The World Of 10
Posted by Rice on Jul 25, '07 1:41 AM
 There were many remarks made about an example I used in my conference message on Sat. night, "To the ends of the earth". These comments centered around the example of how the world really looks when reduced to 10 people. This example was referred to by Bill and Amy Stearns in their book, "20/20 vision". The example was originally used by a speaker they heard at a missions conference in Colorado Springs.
Before I explain it here in this post, let me echo the amazing reports of all that God is doing around the world. Though the lack of growth in the western world has led many to assume that Christianity is declining, the worldwide picture offers great hope. A quick report: 74,000 people are coming to Christ everyday. Over 3500 Churches are opening worldwide every week. There are hundreds of testimonies of people in the Muslim world being converted because of a vision or dream of Jesus Christ. Africa is almost 50% Christian! However, there is much work to be done.
If you broke the world down into 10 people here is what you would have:
There is one committed believer. This is a genuine follower and disciple of Jesus Christ. There are two nominal believers. These are people who would profess some type of affinity to the Christian religion, but not be genuinely converted.(For those that might be confused, being a true follower of Christ doesn't depend on joining a particular Church or denomination, but is a result of trusting Christ alone as your Savior and Lord and HIs death on a cross and subsequent resurrection from the dead three days later. He promised that we would be "born again"- (John 3:1-7; II Corinthians 5:17).
There are four out of ten that are unreached(non-Christian) from nations that are potentially open in the sense that there is a Christian witness or ministry that could make contact with them. These four might be pictured as an Indian(India will pass China as the world's largest nation in 2015). A Chinese. China is approaching 10 percent Christian, but with over a billion people there is a vast sea of humanity that must be reached. A Japanese. Japan has over 130 million people and very little Gospel witness. A Thai. The word "Thai" ironically means "free". Thailand is opening up to the Gospel, but there are very few laborers for the harvest.
The last three of the 10 are from nations that are "officially" closed to the Gospel. This would be the nations in the Muslim world. Though the Church once flourished in this part of the world two milena ago, the Light has grown dim. Many refuse to call them "closed" nations, but rather use the term, CAN (Creative Access Nations). Indeed it will take enormous creativity and courage to see inroads made in these places.
The point is that there is a huge responsibility on the "one" to make a difference in the other "9". The two nominal believers must be awakened in this crucial time, and help reach the four from the nations that are within reach right now. Every Nation has established ministries in all of these four regions. Our pastor in Japan, Scott Douma is on Multiply. Pastor Kevin Menezes in India, and the ministries in China and Thailand can be contacted through the Every Nation website. We will continue to press the issue until we reach "every nation in our generation!" |
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