If anybody gets tired of me raving about the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course, please count that against my communication skills rather than the radiant course content. If you don't believe it can be that good, take it and see if your heart is not burning every week!
I've told people the course really took me "full circle." The first few weeks were incredibly affirming, because its focus was exactly what TEN3's passion is, telling the whole story of God's glory, making disciples whose lives sing that song.
However, the next section made me struggle, because the focus was on Christ being worshiped in every people group. It made me want to give everyone that glorious vision. But then, I wondered, how am I supposed to then ask them to support me when I'm working with reached people groups, with people who are already Christians? I started to think I wasn't doing the really important work for the Kingdom like the missionaries who go to the unreached.
But then the last speaker pointed out that to get the task done, we don't need everyone with a passion for God's glory among the nations to be goers, or even goers and senders. We also need mobilizers. Imparting the vision, training, and resources to go to the unreached can be even more strategic than going oneself. "Which is better, 16 or 54?" he asked. He showed us the math of how if some of us take the role of mobilizer, it will multiply the number of goers. I think I heard God quietly ask me in that moment, "Which is better, 1 or 1 million?"
We in TEN3 believe that the most dangerous player for the Kingdom is the African church. Their passion for God is incredible. They are in a great strategic position to advance the Kingdom because they have not yet been consumed with the -isms that are crippling the West and hindering Asia. That's why they've been hit so hard by the enemy: in the mid-1900s, political and economic moves took the education system away from the Church, and it crumbled. It has left Africa behind in this rapidly changing world, dependent and still struggling in many places with basic survival when they should be storming the world. The entire continent was largely immobilized.
Now they are fighting back. West Africa has set a goal of sending a quarter million missionaries across the unreached of North Africa, and then to the rest of the 10/40 window. But they may still be immobilized by economics, instability, syncretism, etc. unless the Gospel penetrates the thinking of the whole culture. They need sound, Christ-centered education directing their understanding of all of life, or they will ever be needing people to come provide them with clean water and medical care instead of not only doing that for themselves, but also sending it to others.
If we can give education with a sound biblical worldview, godly use of technology, and biblical health and life management, combined with our partner ministry Integrity Advance training them on essential values for sustainable institutions, to enough students to awaken them to the power of living under Christ, it can transform their helplessness to the power they've always meant to have in the Kingdom.
Part of me hopes that someday I'll get to go to the unreached. But for now, I'm not asking that people support me to reach one people group for Christ. I'm asking for support to mobilize an entire continent to advance the Kingdom of God to the unreached.
