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HARVESTFORCE 2019 • 3
THE CHALLENGE of the REMAINING FRONTIER MISSION TASK O
ur Lord Jesus gave His Mission Mandate, commonly termed as “The Great Commission” to his disciples (cf. Matthew 28:18,19). These apostles were called to be messengers of the Good News beginning from Jerusalem, to Judea, all Samaria and to the remotest parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). The Gospel spread far and wide in spite of opposition and persecution in the first 300 years!
Rev Derrick Lau 刘作丰牧师 Executive Director of MMS. He enjoys doing DIY projects like simple carpentry and small construction works.
What were the key components that led the first missionary enterprise which transformed itself into a dynamic global movement?
The task is unfinished! We need to P.R.A.Y.
• Clarity of Purpose
• Review our mission strategies to focus on the deployment of resources (human capital and financial) to reach the lost, the least, and the last especially among the FPGs.
• Calling to spread the Good News • Commitment of God’s People to God’s Agenda • Consolidation of mission resources (human & financial) to reach specific people groups • Challenge to serve the Missio Dei Fast forward to 2000 years later. What is the status of the Great Commission? R. W. Lewis in the International Journal of Frontier Missiology (35:4 Winter 2018-155) provided the following statistics: • World population: 7.48 billion • Christians: 2.33 billion • Unreached People Groups (UPGs)1: 3.15 billion • Frontier People Groups (FPGs)²: 1.85 billion
• Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into the fields (Matthew 8:39).
• Actively mobilise and equip individuals and churches to engage them in The Great Commission via traditional Missionary Approach or as Global Professionals3. • Yoke together through collaborative synergetic partnerships so as to optimise the reach to the remaining frontier task. John Wesley said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.”
• Number of missionaries: 4.2 million full time missionaries in almost every part of the world today! Unreached people groups (UPGs) are those whose population is less than 2% evangelical. However, the bad news is that no discernible progress is being made in more than half of the UPGs, which Ralph Winter referred to as frontier people groups (FPGs). ² Frontier People Groups (FPGs) are those where there are no movements to Christ, no breakthroughs of indigenous faith, and less than 0.1% of the population is Christian. (cf. operationaleworld.org & joshuaproject.net) 3 Abundant opportunities exist to go to unreached peoples and places around the world. Christian professionals are finding opportunities to take the jobs in which they excel and do them well, for the glory of God; and do them somewhere strategic, for the mission of God. (cf. https://www.christianpost.com/ news/5-trends-in-christian-missions-global-christianity-experts.html?page=2) 1
