Whatever one thinks of these numbers, one thing is clear: despite 225 years of Protestant missionary advance, the world is still largely unevangelized...
Flying Again - Interview with Gracia Burnham
Thomas Ragland's Lessons For Successful Missionary Work
The Great Commandment states that we are to “love the Lord... with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.” The Great Commission states that we are to “go into all the world and preach the gospel” to everyone, everywhere.
Thomas Ragland was a missionary many years ago in the land of India. From his experience he shared the following three lessons concerning the work of missions:
1. Of all the qualifications for mission work, and every other work, love is the greatest (I Cor. 13).
2. Of all methods of attaining to a position of usefulness and honor, the only safe one is purging our hearts from worldliness and selfishness (2 Tim. 2.21).
3. Of all plans for ensuring success, the most certain is Christ’s plan – becoming as a corn of wheat, falling into the ground and dying. (Jn. 12.24)
This is what Jesus Christ did over two thousand years ago. He lost His life and his fame. He went around over the world talking to men and women, taking little children up in His arms and ignoring what the world thought was important. He lived His life for others and to accomplish the will of His Father. And in the end, he lost His life!
Though he lost His life, He has found it again in the millions throughout the ages who have received His message and become His followers. Christ was motivated by love. He lived a life of selfless devotion to the Father and to others. He died and in dying offered life to every person in the world today. Jesus then commissioned us – you and me - to go with His love and the message of His life to “everybody, everywhere!”
Will you get involved by praying, giving and going?
Musings On The Missionary Enterprise
NOT EVERYTHING CALLED MISSIONS IS MISSIONS. My understanding of missionary work is formed by the Book of Acts. The clear pattern there is evangelism, discipleship, establishing churches, and training pastors / elders. When I came to my present pastorate I studied the list of supported missionaries and discovered that of 16 entities only two were on this program...
What Is Your Definition of Missions?
Zanzibar
Though officially a part of Tanzania, Zanzibar has its own government and run the island in a semi-autonomous way. Zanzibar has a few "Christian" churches these include Catholic, Anglican and Pentecostal congregations. There is an underlying level of Islamic resistance and persecution of "Christian" religions.