Is This Mission Possible? - Part 1 of 3

Our job is too big to finish... doing it our way! Do we really comprehend how many people there are in the world right now who don't know who Jesus is or what God is offering them through His Son?

We know how many people need Jesus Christ, but can we reach them all with the number of missionaries we currently have? Right now there are approximately 100,000 missionaries in active service in the world. That is a lot of missionaries, but is that enough to get the job done? When Jesus was on earth and the multitudes were following Him, He told His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest sends out laborers into His harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). At that point, Jesus was training His twelve disciples and was addressing seventy more that He was sending out two at a time (Luke 10:1). That makes a total of eighty-two. By comparison, 100,000 is quite an army, but there are a lot more people in our world than there were back then. If you really don't have a handle on whether there are enough missionaries to get the job done, you are not alone. Most Christians are confused about this, and those of us involved full-time in missions are largely to blame. We have a tendency to regularly point out that we need more people (and money and equipment and . . .), but at the same time we keep reporting to those who support our ministries just how successful we are being. Yes, missionaries are partly to blame, but they do have an excuse. If they don't regularly report that more people and money and equipment are needed, individuals back home will assume that the job is getting done, and recruiting, giving, praying, and going will taper off. On the other hand, if missionaries don't emphasize all the success they are having, the individuals and churches that support them with new missionaries, money, prayer, and equipment will assume they aren't being very effective and will quite easily find another organization or missionary to support-one who will report success. But reports of success can be misleading as well.

People who are beyond the reach of roads are usually beyond the reach of electricity, commercial transportation, mass media, and the Gospel. The approximate number of people in this category? Eight hundred million!

A friend of mine opened my eyes to the reality of this when he described what happens in the area where he works in Mexico. "Short-term mission trips from the U.S. have been coming here for years," he pointed out, "and the results have been amazing! Entire neighborhoods have gone forward to accept Christ at evangelistic events." There is obviously nothing wrong with that, but my friend continued. "One day I happened to be with several of the local people when they had a special meeting to decide who would go forward at the next foreign missionary's altar call. I couldn't believe my ears! They wanted the gifts (often a bag with pencils and Bible literature) and wanted the missionaries to come back again. I asked one of the leaders how many times he had gone forward to receive Christ, and he said, 'About a dozen times.' Then he added, 'If we all go up, the missionaries won't believe it. We have learned that half or two-thirds is a good number to keep them coming back.'" Despite the games played with unsuspecting foreign missionaries, and in spite of great actual missionary progress, the number of people truly needing to hear of Jesus Christ is increasing due to population growth in areas that are difficult to reach. This was originally published in the Great Omission book, written by Steve Saint. http://itecusao.wwwmi3-ts4.a2hosted.com/2015/11/27/is-this-mission-possible-part-2/