The Challenge of the Remaining Frontier Mission Task

Rev Derrick Lau

Our 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!

What were the key components that led the first missionary enterprise which transformed itself into a dynamic global movement?

• Clarity of Purpose

• 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

• Number of missionaries: 4.2 million full time missionaries in almost every part of the world today!

The task is unfinished! We need to P.R.A.Y.

• Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into the fields (Matthew 8:39).

• 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.

• Actively mobilise and equip individuals and churches to engage them in The Great Commission via traditional Missionary Approach or as Global Professionals 3 .

• Yoke together through collaborative synergetic partnerships so as to optimise the reach to the remaining frontier task.

J

ohn 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.”