TAKING THE CHURCH TO WHERE IT IS NOT ... ... and helping others do the same.
Five Families - One Vision In 1945, five families sold everything they owned, combined all their resources, and made a radical commitment to do everything they could to complete the unfinished task of world missions. Their vision was to train, send, and support 100 missionaries. By God’s strength more than 850 missionaries trained through Bethany Global University’s College of Missions have served with 87 mission agencies in more than 70 countries. The impact extended into founding Bethany House Publishers and Bethany Press International, forming dozens of Christian bookstores, print production and distribution centers. A global network of 500 mission training schools established through Bethany partnership trains thousands of workers to unreached peoples. Seven decades later, the Bethany International family has grown and so has it’s vision to reach the world for Christ.
“... go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” —Jesus (Matt. 28:17-18)
The Unfinished Task While the vision of the five original families to send 100 workers has been reached many times over, the task to “make disciples of all nations” has only just begun. We continue to prepare workers to take the Good News to “all nations” and help the Church around the world do the same. Together we can make great strides to finish the task that Jesus gave us to do – to make His name known. UNREACHED PEOPLE There are more than 3,000 people groups with no Christian witness.
THE CHURCH There are 1 million villages with no church.
EVANGELISM There are over 3.5 billion Muslims, Buddists, and Hindus with few workers.
SCRIPTURE There are 4,000 languages with no Bible.
Bethany International’s Five-Fold Strategy After nearly 70 years of experience in countless mission ventures to accelerate the spread of the Gospel, five key competencies have strategically impacted global effectiveness to reach the lost. BETHANY GLOBAL UNIVERSITY (BGU) – Training cross-cultural workers BGU provides comprehensive biblically-grounded, interculturally-focused higher education experience. Hands-on mission competency training which effectively prepares the next generation of cross-cultural workers who lead by serving with global partners to transform individuals and communities. BETHANY INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES – Sending cross-cultural workers Bethany long term workers and partners serve in pioneer evangelism, church planting, mission and leadership training, and Kingdom justice: mercy ministries, access to scriptures, providing discipleship and evangelism materials, and fielding short term teams that strategically partner with field ministries.
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Global Mission Training Networks – Facilitating mission training and sending We focus on helping national churches and ministries effectively prepare and send workers to unengaged and least reached peoples. Major church networks (especially in eastern Asia) and the GlobeServe network representing more than 280 mission competency training schools prepare and send cross-culturally for church planting among the unreached. PUBLISH4ALL – Distributing production of scripture and discipleship resources Decades of publishing, printing and content distribution experience and expertise have been leveraged to establish a global print-on-demand network and a growing cloud-based library of evangelism, discipleship and scripture resources. The P4A sites and partner networks have the capacity to print low-cost, high quality biblical materials at a local level. Global Partnerships – Helping others do the same Bethany International works together with like-minded individuals, national churches, denominations, and international ministries as a Kingdom extending catalyst. Our role is often to facilitate exploration, planning, training, connecting, and relationship building – to accelerate “taking the church to where it is not.”
Let’s Reach The World Together We take helping seriously. It is part of God’s calling on Bethany International since 1945 when 5 family “did what they could do” to make Jesus known and reach the lost. If you would like to reach those who have not had the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we would like to help. Perhaps it is wanting more information about the 21st Century mission world, desiring Bible and intercultural training, rallying your church for prayer, or helping you (or your team) get to the front lines. We can help, would love to help, or connect you with somebody who can. We’re here to serve. Together we can accelerate fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission. LEARN MORE • BethanyInternational.org • BethanyIM.org (Bethany International Ministries) • BCOM.org (Bethany Global University) • GlobeServe.org • Publish4All.org
HOW CAN WE HELP YOU DO THE SAME?
“No matter who we are, we are called to be workers together with God in His great program of rescue and recovery — the evangelization of the whole world” —T.A. Hegre, founder