Unreached, unchurched, unsaved… is anyone unvalued?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the words we use to describe lost people. For years, I’ve reserved the word unreached to refer to groups of people who live beyond the reach of Christianity. They are part of a people group who have no Christian witness. Unchurched are those who live within a reached group of people, but they have personally experienced little of the church, or more importantly, the gospel message. The unsaved, meanwhile, are people who aren’t Christians for whatever reason.

I use the words to convey degrees of distance from the truths of the gospel. Those who are unreached are the farthest away, short of a miracle, of finding salvation. All the unreached are unchurched, and all the unchurched are unsaved. It’s a matter of degree.

But it’s not a matter of value. I understand that the longer I volunteer at the Inner City Church. The kids in my class aren’t unreached, but they are unchurched. Does that make them less valuable to God than an unreached, unchurched kid someplace else? Or are they more valuable than the kids at The Rock who are churched and saved?

This isn’t a competition, so why do I try to make it one? This quote from a favorite blog says it well:

Are we searching to validate our work? Relate the story of how God is orchestrating the expansion of His kingdom. Are we wanting to connect with other believers? Tell of the redemptive relationships you’ve made. Feel the need to convince people of the great spiritual need all around us? Forget about it. If the daily news and ongoing interaction with unbelieving people hasn’t convinced them, your story won’t either.

If God led you to minister to a people, that ministry is valid, important, and right. It needs no justification. Talk about your ministry, but talk about what really matters. Refuse to compare your ministry to others.

How do we convince people to give to missions?

Last week, I told a coworker I needed to work on materials to promote our general missions offering. I’ve already created most of the materials, but I wonder what, if anything, we could still do that would make fund raising efforts more successful.

Her response was to ask a really simple question:

We want people in our churches to give 10% to the church as a tithe, right? And we want them to make a monthly gift to a missionary’s support? And we want them to give to the general missions offering? How do we convince people to give that much money?

The question is basic, but basic questions are sometimes the best. And the basic answer is that we (office staff, itinerant fund raisers, pastors, and everyone else involved) have to persuade people that it is worth it. People don’t give to causes they don’t believe in. If people are persuaded that making God’s great name known in all the earth is infinitely worth doing, they’ll give.

Of course, the question then becomes, how do you persuade people to make God known?

"Gives us 20 more like these!"

A young couple were approved as missionaries today by our board. Yesterday, the assistant director asked our team to interview them, then write an article for the church’s periodical. Specifically, he said the couple were young, committed, and ready to go; if he could carbon copy them 20 times over and place them around the world, he would be a happy man.

They are a fantastic couple. And the church does need 20 more like them. Dedicated, full of faith, ready to serve. Ready to come under one of the older missionary couple on the field, helping how they can now and preparing to advance the work once the others are retired.

Our hope is that the article will inspire others. We asked them what they would say to others, especially younger people, interested in serving in missions but uncertain if there is a place for them. And what they would say to those who aren’t even interested or haven’t considered it.

I hope that message, as well as their faith and dedication, comes through in the article. We’ll likely run an ad next to it for our missions training programs, and I pray God will give the church 20 more couples like them!

Bibles to Fuel the Iranian Revival

I frequently read the email updates from Mission Network News, a non-denominational missions news service. One of the stories caught my eye, and I wanted to share it with you. Despite what you may think from watching the news, God is moving in Iran. The Christian church has grown faster in Iran than it has in other Muslim-dominated nations, and the current political situation isn’t changing that.

Today, one of the big needs in Iran is more Bibles. According to the president of Open Doors USA, Carl Moeller, Iranian officials want to stop a flood of Bibles from reaching Iranians, because they know the Bibles are bringing people to Christ. According to Moeller, if Christians will look past politics and give and pray, thousands of people in Iran could find Christ. The people are spiritually hungry, and they are coming to Christ in increasing numbers. For only $4, you can send a Bible into Iran. Won’t you make that small investment that could be a part of seeing many Iranian Mulsims find Christ?