Do we know how to make disciples?

Jesus' last command before leaving this planet was to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey" everything He commanded us.  If I took this command seriously and decided to make one disciple each year and ensured through follow-up and accountability that each of my disciples was discipling one other person, then the whole world of 6.8 billion people would have access to Christ in 34 years.  That's the power of multiplication and exponential growth!

Mt. 13:23 says "But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."  Farming is a process and takes time, so does discipleship.  Instead of holding a big crusade and trying to do "microwave" missions, what would happen if we focused on a just a few (or one) disciples and do "crock pot" life-on-life discipleship.  It isn't quite as glorious to put in the ministry update/newsletter, but in the long haul it has the potential to produce 30, 60 or 100 disciples in a lifetime which should go out and put into practice everything they saw in your life.  Maybe Jesus was on to something...

Has America been passed over in the Great Commission?

There are actually less American missionaries on the field now then there were 30 years ago.  Is it the economy and people giving less which in turn causes fewer people to be deployed?  Is it that Americans are too comfortable and not willing to sacrifice and go overseas because of our gods of comfort and security?  Have we decided that it is cheaper and more efficient to accomplish the task by "outsourcing" the remaining task to the third world and global south?  Has the huge growth in the short-term missions sector encouraged us to go for a week or month at a time rather than committing to certain areas until the work is done?  Maybe technology is allowing us to share good news in previously closed countries while Google translates for us making it not necessary for us to actually have to move to the Muslim world and learn Arabic to make disciples?

There remain over 6600 entire people groups that are still considered unreached with the Gospel.  What do you think the U.S. role is in this whole endeavor?  Has our time as pioneers passed and now we need to focus more on our role as givers and equippers of others to finish the task?  Or is it time for a fresh new missionary movement to rise up and thousands of new laborers deployed to the hardest to reach final frontiers?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

Is there anything wrong with the American Dream?

This video is an intro to the book Radical by David Platt. I'm always up for a good kick in the pants, so I thought I would pass this on for others to "enjoy" as well.

How much have we accomplished in a year?

One year ago today, I posted a blog concerning Finishing the Task (FTT) which is an effort by some of the major missions organizations to see church planting work started among the least reached people groups of the world. When they started promoting groups that were unengaged by missionaries or Christian work, there were 639 people groups with more than 100,000 in population numbering over 535 million people total. Here are the statistics one year later:

The FTT website states that now, of the original 639 unreached, unengaged people groups:
* 26 remain unengaged. No one is trying to reach them. (144 on June 1, 2009)
* 167 are adopted but not engaged. (146 on June 1, 2009)
* 403 are engaged with church planting. (308 on June 1, 2009)
* 354 have known believers. (299 on June 1, 2009)
* 168 have at least one known church. (69 on June 1, 2009)

Not bad for a year, but let's do more! There are still 600 evangelical churches for every unreached people group. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come (Mt. 24:14). Join us in praying for the unreached people group of the day.

Are we playing it too safe?

Francis Chan recently resigned from his megachurch to possibly do some overseas missions work or some innercity ministry in Los Angeles.  Here is a clip where he talks about playing it safe.  We use some of Chan's videos and his Crazy Love book in our missionary training school curriculum.  I hope you are challenged by this video to take some big risks.

Are you afraid of Muslims?

Check out this video clip to learn about the modern day Samaritans (very similar to us but definitely considered our enemies), and see if you might be able to view them as God does: