Thanksgiving holidays 2008 remind us once again of the lostness that pervades humankind. The "stampede" that killed a Walmart employee in Long Island, NY; the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) India and a high profile professional athlete discharging a handgun in a public nightclub are just a few reminders. Lost people walk in darkness.
Jesus has called us to be light in a dark world. He calls us to pierce the darkness with the Gospel message. Each of us who have been transformed by the power of the gospel have a story of His grace on our life. We are commissioned to GO TELL the story of Jesus.
In 1997 during my wife's (Phyllis) tenure on the IMB as a trustee the board implemented change that included strategy to advance with the gospel into previously closed regions. Ten years later "New Directions" strategy produced increased baptisms (300,000 to over 600,000). New churches increased from 3,300 to 25,000 last year. According to President Jerry Rankin, "More than a thousand unreached people groups engaged with the Gospel and partnership with other Great Commission Chrisians resulted in explosive impact on a lost world."
With all the success of "New Directions" more change is coming. Why more change? The answer is simple. The world constantly changing. The world of 1950 was not the world of 1997 and the world of 2000 is not the world of 2008. (Boy, I wish the American church was wise enough to figure that out). World diversity, post-modern influences, the decline of traditional values and the fact we are closer to the end of time than ever before make the time in which we live both "desperate" and "opportunistic."
Those of us that are assigned stateside serving our Lord in and through the local church hold the ropes for over 5,000 of our missionaries serving in international locations. Through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions we enable these servants of God to GO TELL the story of Jesus.
I am excited to be a part of a denomination that has vision. Vision to reach the whole world with the whole gospel of Jesus Christ. Passion to do it right which is why more change is coming. When you keep doing what you have always done you keep getting what you have always got. (Once again when will the local church get it?)
This is why we must all GO TELL the story of JESUS.
