigh your bad you will enter paradise. The Bible says that we are not saved by works but by grace. Islam is the fastest growing religion outside of Christianity. Allah is believed to be an all-supreme and distant god who is really unknowable and impersonal. They believe in some of the Old Testament prophets we know from the Bible. They accept the first 5 books of the Old testament (the books of Moses), also the Psalms of David and in the New testament the Gospels of Jesus as holy books and the Last testament being the Koran (Quran), their main scripture, is often memorized in Arabic- the Holy Language. Many Muslims do not accept the bible believing that it has been changed and thus corrupted by Christians in the translating. Islam is a legalistic religion of law and works with no assurance of real forgiveness or Salvation. There are five “pillars of Islam”:

-          Citing the creed of Islam

-          Routine prayers diligently said 5 times a day

-          Giving 2% of earnings to the poor or to build Mosques

-          The yearly month of fasting- Ramadan- during daylight hours

-          Going on a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in your lifetime

Muslims are very committed to seeing their religion take over the whole world and they are aggressively busy with that through “Jihad” (Holy war), which is stated in the Koran as part of their religion. They believe you are born a Muslim and to leave that religion can mean death o allegedly save the person’s soul. Dress plays a very prominent role in their Identity and culture and their religion. Most of the unreached Muslims live in North Africa, down the east coast of Africa, throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, south Asia and South East Asia

HINDU- The unreached Hindus are in Northern India and Nepal (the largest Indian settlement outside of India is in Durban, South Africa in an area founded by Gandhi called Phoenix). They believe in 330 million gods. Everyone selects a few gods whom they worship specifically (Jesus is also one of these gods). They often have a god shelf in the home with idols of these gods or pictures of them to who they offer food, burn incense, and pray to. Keeping light lit at the altar is important to them. Hindus believe they have to work their way to a better life by being a good person in this life. The process of life, birth and rebirth is called reincarnation. The ultimate goal or “man’s highest ideal” is to get out of the cycle of reincarnation and into the “heavenly” state of Nirvana. It is very hard for a Hindu to accept that there is only one way to God, because you are born a Hindu or whatever religion you are. They see themselves as embracing all religions and believe that ultimately there are many ways to get to God. “Many paths lead to the top of the mountain, all rivers flow to the ocean”, as they say. This religion is the basis of New Age philosophy.

BUDDHIST- the Buddhist religion places high value on the quiet, meditative life of monk hood. Most boys and some girls as well, will spend time in a Buddhist monastery. Shaving their heads and renouncing all they have for a period of time, or some, for a lifetime. They own just 2 robes and a begging bowl to go into the community to collect food each day. They basis of the religion is emptiness of the human condition. Suffering is the basic human condition, by suffering they pay for past wrongs. Meditation is a means of emptying oneself and a thought of heaven is equal to not being selfless and empty oneself. They also strive to break out of reincarnation into a perfect “nothingness”. They often pray to an idol form of Buddha and offer offerings of food and incense. This is often done with ancestor type worship to the spirits of the dead. There is no evidence of great movements towards Christianity in the Buddhist world. They follow the teachings of Buddha and “noble truths”. These unreached people live in places like Myanmar(Burma), Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Japan, Taiwan, Laos, Vietnam, Macao, China, Mongolia, Tibet or Bhutan in Asia.

THE CHINESE-Chinese people are of many religious backgrounds, Communism (or non religious), Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Animism, Shamanism, Ancestor worship etc. They form the largest populated country in the world where many of the unreached are. There is a great growth in the underground house church movement in China but also great persecution making it hard for them to reach the unreached groups in China.

Now I want to ask a few questions. Where do you see yourself I this picture? In the reached group? Are you in the committed Christian group? Or in the nominal Christian group?  What should the committed Christian do? What is your Church doing to reach out to all these groups? Are the Unreached included? What are you personally doing?

Where are all the missionary workers in this picture?

There are about 470 000 missionaries serving in the field today. 3 out of 10 are men and the rest are woman (where the dudes at man?). And where do these missionaries serve? 3 out of 10 serve among reached non-Christians, 6 out of 10 with nominal Christians and Christians and only 1 out of 10 are with the unreached, 1 out of 10. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are lazy, sorry, few.

Note the great imbalance. Note that in the reached world there are the mission workers as well as the whole church. Note how the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Where are the workers going to come from to work in the unreached world?

So now you may be asking “now what can I do”, or at least I’m praying that the thought is crossing your mind because you CAN get involved and our Father WANTS you to get involved and experience the joy of leading someone to God or enabling somebody else to do so, so here’s what you can do:

1-      Befriend a missionary. Make contact and develop friendships with people who are out and about on the mission field. It tends to get lonely and it is always good to know that there is someone praying for you. Maintain contact and respond regularly. I remember the encouragement I get when someone phones or e-mails just to say hi and that they are praying for me, it just lifted my spirit so much knowing that I truly am not alone.

2-      Pray for missions. Be consistent in this. Keep yourself updated on what is going on around the world and mobilize people to do the same. Know what to pray for and be alert for answers. Start a regular prayer meeting with fellow believers and pray for the nations. I have experienced this out on the field when things were really at an all time low how God would miraculously intervene in a situation because of people praying. Prayer is like a jet plane during war and the most valuable contribution you can make.

3-      Give to missions. Ask God how much He wants you to sow. Missionaries don’t get paid for what they do and have to rely on the support of fellow believers to get by. In the end it is not for self-benefit but for the Kingdom of God and this is a way you can become a part of that. We as believers have an obligation to support each other just like the first century church in Acts did. Why do you think God chooses to bless some believers with high paying jobs, thought it was for themselves? We are to ask God where we are to sow and be alert for opportunities to sow and to do so regularly. Even missionaries have an obligation to sow. What we sow is what we reap and God will see your heart and bless you for that.

4-      And then of course you can go. Some of us God do call into full time ministry abroad. It is normally a scary thought. One always has to make a lot of sacrifices, give up a good paying job, and give up not being able to see your friends and family for long periods of time, being uncertain of the future and having to rely on other people for support. But you know what; if God has planned it for you and you step into His will, killing your own and accepting His there is absolutely NOTHING that will hinder you. Yes Satan will always try but God is always faithful to His promises. I have come to experience that the hard way. I have found though that reaching out to the lost, the less fortunate and ministering to people from different cultures, backgrounds and religions is the most fulfilling ‘job’ ever. Why? It is what God has made me for. If God specifically designed you for something (which He did) then you will experience tremendous joy when you surrender your own will and step into His which is an extremely difficult process to go through. But God knows best and you will always be okay as long as you allow Him to be in control.

Matthew 24:14- And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to ALL NATIONS, and then the end will come.

The Job is not complete yet and until the Lord returns we need to be busy about God’s plan for building His kingdom in all nations. What part does God want you to play? Are you involved already in bringing the Good News of the Kingdom to all nations? If not…then ask God what He wants you to do.

In the end, God’s plan for the nations will succeed whether we choose to be used by him in it or not. The Bible says that if we won’t proclaim the Gospel God will command the rocks to do so, but truth is God WANTS to use us in His great plan. He wants us to share in His joy and in His kingdom of which we are stewards of.  And revelation the apostle John is taken up to heaven and he sees people from EVERY tribe and EVERY tongue from EVERY NATION! So it is going to happen!

Now my question is, do you want to be a part of that?? Do you want to enter heaven one day and have people you don’t even know come up to you to thank you for your contribution you had in their lives by supporting a missionary, or better yet who YOU led to the Lord?? You have no excuse NOT to be a missionary, I am challenging you to go out and be the light, wherever you go, just be the Light. HIS light! Reflecting His glory so that others might come to know the Love of God and the fullness there is in a relationship with Him.