Proclaiming Christ to the Unreached

by Steve Freeburne

At the World Balkan Mission Conference held recently in Macedonia Dr. Chris Gnanakan challenged 200 Balkan church leaders to consider the glory of declaring God's fame to nations still unreached. He noted that God is pouring out His grace all across the globe and He is raising up people to move when He moves and to act when He acts… For these indigenous workers it is a call to missions but for us in the West it is a call to change the way we have done missionary work. It is a reasonable call we have been given. It is a call to equipping and facilitating the sending of indigenous workers as missionaries to the unreached.

What does this mean for the missionary endeavors of our churches in the future?

1. Our churches could be more strategically focused on reaching specific areas of the world that are unreached. We need to move away from sending a little money to large numbers of missionaries and place more financial resources strategically where Christ is not known, proclaimed and honored.

2. Many churches among the unreached are struggling financially and spiritually. They need mature leaders to be mentors and materials in their own language that could help them grow spiritually. We need a fresh vision for coming along side these brothers and sisters in Christ for the purpose of building them up to live within their own culture in a Christ-like manner. The danger we must avoid is doing this in a way that makes the indigenous churches dependent upon outside funding. Therefore our strategic plan needs to have a way to overcome this issue.

3. Indigenous churches among unreached people groups also need a vision for equipping and sending their own. Our role should be one of facilitating the connection between the indigenous workers in the local churches and the indigenous movement agencies. Churches in the US should begin to strategically implement plans using our financial and human resources in this way among unreached groups where the gospel has just begun to penetrate the culture.

In light of these three things I would challenge us all to examine the priorities of our church’s missionary endeavors.