We need a Mission Focus Conference…
We are in need of a Mission Focus, not because we have forgotten the Great Commission or because we don’t know what discipleship is, we need a Mission Focus Conference because we need our faith to be bolstered. The Living Faith Fellowship, MBT and C&YA need our sabers rattled by being brought into remembrance of how God does great things with “small people”.
In the Old Testament the children of Israel had a Great Commission, to trust God to go into the Promised Land; a land flowing with milk and honey. The wilderness was the proving ground where God hoped the children of Israel would come to know him as good and trustworthy. In spite of their continued disobedience, God “still” gave them every opportunity to go into the land of promise. The offer was real and all they had to do was to “trust and obey” God by moving forward in faith. However, we know too well they did not believe God and fear overwhelmed them, everyone besides Joshua and Caleb.
The Promised Land for believers today is still both spiritual and physical. God is calling his children to be spiritually mature, so they are ready for the work of discipleship. He is calling his children to physically go: locally, regionally and internationally so all tongues can hear the Gospel. Let’s consider some sobering statistics
Graphic and statistics from the Joshua Project
“Missionary” is a calling of great commodity in our world today because there is a shortage of true worshipers in our world today.
Over 70,000 people die every day in the unreached world without Jesus. (Baxter 2007, 12). That is about 26 to 30 million souls a year.
Question to consider: Why is there such a scarcity of missionaries?
90% of foreign missionaries work among already reached people groups. 10% work among unreached people groups. (Winter and Koch, 543)
Questions to consider: Are missionaries going to the right places?
Christians make up 33% of the world's population, but receive 53% of the world's annual income and spend 98% of it on themselves. (Barrett and Johnson 2001, 656)
Question to consider: Are people faithfully praying and giving to missions?
There is a fear among many Christians today that puts the mission in great danger: fear of failing, fear of family getting hurt or worse losing their lives, fear of known and unknown risks, fear financial security, fear of leaving the comfort of their own culture, fear of leaving loved ones, and so on. Fear is a real thing. Consider the 10 spies that were overwhelmed in fear after seeing the risk associated with the prospect of going into the Promised Land. Their fear completely paralyzed their faith and cause over two million others to be drowned in the same fear. God called their report evil.
Mission Focus is invaluable because it brings preachers who are proven practitioners and like-minded believers to stir one another up to be prepared to go. We always need to be reminded that a calling to go is a calling to prepare and preparation is hard work. Believers today need to hear good reports from both young and seasoned missionaries and church planters who have been willing to lay down their lives for the Great Commission. We need to hear what God has taught them so that we too may count the cost to pray, prepare, give and go. At Mission Focus we will learn just that.
…may the Living Faith Fellowship be a remnant movement that trusts God despite fear…
The door to the Promise Land eventually closed for the majority of the children of Israel because of their unbelief and unwillingness. In desperation and regret, they tried to go but it was too late, they had tempted God long enough and missed out on God’s best for their lives. What a shame!
“Missionary” is a calling of great commodity in our world today because there is a shortage of true worshipers in our world today. By God’s grace, may the Living Faith Fellowship be a remnant movement that trusts God despite fear, comforts and the excuses of those around us.
To hear powerful sermons about missions from past Mission Focus conferences, check out the Living Faith Conference Archive.