Partners In The Mission:
Reaching a Lost World
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| 11/27/2007 |
| a message from Dr. Bill Mackey, executive director |
Acts 1:8 tells us to share the Gospel with all people. As Southern Baptists, we are certainly striving to do just that but there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done.
To drive this home, here are some statistics from the International Mission Board:
- There are 11,372 distinct people groups among a total world population of 6.6 billion.
- Of these people groups, 6,512 (3.6 billion people) are unreached for Christ. This means that less than 2 percent of the people in these groups are evangelical Christians.
- 5,900 people groups (1.6 billion people) are considered to be “last frontier.” This means that less than 2 percent of the people are evangelical Christians and that there is no active church planting.
- There are 2,082 unreached people groups with populations of 100,000 or more. Of these unreached groups, 638 have no evangelical Christian missionary work taking place with them at all.
- There are 1,140 people groups directly or indirectly engaged by IMB personnel (through 5,309 field missionaries). IMB reported 475,072 baptisms, 23,486 new churches and 590,890 new believers in discipleship last year.
Because of the unreached people groups around the world and the clear command of our Lord to share the Gospel, we as believers should give sacrificially to support international missions. This is especially important this year because the shrinking buying power of the dollar overseas means it will require more funds to support the same level of missions work.
You may find it helpful to know the amount required to support an international missionary:
This helps me to understand that every gift counts for the cause of missions -- even the widow’s mite.
The theme for the Week of Prayer for International Missions and the Lottie Moon Christmas offering this year is “Tell Me the Story of Jesus.” The Lottie Moon Offering goal is $165 million. Our gifts are a wonderful way for each of us to help tell the story of Jesus to people around the world.
All of these numbers can overwhelm us and we can be tempted to think that our gift will not make a difference. However, when I read the e-mails from my dear friends who are serving as missionaries, my gift becomes very personal. As I read of their courage and sacrifice in serving in very difficult places, I cannot help but be moved to do my part in supporting their work.
God is counting on you and me to complete the story of Acts 1:8!
Dr. Mackey's column appears weekly in the Western Recorder. To subscribe to the Western Recorder, call (502) 489-3535. |
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