According to a recent article, “1.5 billion people are without the full Bible in their first language” (“What’s been done”). This statistic shows that there are many people in the world who do not have a way to learn about Christ . We need people who are willing to go and spread the word to people who do not have these Bible translations. To spread the word of God, Christians need to understand how many people already know about God, how to spread the word in places like the 10/40 Window, and how to get missionaries into remote areas so people can who do not already know about Jesus can learn more about Him and become followers of Christ.
Many people in the world have never even heard of Christ in their lives mostly because they don’t have
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a Bible translation in their mother-tongue. “It is estimated that 1.6 billion people have never heard the Gospel -- not even one time” (Buseck). This is a big problem in the world today. How is it that so many people haven’t even heard of the Gospel? One of the reasons why is because only “about 45% of the world’s population has internet access. So more than half the world's population does not have online access to spiritual information and the message of the Messiah” (“Has everyone heard?”). Maybe this large number of non-believers isn’t because people don’t want to learn about the Christian religion, but because they have never had the opportunity. “More than 550 languages have the complete translated Bible” (“Why Bible Translations”). To add onto the fact that so many people don’t believe in God, about 6,000 languages out of about 6,500 different languages don’t have a whole Bible translation. In conclusion, thousands of people around the world are in need of some part of or in need of a whole Bible translation. “The 10/40 Window is a rectangular-shaped area extending from West Africa to East Asia, from ten degrees north to forty degrees north of the equator.
Often called "The Resistant Belt," this specific region, encompasses the majority of the world's Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists - billions of spiritually impoverished souls” (Buseck). The 10/40 Window is a place where the idea of the Christian religion has never been thought of. So many people in this area don’t even know a person who is a follower of Christ. The 10/40 Window is often referred to as the “Resistance Belt” because the region holds the majority of the world’s Muslim, Hindus, and Buddhist population(Buseck). The fact that there is a region that contains “46 of these 50 unreached people groups are in the 10/40 Window” (“Has everyone heard?”) indicates that this area is a potential place for missionary work because there are so many people who have never heard of the Gospel. Most of the time, people in area 10/40 don’t get to choose their religion. “In many of the 67 countries represented in the 10/40 Window, witnessing the Christian Gospel means death” (Buseck). The people living in this area are either afraid to follow a different religion or they haven't been introduced to different religion. Based on the evidence, many people living in the area of West Africa to East Asia are in desperate need of somebody willing to risk their lives in order to share the Gospel with
them. Missionary work is a big deal throughout the Christian world. Most of the time, missionaries focus on the places that they can easily reach because it is safer for them. Matthew 28:19-20 says, “‘19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” In these two verses, Jesus is telling his disciples to spread his word to all of the nations of the world; even in the most remote areas in the world. Missionaries often find it hard to reach these remote places, also known as third-world countries . It is so hard to get into these areas is because it would a lot easier for missionaries “to cover more ground and work more effectively if they owned reliable transportation” (“Going”). Renting a truck doesn’t always work. If there aren’t any roads to drive on, then any kind of ground transportation would be useless. “‘A few people attended, but during the meeting, some anti-Christians burst upon us. They carried sticks, stones, and wooden weapons to hurt us. There were nearly 50 of them, and they told us to leave the village immediately. So we stopped the meeting.”’ (“Going”). Even if a person has the correct transportation needed, they still have to deal with the natives who live in this area. After reviewing the evidence, it is obvious that the main reason why remote areas are hard to visit is because most of these remotes areas exist in a third-world country and sometimes the natives can be very hostile. Knowing how many people are a part of the Christian religion, knowing how to teach the Gospel in areas like 10/40, and knowing how to better get into remote areas are things that people such as missionaries need to understand to be more successful in spreading the word of Jesus Christ. Understanding how to react to natives who don’t know the Gospel plays a big part in converting people to the Christian religion. In the end, being able to successfully spread the word makes it able for people to spend eternity with their Father in heaven.
30 for 30: Unguarded is both difficult and impossible not to watch. The film is like watching a “jump ball” at the beginning of a basketball game, over, and over again. Cutting back and forth from images of his beautiful family to the hard-core faces of addiction. Chris was talented, good looking, and smart. He outwitted everyone to get his high. It is sad that he could not feel the same high on the basketball court, yet found it on the street. Chris teaches young kids basketball and shares his story of recovery. He has been alcohol and drug-free since August 1, 2008. He has found peace one day at a time.
The ideal action we would take as God’s people would be to help those in need, but like the Good Samaritan parable in the Bible, many would not help those in need. It is not always easy to see Christ in the people around us because we are human and we are not perfect. Dorothy explains this statement when she says, “It would be foolish to pretend that it is easy always to remember this” (Room for Christ 2). We need to make room in our hearts for Christ, and also the people that presented to us as Christ.
Even after God wiped them out with a flood, the next generation grew in wickedness. After the flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). From Noah’s three sons: Shem, Ham, Japheth; nations arose. The nations scattered and filled the earth. Even though God blessed Noah and his offspring, sin still lived in human hearts. God intended the nations to scatter, but they settled in one spot because of their common language. They built the tower of Babel to glorify themselves. God, however, intervened with their plans and confused the language between them. This caused them to scatter out of confusion and not of God’s blessing. “The subsequent dispersion of the nations at the tower of Babel indicates that obedience results in blessing and disobedience results in scattering” (Hindson & Yates, 136). The people scattered the earth according to their language. Today, civilizations are still grouped by different languages. Even with the confusion of language and the divisions of nations, each society continues to sin and glorify themselves rather than God. Jesus called us to go out into the earth and tell others about Him. The barrier of language will not overcome to spreading of the Gospel. We are called to bring others to Christ and be unified as the Body of
The most important task you can do as an ambassador for Christ, is to spend time hanging out with God yourself. Even if it cuts into time that you wanted to spend in "ministry." Spending some time enjoying God's presence, aware that God is enjoying yours at the same time, will do more for those around you, than any words you could work up. If you have a sense of intimacy with Christ, you will be able to do more than just talk about God.
Many people believe that today’s Christians are too sheltered and oblivious to the real world around them. When asked, many outsiders compared today’s Christians to “The Titanic - a ship about to sink, but unaware of its fate” or “a hobby that diverts people’s attention” (Kinnaman 120). It is important Christians to not just stay secluded in one group (church group), but to be talking to others (outsiders) so we are aware of the problems and thing that are going on in the world around us. As Christians we are called to be disciples of Jesus by reaching out to those in need, praying for those around us, and calling people to become the church. In “Unchristian” David Kinnaman outlines three main things we as Christians should include in our lives: accepting responsibility, not being fearful, helping the desperate, being prepared, and keeping a balance.
“Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations,” is the essence of Christianity. Jesus Christ commanded his followers to go to all the directions of the world and share the good news. But how is one to do this when these nations are full of cultures and differences that these disciples had yet to encounter? Throughout the history of Christianity, we see many types of Christianities taking place through different forms of leadership, and hierarchy. To each, they contain their own views, ideas and concepts on how Christianity should look and what it should contain all the while trying to keep the very foundations of Christ’s teachings. But as the world continues to get older and grander, we begin to see the practices and factors of Christianity being weakened by the unnoticed acts of Jesus and his ideas of social cultural acceptances. By taking a look at the Chinese Rites Controversy, I will argue the importance of culture and the adaptation of culture in evangelical approaches.
...f the kingdom will and should be realized in the Gospel. There needs to be concrete ministries of the church to show that God cares for the lost individuals as well as the total wellbeing of a culture and society.
In other words, evidence of God’s intention to establish diversity begins with the table of nations in Genesis 10 and continues throughout both the Old and New Testaments (Patten, 2013). Therefore, catering to or including cross-cultural communities in our ministry planning has biblical basis. Embracing various cultures abroad when preaching the gospel is also clearly outlined as a needed ministry when reading in the book of Acts, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
In a survey conducted in 2012, LifeWay.com inquired about the importance of evangelism among members of the Christian faith. The results of the survey showed that 80 percent of people who claimed to follow Jesus Christ and had openly devoted themselves to the teaching of Christianity, felt that they had a “personal responsibility to share their religious views and beliefs about Jesus Christ with non-christians” (Wilke, LifeWay.com). Surveys such as this reflect the Christian doctrine of evangelism and the weight it holds within the Christian faith. As can be seen back in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ commanded His followers “to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).” However, Jesus never told His followers how doing this.
Like Rodrigues and the rest of the Portuguese missionaries, the church is often narrow minded when spreading the Good News. Cultures deserve mutual respect and dignity because the faith needs to be developed specifically through the culture. It took Sebastian Rodrigues a long time before he realized his way of Christianity wasn’t the right and only way. Consequently, he made progress in evangelization when he told Japanese villages how the local village of Tomagi practiced Christianity compared to how the church in Europe practiced. Change is one of the hardest challenges for a culture, so Christianity needs to be eased in with flexibility. As a church, we must be considerate of all cultures, and when we try to evangelize, we must put ourselves in other cultures’ shoes
I recently implemented a "Casual Friday" option, meaning you are allowed to wear clothes that are more comfortable at work yet always look neat and professional. Casual wear incorporates many looks, but it means casual clothing that is appropriate for a professional office environment. Unfortunately, in the past two weeks, I noticed that several violations of the guidelines for dressing down have misinterpreted. So once again, we are providing you what is acceptable for casual wear, as well as a list of some of the more common items that are inappropriate. This list is just an overview of what is acceptable for casual Friday.
With a constituency of over 12 million followers around the world, Christianity is the largest of the world’s major religions (McGinn, 1). Given its global diffusion, it can be found in any climate or geography on Earth, from a tropical island to a desert. Christians can be found even in the most unlikely of places, such as Antarctica.
"…and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8 This commandment, given by Christ to his apostles, was one of action. First they were to go into their homes, or Jerusalem, then to their community, or Samaria, and then finally to the ends of the earth. The Christian church of today, however has lost sight of that directive. For too many years now we have sent thousands of missionaries abroad while ignoring the mission field next door. While many may witness in our homes few move out into the community, especially when that community is in an urban area. Joshua 8:7 says "…take the city. The LORD your God will give it into your hand." Now more than ever this call to "take the city" must followed by believers. The current population of the world is 5,983,000,000 (World POPClock, 1:57 p.m., April 28, 1999). Of those estimated 6 billion people, two thirds of them will be living in cities by the year 2000 (Giradet 1). By ignoring the call to evangelize the cities for Christ, upwards of 4 billion people my be lost.
Christians need to realize that people are dying every day and do not know Jesus Christ. We as Christians need to focus on what God has commissioned us to do in our
“Evangelism in the Wesleyan tradition puts us on a journey in which we abide in Christ,” thus strengthening our relationship with God the Father. If we feel secure with this belief, why do people shy away from wanting to participate in evangelism? Rainer explains that there are a number of reasons why people are reluctant to evangelize. The number one reason he established was “Christians have no sense of urgency to reach lost people.” The other fourteen reasons that were recognized in his study were all ligament reason that I have heard from people as to why they do not want to evangelize. Many people feel that this task is, and should be, the responsibility of the pastor. Perhaps the most troubling reason that Rainer came up with is that “Christians don’t want to share the truth of the gospel for fear they will offend