Now More Than Ever
A Letter from the Editor
“look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” John 4:35b KJV
I returned from India for a meeting of ministry leaders involved in fellowship, training, strategy, and encouragement. I always love my time with these leaders and they love for me to sit around informally and build our relationships. They also love to adorn me with neat gifts from their culture and so I have quite a nice collection of gifts, including a lot of articles of clothing. This trip I was blessed with a beautiful handmade bag, designed by the seamstresses being trained by our ministry there.
I sat admiring the nice craftsmanship of the bag, but I could see the others admiring it as well and appearing a little nostalgic. Apparently, these bags have had a specific and very well-known use for generations. These bags are associated with a simple evangelist who travels the countryside sharing the Good News with a Bible, his sermons and Bible materials in tow. Nothing else, just the bag, his Bible and a few Bible resources.
Over the years those who have carried these bags have been persecuted, ridiculed, beaten, and some killed. They chose and lived simple lives, just desiring to use their time, resources and abilities to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. There was something that felt holy about owning such a bag and suddenly I felt unworthy. At the same time, there was something refreshing about a life and ministry this simple, yet so focused.
Ministry has become so complicated with over-organization and strategizing, rules and regulations, policies and procedures, more and bigger resources. It really needs to be deconstructed so as not to forget what it is truly about, and why we are here… to accomplish the “Great Commission” with our whole being, until we reach the ends of the earth, until the day we join Him in heaven.
I yearn for a return to the simplicity of preaching the Gospel and taking it to those who have yet to hear. But the cycle of those who have heard the Gospel message stops short of continuing to propagate the message. It’s a shame that in a time when so much could be done, with all that is at our disposal, this generation has evaded its responsibility.
Evangelism and Discipleship are the core tenets of Christianity, and are elements of Christianity that will never be complete until Christ returns. Ironically, accomplishing the goal of “missions” actually could be completed, and fulfilling the “Great Commission” is more achievable than ever before in history. The ability this generation has to go to “every tongue, every tribe, and every nation” is actually possible, given transportation and technological advances that no other generation has had at its disposal.
Of the 7.5 billion in the global population, an amazing 4.02 billion have access to the Internet. Those 4.02 billion surround pockets of unreached people groups on every continent, and they possess the resources and tools to reach each and every one of them. Those are just Internet resources. When printed resources are added, like SLM has at its disposal, the span of potential messengers of the Gospel significantly increases. There is no limitation I am aware of that would prevent access to every “tongue, tribe, and nation.” The only limitation continues to be, even this very day, the same limitation Christ described in Matthew 9:37: “the laborers are few.”
This lack of laborers may very well be worse than ever before in history. Throughout history there have been reformations, resurgences, revivals, and redresses that have caused whole cultures to turn back to their Christian roots and faith which resulted in a major transformation of entire cultures. These also led to some of the greatest movements across ethnic and language borders history has known, led by those who had been empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit to reach Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts.
We haven’t seen such a movement in decades and it seems to be extremely unlikely in this generation, given the results of a recent Barna poll of “Christians” revealing that a mere 17% even know what the Great Commission is. The church seems considerably more concerned with feeding and clothing the needy than providing them with the only thing that will satisfy their hunger, the Bread of Life.
We are a generation that needs not neglect the gift and opportunity we have been given to reach unreached areas and people groups with unprecedented access. Certainly we can be discouraged when we see our country spiritually spiraling into decline, but we should use this time of prosperity in our economies to plant seeds of the Gospel so that they might take root and grow, in places where the Gospel has never been, reached by those closest to them who have been prepared and resourced to go.
This edition of the Reaper shares the stories of how SLM is addressing the open doors in this season of harvest, and will hopefully challenge each of our readers… Now More Than Ever, “look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” John 4:35b KJV
