A call for strategic global gospel investment

Christ’s command: ‘Make disciples of all nations …’ [Matthew 28:19].

Christ’s prayer: ‘Our Father in heaven, make your name holy, bring your kingdom, do your will, on earth, as in heaven’ [Matthew 6:9-10].

Christ’s atoning death: ‘You were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation’ [Revelation 5:9].

Christ’s messengers: ‘How can they call on the one they have not believed in? How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? How can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?’ [Romans 10:14,15].

Christ’s call: ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field’ [Matthew 9:38,39].

Christ’s plan: ‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ [Acts 1:8].

Christ’s gospel team: [Paul writes] ‘Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus … Urbanus, our fellow-workers in Christ … Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord…’ [Romans 16:3,9,12].

Christ’s training expectations: [Paul writes] ‘And the things you have heard me say … entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others … Do your best to present yourself to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth… Those who cleanse themselves will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work… All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’ [2 Timothy 2:2,15, 21, 3:16,17].

Christ’s example: ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, he became pour, so that through his poverty you might become rich’ [2 Cor 8:9].

Christ’s reward: ‘Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously’ [2 Cor 9:6].

Christ’s challenge: ‘Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds’ [John 12:24].

Christ’s warning: ‘From everyone given much, much will be required’ [Luke 12:48].

Christ’s triumph: a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb … they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb”’ [Revelation 7:9,10].

God’s great global gospel strategy

Gospel pray-ers + Gospel planners + Gospel givers + Gospel workers

Gospel workers…

Converted, growing in Christ, growing in holiness, growing in maturity. Unselfish, sacrificial, servant-hearted, reliable, teachable, sensible, trustworthy, healthy in body and mind and temperament, able to work, able to work with others, able to work on their own, able to work in a team, able to work under a leader. Self-disciplined, not self-indulgent. Resilient, stable, open to learn and grow.

Trained…

  • Discipled as a believers. Firm in faith, with gospel confidence. Bible-believing and Bible-using in ministry. Able to serve others without self-interest. Able to train and encourage others in ministry. Able to lead, and able to follow the leadership of others. Confidential and trustworthy with information, money, responsibility.
  • Trained and nurtured in any significant ministry responsibility. Able to self-reflect on life and ministry. Able to learn and adapt. Not defensive, ambitious, arrogant, or self-centred. Servant-hearted in life and ministry. Willing to learn, prayerful, sound in faith and life.
  • Have perhaps done a traineeship in a church or other ministry for one or two years.
  • Undertake 3 years full-time training in a Theological or Bible College, and in this time focussing on studying the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, theology and Christian thought and ethics, Church and mission history, and practical ministry courses.

This is needed because Australia is an educated country; because there are people from many different backgrounds, ethnic groups, and religions; because information, reliable and unreliable is freely available; because we have many sub-cultures; because our subcultures and our culture are changing increasingly rapidly; because some people are strongly opposed to Christianity; because understanding world-views is increasingly important; and because Australians expect a high level of competence in any worker. If someone serves overseas, then they will meet all of these challenges in different and more extreme forms.

  • Undertake ongoing training and supervision during their ministry.

Supported…

  • People who begin to consider the possibility of future vocational trained gospel ministry need support, wise advice, prayer, information, and encouragement.
  • People undertaking 3 years full time study need financial support. A father of three needs to support his family while not earning an income, and may also have to pay fees.
  • Theological and Bible colleges raise about ½ their income from fees, and need to raise the rest from donations.
  • Churches need to pay their ministers and other costs; ministries and missionary societies need to pay their workers, and other costs. One society reckons that it currently costs $105,000 a year for each missionary, and their support by the society.

Sent…

A church, or denomination or network or organisation or society needs to take responsibility for the selection and deployment of full-time gospel workers, and to care for them, support them, discipline them when necessary, perhaps remove them from their ministry. This is a significant responsibility, and of course needs prayer and financial support.

All gospel workers constantly need prayer support!

Encouragements and challenges

The largest, longest-lasting international, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic organisation in the world today is God’s people, the church of Jesus Christ. There are 5 times more believers in Christ alive today than there were in 1900.

The Moravian Community of Herrnhut in Saxony, in 1727, commenced a round-the-clock “prayer watch” that continued nonstop for over a hundred years. That year twenty-four men and twenty-four women covenanted to spend one hour each day in scheduled prayer. By 1791, 65 years after commencement of that prayer vigil, the small Moravian community had sent 300 missionaries to the ends of the earth.

William Carey, an early missionary to India, recognised that the evangelisation of the world required the creation of missionary societies. He had a remarkable ministry, and one of this sayings was, ‘Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.’ When asked how he achieved so much, he said, ‘I can plod.’

William Wilberforce, who fought to end the slave trade, also gave away his large fortune to many good gospel causes, and ended his life happy and content. The 1800s saw international Concerts of Prayer, as people from many nations prayed together for the evangelisation of the world!

Of the 8 billion people alive today, 3 billion have no access to a Bible, or a Christian.

It is time for strategic global gospel investment by us all!