“Reaching the unreached is a challenging task, but our primary problem is not the cultural, economic, logistical or political barriers we face. It is more simple: we lack sufficient manpower.” – Justin Long, “Where are We Going?” in Momentum Magazine, July/ August, 2006

“The biggest hindrance to the missionary task is self. Self that refuses to die. Self that refuses to sacrifice. Self that refuses to give. Self that refuses to go. I would add to this: self that refuses to go where few if any missionaries are serving.” – David Sherbrooke, in How new missionaries choose their country of service: do we need a change?

“The world will not be reached if no one serves long term… Believers typically undergo a revolution of mission-mindedness on their first mission trip[referring to short-term mission visits]; too often, however, when they want to know how they can further help, we tell them we are praying for funds for a new vehicle or building. Is this the best we can do? Did Jesus say, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send more checks in the mail?’ Such an approach may actually deter otherwise-willing people from long-term service on the field by convincing them the best thing they can do is go home, take more mission trips and send money. I am not saying buildings, vehicles or giving are wrong. Nor am I criticizing the vital role of the sender or of the other wonderful callings on the home front. Indeed, we need all of these. We just need to make sure we are challenging people to go where the gospel is unavailable. We need to remember that three missionaries for every one million Muslims cannot complete the Great Commission with any amount of money.” – Chris Leake, Global Frontier Missions, Oaxaca, Mexico

“It is our conviction that all theological study and reflection must lead to mission and action, otherwise it is futile abstraction. It is also our conviction that all mission activity must be based on a sound theological foundation, otherwise it is mere pragmatism. It is at the very frontiers of mission that both theological reflection and activity must be forged to create an effective tool for breaking new ground for the kingdom. Thus, Lausanne is committed to bringing together both thinkers and doers.” – Doug Birdsall, Lausanne World Pulse

“A biblically illiterate young generation today is an inevitable forerunner of an increasingly secular society tomorrow.” – Colin Reed, Chief executive of the Bible Society in New Zealand

“There is a small area of the world that extends from ten degrees to forty degrees north of the equator and stretches from North Africa to China, two-thirds of the world’s population (nearly four billion people) live inside this rectangular-shaped band. Here you will find the largest population of non-Christians and ninety percent of the world’s poorest people. This area is known as the 10/40 Window… Unfortunately, many Christians are not eager to go to this part of the world. Only three percent of missionaries are serving among unreached peoples; the other ninety-seven percent remain in areas where the gospel is readily accessible.” – Bethany Newman

“More Christians have been martyred for their faith in this century alone than in the previous nineteen centuries combined.” – Chuck Colson

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“Ok no probs, we are expecting you.” ‘Motara replied twice. She is the groom’s younger sister, she invited us.

Ifemakin sat behind His steering wheel, looking strangely vigilant. We had reason to suspect something was wrong with the right-side back tire some few minutes earlier, he actually stopped to examine it himself at Sagamu, but didn’t notice any problem. He tightened all the knots by way of precaution and got back in to drive. Beneath the drone of the Air-conditioner we continued to hear a ticking sound from behind. We were already close to Ibadan anyway, we both silently thought we’ll have it checked in town.

Only a few moments after I ended the call. I heard the same tire burst from behind me, I felt a bump in my seat as the car’s rear lowered to the ground. The car veered sharply to the right and then danced back to the left as Ifemakin struggled bravely behind the wheels. I had not noticed a long trailer loaded with oil, broken-down on the right-side of the road up ahead by then, but Ifemakin had. He must have thought that staying as far away from that trailer as possible was our safest option, but now his car was getting really difficult to steady on the not so straight road.

The car kept veering back towards the right as we got close to the trailer. In a last desperate attempt to keep us from running into the trailer, Ifemakin steered sharply to the left again, maybe he was able to avoid the trailer, but the road was not wide enough and a second danger immediately surfaced, we were now skidding off the road unto the other side of approaching speeding vehicles. This is Lagos-Ibadan express way!

Just before we went off at the left, Ifemakin, whose courage I was already thanking God for, had to make a difficult decision. If he couldn’t stop the car by using the brakes, he definitely had to find another way. The bushes on the right after the trailer looked safe to him. Well, what did I personally think? You may ask, but frankly, by now I was neither thinking nor making decisions, I was only hoping for this dangerously interesting drama to end safely and immediately. I can’t explain my absent mindedness, I felt somewhat like a spectator in a scary make believe.

Well the bushes on the right was it. Ifemakin made a sharp dash across the road. We missed the trailer safely by some feet, But the bushy road side was too steep, soon as we dived in, the Mitsubishi Gallant began the somersaults. For the next few seconds, myself and my closest companion for about nine years journeyed individually, though side by side. I cannot tell his version, but please let me say mine.

Heaven, death, injury, car wreck, wedding ceremony, weekend, Ibadan, Ifemakin and ‘Motara where now the farthest things on my mind. At this incredible instant, the only thing I was thinking about was Jesus… Ok, granted, maybe my mind was malfunctioning. The full weight of my love for Jesus or His love for me bore upon me so heavily and apparently numbed me. I had nothing left with which to excersise faith or construct a prayer. I was clearly in a delirium. The name of Jesus reverberated from my thoughts through my lips, over and over, as I watched as the wind shield spun over my forehead, till it became a web of splintered glass, as we tumbled severally into the woods.

I would skip a part of myself and Ifemakin’s story, partly because we both don’t understand it and partly because it’s going to be hard for most people to believe it.

By the time my mind began to perceive things normally again. I felt like my mental processes had suffered a blue screen and I couldn’t remember the last moments properly. I wondered if Akin had spoken a word, he was strangely silent to me through out this nerve-raking ordeal. It was too late to pray against an accident now, apparently it had already happened. I had a blurred recollection of smoke, dust and floating off-white rags (which apparently must have been the defunct air bags). Next I felt the seat-belts that had held me safely to my seat, I felt my legs, then my arms. I was alright, I guessed, thank God.

I unbuckled my seat belt. I found my voice again too. “Akin, se o wa alright?” I said tremblingly to my friend in the yoruba tongue.

“Mo wa ok”.

“Se o sure?” I asked again.

“Yeah”. His voice sounded thick.

We probably noticed the smoke going out through the hood at the same time. We probably recalled, at the same time too, a movie we recently saw, where a car had exploded minutes after a crash from gas leakage. I pulled at the door handle, and was surprised it opened. I staggered out, perceived the scent of grass, and something else, perhaps burning oil.

Ifemakin somehow managed to climb out of the shattered window on his side, even before I made it out through the door. Now standing at a safe distance, His hands akimbo, I observed him as he eyed the wreckage and shook his head.

I could no longer tell which direction the road was, but the sound of screeching brakes and people shouting was reaching us now. My mind was recovering too slowly.

Somebody’s hand touched my shoulder and asked me to sit down. I turned around and saw the man, clothed in ankara. He was asking Ifemakin to do same now. “I’m ok, I’m sure” I told him.

“Don’t worry, just sit down” he insisted almost pushing me down. He repeated the same action on my friend.

A smaller guy with a tucked in shirt and necktie came waving a bible over our heads and shouting “Thank you God for saving their lives.” repeatedly. It slowly began to occur to me, that this was not a wild imagination. I really had come so close, alongside my friend, and nothing short of a miracle had spared us. For God’s good purpose, I can only hope.

I knew on that day, 16th of July 2010, that I’d been granted a new slate.
A fresh lease on life.
An opportunity to live longer so I can:
Try again all the things I’ve ever failed at;
Live better and love better;
Reach higher, deeper and broader;
Learn more, know more and appreciate God, grace, mercy and life more.

To continue doing the things I’d just begun to love doing,
But only to do them more faithfully.
To continue to reach for things I’ve only dreamed of and pray for;
Perhaps one day, I’d have the pleasure of grasping them.

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Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2Co 5:17

Unfortunately for some who have received Christ, they struggle with believing that God has forgiven them, especially if they find it hard to forgive themselves or if some other people wouldn’t forgive them.

Repentance can be even more difficult. Repenting from sin implies turning away from the sinful act with the intention of never doing it again. It’s easier to tell your self , or spouse, or parents, or children, that you’ll never do something again, but with God, it is probably not usually simple to just say: “God I’ll never ever do that again”. I guess that’s because understandably, sin is usually that thing which we don’t love to do anymore and don’t want to do, but may sometimes find ourselves doing anyway. Sometimes we feel we sin because we do not have time to think or consider our options. For instance, most of the time we may get angry or tell a little lie just before we remember, with disappointment in ourselves,that we have sinned already.

Repentance is difficult or impossible if we do not reckon on the grace of God. God never gave anyone an injunction never to sin, save that which he has backed up by His grace.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Php 2:13

It is by the grace of God that we are what we are, or do what we ought to do. Living the Christian life of victory over sin, is our gift in Christ Jesus. We are not struggling to impress God, but rather His grace challenges us to reckon our selves dead to sin and alive unto righteousness. So that when we are tempted or confront sin, we can know that the power we excercise NOT TO SIN, is not in ourselves but in the grace of God in Christ.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:11-14

Sin is beneath the Christian. Christ went through too much to make us holy instruments of His righteousness. Let there be no excuses, every little sin is big enough to spoil our testimony, even if it is one done in our closets. There is no pleasure in sin for the born-again man, only shame and power loss.

Devotional Prayer

Lord, I know that my victory over sin and sinful habits is not by my own making. I am determined to shun the lusts in my heart and to overcome my weaknesses because your grace has given me victory over sin. I pray you continually use me as an instrument of your righteousness and help me to take daily advantage of your grace, so that I can live in victory and my life can be to you a sweet-smelling living sacrifice.

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Virtual Communities created by social media

Unlike 2000 years ago, it is now very possible for me to have a much easier access to someone who is continents away than I have to someone else in the same state as I am.

For instance, I have made quite a number of friends on the internet, through my website or theirs, through facebook, yahoo chat rooms etc. Most of this people, I have never or may never physically meet, but we have opportunity for convenient interaction daily, through the various social media, especially if we have some common interest like work, business, fashion, sports or whatever.

One of the implications of this is that, I may have a better chance at befriending and eventually witnessing to an individual overseas, in a religiously or socially isolated position, but which I have the privilege to be connected with through the web, than a professional missionary on the field in his country. I may not be bound by whatever restrictions, be it religious, legal or social, that may make it difficult for another Christian physically closer to him, to witness to him. Yet, this is only a mild scratch at the possibilities.

This concept is not about finding an alternative to going to where the unsaved are physically to reach them, but about taking optimum advantage of all the opportunities available for reaching them. Especially the ones who are more easily located or approachable via this media. It is also about making the gospel easier to be found by those who are already searching, by being present in every location, virtual or otherwise, where they would definitely be searching.

Cultural Influences infused by media

Discerning cultural distances

Most people who grew up in the more developed cities of developing or underdeveloped countries, in maybe Africa or Asia, with exposure to satelite TV and the Internet, actually have more in common with their peers in the western world or other develpoed communities in Europe than their own relatives who grew up and live in the villages, due to media influence. This will affect the way they communicate and their life style – the way they dress, the kind of music they enjoy etc. If you aim at this parallel set of locals as a single target, you would most definitely miss one of them or both.

So now you find cultural distances between people who are in geographic and ethnic proximity, as well as, cultural proximity between people who are at different ends of the globe geographically.

Application of media tools

We must take advantage of ways to reach the part of the world that has already been brought culturally close to us via media influence – using the same media and culture that they are already comfortable with, whilst not neglecting those we need to actually, physically and perhaps culturally go out to meet.

In the later case, a lot of ministries are bridging the gap with translation work on materials for christian evangelism, including bibles, multilingual multimedia projects for audio, video and of course internet. Today anybody can get ministry material in almost all languages of the world and use as a tool to reach someone or a group who probably don’t speak their primary language.

International migration

Migrant missionaries

Every Christian missionary is a migrant in some sense, but even more so because every Christian migrant is a potential missionary.

As at the 1980s, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia had become net exporters of millions of people to Western countries, initially as labor migrants, subsequently as asylum seekers, but increasingly and predominantly as economic migrants. Not surprisingly, The demography of active (as opposed to formal) missionary force today, coincidentally turns out to be primarily immigrants from the more vitally Christianized developing countries of Africa (e.g Nigeria), Asia (e.g China) and South America.

This reverse trend, as against what prevailed centuries ago, when missionaries came from the west to the southern continents, is worthy of note. Hopefully we may rely on this current migration phenomenon to savage the alarming decline of Christianity in Western Society.

These migrant population are characterized by spiritual vitality and a strong commitment to evangelism, partly because they hail from countries where the Christian experience is dynamic, and partly due to the hardships and travail of the immigrant experience.  Many exhibit a strong missionary vision—one engendered in no small measure by the fact that they confront societies in which Christianity is experiencing marked decline.

Migrant targets

However, unlike the US, where the majority of new immigrants are Christian, the majority of post-1960s immigrants in Europe are Muslim. Islam represents Europe’s fastest growing religion and its second largest faith. This represents another instance of the world coming to us.

Without restraining from our traditional missionary efforts at reaching the predominantly Islamic nations, are we equally realizing that the Islamic community growing in Europe, now in free societies where there will be none of the religious and legal restrictions against proselytizing, encountered in their homeland, is an increasing harvest waiting for discerning laborers? The way I see it, there are better chances for non-christian immigrant student or worker overseas in a more Christianized society, to be reached with the gospel than when he is back home in a predominantly non-christian community. Therefore, we equally need to make a major target of un-envangelized immigrants as a strategy.

Ethnic churches

Ethnic churches or International churches having a make up of a predominant foreign ethnic group may actually be serving this purpose of reaching un-envangelized immigrants well.

According to Jehu J. Hanciles, director of the Global Research Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary, about ethnic churches: Although some of them may be ingloriously labelled as veritable ethnic enclaves given to self-maintenance and insulated from the wider society by indigenous language usage in their worship and fellowship. Yet, even if all they did was evangelize other immigrants—many of whom were not Christians before they migrated, they will still be making a significant contribution to the growth of Christianity in their community.

These congregations also represent the face of Christianity to a disadvantaged and marginalized migrant population, where effective missionary function depends upon sustained daily interaction with others who belong to the same neighborhood and deal with similar daily challenges.

Undeniably, racial divisions, cultural rejection, and social demarcations represent significant missionary challenges; however, the missionary-mindedness of immigrant Christians and congregations is well attested. There is also strong evidence to suggest that their outreach capacity increases over time with critical adaptation to the cultural environment; which in turn indicates that the next generation may hold the key to greater missionary effectiveness in the host communities at large.

Social welfare

There is a recurring observation that places most unreached by the gospel is usually also characterized by intense poverty, sickness, political instability, war and all forms of suffering in general. Intense suffering usually makes people more open to the gospel. Besides their needs also provide opportunity to minister to them materially and to show love. Social welfare missions is becoming a huge and popular phenomenon, as it is providing an effective open door in war torn areas of the middle east for instance. Other instances are in Africa, the Americas and Asia, were social relief in terms of disaster relief, health care, provision of food and clothing is enabling missionaries to more quickly penetrate otherwise difficult fields, where dense secularism, Islam, Hinduism or other idolatrous religions are paramount.

Invisible Missions and Missionaries

Another missionary force is also at work today, although it does not appear in the records of missionary activity or the databanks of specialists. It is the transcultural witnessing for Christ that takes place as people move around as migrants or refugees, just as in New Testament days…. Samuel Escobar

Meaningful assessment of the emerging non-Western, as well as, non-traditional missionary movement calls for new forms of analysis. We need to radically revise our understanding of missions and who a missionary is in the contemporary, globalized world.

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Along the line, Good books also played a part in my exposure  to a world outside mine, that needed Jesus just as much. I remember my fascination one time, with books about Islam and the religious perspectives of Muslims, mostly written by former Muslims who had received Jesus, in my quest to be able to more effectively witness to my Muslim friends.

I think many Christians and churches assume about and underestimate their lack of adequate knowledge about the world and missions, and invariably of the moves of God in our generation and amongst the nations, including the evil in such lack of awareness.

I came to be of the opinion that making missiological information as accessible as possible (physically and contextually) to local churches and the common Christian may be necessary, if not vital, in committing and involving every church and believer in the commission of taking the gospel to every people of our communities and the World at Large.

Our Mandate; The Mandate of evangelism has always had a world scope

Unfortunately, today it is very common for believers to imagine that missions or global evangelism is another person’s responsibility; or to feel even if they wanted to do something that there was hardly anything tangible they could personally do. Most of our local church boards or leadership are also made up of men who feel the same way, and so we have a chain reaction – or say, chain inaction.

In Acts 1:8, Luke records Jesus’ instruction to his disciples:

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

It didn’t seem to matter to Jesus that most of this men he was going to commission as international emissaries, had never traveled; knew no geography; were uneducated, unsophisticated and very poor, all that seemed to matter was that they received The Power first. It’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit that authorizes or authenticates us to be witnesses. And we all had to be baptized in that one spirit, not just the Apostles. Also, the Apostles couldn’t possibly have gone to the uttermost part of the earth, in their life time. It’s hardly 200 years since the gospel got to a major part of Africa. So the point I’m trying to make here should be apparent now: the mandate was giving to the church for all ages, it must remain our priority now, or clearly something is misplaced.

As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Acts 8:3-4

There’s another point here, Most of the spreading of the gospel outside Jerusalem, was not done by the apostles themselves, or by formally ordained ministers, but by believers scattered from Jerusalem, following survival instincts, from the perils of persecution and other necessities. But ordained, institutionalized or not, they were fulfilling the mandate. It makes me wonder where believers and many of our local churches today get the idea that evangelism of a global scope, has to or must be accomplished by or credited only to formally trained or sponsored personnel,  specially appointed, gifted and commissioned to travel, like Paul, Barnabas etc.

The mandate to go into all the world is clearly for every believer to identify with, for most of us it may not be about going out, as already several factors bring the world, even the uttermost part of the earth, closer than ever to us. The problem is usually in our lack of information or orientation about ways in which we can effectively participate. I have already shared links about a wealth of resources available online which helped me in my own exposure, they may be good places for you to start as well. This older article should be of help too: World Evangelism: Expanding opportunities for the everyday Christian to get involved. You never can tell what ideas will occur to you about what you can do.

Intelligent participation

Expanding our scope as Christians or as a local church will let us know the urgency, the great need and the numerous opportunities that we thought were too far away, or we were altogether oblivious to, and how we can make a world of difference and make well informed and intelligent channeling of our prayers, time and resources.

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. Joh 4:35

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Mt 9:37

I have compiled some analysis and even more helpful details for my next post make sure you don’t miss it.

The Mission is possible!

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© 2002, Tee Akindele

I would never have taken that first step
When he called: “I am the Lord, come out to me”
But then my little boat was against the storm no help
It would eventually have given me up to the depths of the sea.

And so like a man with neither hope nor anything else to loose
“I’m just a poor sinner” was all I could think.
How could I this grand offer then refuse?
I stepped into the water, hardly expecting not to sink.

I couldn’t trust myself but strangely this stranger did
He said “come!”, Come … on the raging sea?
Was He a ghost or really a savior I wondered?
Well, He had power and that I could see.

Where my faith failed His rescue arms supported me
Hallelujah! This is my testimony today;
I’d never again fear the storms of life’s sea
I‘ve known one who is greater, one who they obey:

… He rides the storms and commands the raging billows;
Jesus was a stranger, now He means to me much more
-In Him I have forgotten the fears of tomorrows-
Captain of my ship, my God and everlasting Savior.

© 2003, Tee Akindele

Author: John Edmiston

I came across this article in the current edition of Lausanne World Pulse, I think it’s quite interesting and worthy of sharing. Enjoy!

There are currently 1.7 billion active Internet users; another three billion are expected to be added in the next five years. The developing world will soon go online as cell phones become smartphones and as cheap digital devices such as netbooks and e-readers proliferate. The rollout of fiber-optic cable in Africa and massive satellite communication projects will also mean that bandwidth availability and reach will increase.

Within five years, at least half the globe should be online; within fifteen years, Internet reach should be almost universal. Global proclamation will soon be within the reach of any Christian with a computer.

The changes are not only quantitative, they are also qualitative. The very nature and dynamic of Christian ministry are being fundamentally altered due to the new possibilities for relationship, connectivity, and information delivery that the Internet has brought about. The very heart of how we minister is being changed forever in at least ten significant areas.

1. Information. The Internet is bringing an enormous amount of timely strategic information into the hands of even the smallest church or mission agency. These include religious and cultural statistics, demographics, compilations such as Operation World, and research websites such as Joshua Project, Caleb Project, and StrategicNetwork. This is allowing us to see the big picture better than ever and to drill down to the small details that affect how we implement our evangelism strategies.
2. Ratiocination. People “think aloud” in cyberspace. The theology and practice (including ecclesiology and missiology) of most Christians is now primarily formed as a peer-to-peer online process with occasional expert input. There is less and less reference to decisions promulgated by the central governing ecclesiastical bodies of the major world religions. People do their own thinking, and they do so increasingly online through sources such as Wikipedia; out-of-copyright commentaries; and through browsing various websites, e-groups, and postings on social networks. Those ministries who wish to influence opinion need to start doing so in cyberspace, because that is where Christian opinion is now largely being formed.
3. Exploration. People do their private, personal, and controversial thinking online. If a person wants to find out about a suspected medical matter or investigate a forbidden political opinion, they first check it out online. A Muslim wishing to find out about Christianity is not likely to ask his or her family or imam; rather, he or she will look at Christian websites. About one-quarter of all Internet users make regular queries about religious matters. They are exploring their own and other faiths. The Church needs to have an evangelistic, apologetic, and missionary presence in this new global marketplace of ideas.
4. Collaboration. The Internet is facilitating collaboration across denominational boundaries and across national borders. Experts are now able to link up with other experts in fields such as church planting and theological education. This collaboration is making the denomination almost obsolete. Most Christian workers now operate in networks rather than in denominational silos. People are partnering with like-minded specialists in their area of interest rather than with people who totally agree with their formal belief system.
5. Validation. People use the Internet to check things out. This applies to everything from a “too-good-to-be-true” investment scam to the local church they plan to attend when they move to a new city. One oft-quoted statistic is that eighty-five percent of young people check out a church’s website before deciding whether or not to even visit that church in the first place. Churches and organizations that are easy to validate online have a huge competitive advantage. This includes having a clear statement of faith and making your ethos, programs, meeting times, address, contact information, operating principles, and finances clear and above board to the honest online enquirer.
6. Allocation of Resources. The Internet is allowing donors, foundations, and churches to efficiently assess projects and receive applications for funding across national boundaries. Groups such as JIMI (the Joint Information Management Initiative of the WEA-MC) and the Global Missions Fund are trying to refine this process of allocation so that the ministries who are most worthy are most funded. A big part of this is having trusted mission information facilitators who regularly supply quality information in a secure format so that it can be used for resource allocation purposes.
7. Proclamation. The gospel is being proclaimed on websites, in chat rooms, on YouTube, on cell phones, and on numerous Internet-connected devices. Evangelistic crusades are using the Internet both as a decision mechanism and as a follow-up mechanism. Organizations such as Global Media Outreach, Jesus Central, TopChretien, and GodRev specialize in purely online outreach, while many churches and organizations use the Internet as an augmentation of existing outreach strategies. The Internet is an economical means of proclamation and Internet missionaries do not need visas!
8. Education. Online education has been a huge success and has revitalized Theological Education by Extension (TEE) and distance education. Groups such as MAF Learning technologies are working at developing highly effective Internet-based pedagogy. Many Masters and PhD programs are now partly or wholly via Internet-based distance education.
9. Mobilization. The Internet facilitates making connections and imparting information and motivation necessary for effective mobilization of pastors, evangelists, and missionaries into the global harvest. ChristianVolunteering.org matches tens of thousands of volunteers with Christian agencies. A ministry without an online presence will soon find it very challenging to gain new recruits, since for many people, the ministry simply will “not exist.”
10. Multiplication. The Internet brings leverage to networks and enables contacts to be made for the multiplication of house and cell churches, church-planting movements, and small TEE-based Bible colleges resourced via an Internet-based curriculum.

Many people start searching for a new church by going online, start their search for information about God online, and start forming their theology online. Missionaries deciding which organization they will serve with, or students deciding on which Bible college to attend, will use online information to narrow down their choices. The Internet is not the be-all and end-all of ministry; however, it is quickly becoming the starting point for most ministry. I used to think of the Internet as a tool for outreach, much like having your own radio program. Now I see it as an ocean in which we must sink or swim.

John Edmiston is chairman and CEO of the Asian Internet Bible Institute and www.Cybermissions.org.

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Thank God for his sustenance through the first half of the year. God has been quite good to me on every side. Looking back at most of the goals I set for myself this year. I can tell He is definitely seeing me through.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking there is quite a number of things I can do to add some freshness to the blog, actually I think I’ve been having a conflict with two parallel streams, that I’ld rather isolate or seperate. In essence the Everyday Christian blog may soon become two blogs. Just keep your fingers crossed on that.

Nonetheless, watch out for some really useful posts on the blog this july.

Remain Blessed.

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