We live in a world where good is called evil and evil is called good. This is evident when you consider our culture and how we express our thoughts and political ideologies. Here are a couple of examples; God declares that abortion is the murder of a child, but we call it a “woman’s right to choose.” God calls homosexuality a perversion and an abomination before His sight but we socially embrace this perversion into our culture and call it an “alternate lifestyle.” You see, we live in a corrupt and fallen world were mankind has declared war against God by suppressing and rejecting His truth. Therefore, we must understand that any missionary endeavor we undertake that aims to make the Name of God great among the nations, that forcefully advances the Kingdom of God into the realm of the devil, and has been sealed with the Holy Spirit, will suffer greatly at times. The missionaries and the task itself will be opposed with fierce hatred, violence, and spiritual warfare aimed at its demise. There are many countries and peoples group where darkness reigns, in such places martyrdom cannot be avoided. Bottom line is that, each missionary endeavor is no more and no less than an opportunity to die to oneself so that another person may live. We must understand and embrace this so that we can be prepared for the cost that will eventually have to be paid by many, maybe even you. (Matthew 5:10-12; Luke 4:18; John12:24, 15:18-21; Acts 4:19; 5:29; Galatians 5:11; 6:12; Colossians 3:24; 1 Timothy 1:1-4; Hebrews 13:1-3; 1 John 3:12)
Because of sin, the conversion of any man and the advancement of any missionary endeavor is an absolute impossibility apart from the will of God and the guiding power of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. We must call upon God to make available to us His unfathomable wisdom, his unrestrained power, and the inexhaustible resources that are His to give as He desires. We must turn to Him and rely by the means He has ordained: biblical preaching, intercessory prayer, sacrificial service, unconditional love, and true Christ likeness in all our actions and thoughts. (John 15:1-9)
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and without His works and guidance, all of our witnessing and missionary efforts will come to nothing and will fail to produce any good fruit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin, to build faith in Christ, to bring about a new spiritual birth, to foster the spiritual growth in believers, and to edify the church with the gifts of His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus evangelism is a natural byproduct of any church, missionary organization, or mission worker that is filled and sealed with the Holy Spirit. (John 3:6-8, 15:26;27; 16:8-11; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 12:3-31; Galatians 5:22,23; 1Thessalonians 5:19)
To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gifts of the Spirit to all who repent, hold to His commands, and trust in Him until the very end. In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the true cost of discipleship to any man. Jesus still calls all who would follow Him to walk as He walked which includes; taking up their crosses daily, denying themselves, putting to death their flesh and all of its sinful desires, and to partake on a daily basis the blessing found only in the relationships within His church. (Mark 8:34, 10:43-45; John 20:21-23; Acts 2: 32-39, 27; 1 Corinthians 1:23, 15:3,4; 2 Corinthians 4:5; 5:20; )
Mankind’s greatest need is to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached without diluting the message to make it more palatable to the masses. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16) and the preaching of the Gospel is the great “means” and “methodology” of missions. The Gospel is, first and foremost is a story of how God is able to reconcile a totally corrupt, wicked, and bankrupted world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). It answers the eternal question of how an all righteous, all holy, and an all just God can rightly justify wicked men (Romans 3:26) before Himself without violating His holiness and His laws. The Gospel directs our hearts towards Christ alone as that only true way to God, and as the only mediator between God and man. It directs our hearts to look onto Jesus who for the joy set before Him bore the sins of all men upon the cross, who was forsaken of God, and crushed under the full force of God’s righteous wrath against our sin. The Good News of the Gospel is that through Christ’s death on the Roman cross, the justice of God was satisfied, and salvation was won for a great multitude of people. Our evidence is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead - “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” (Romans 4:25)
Although differences in culture are to be considered when trying to reach a people, it is far more important for those preaching the Gospel to be biblically sensitive than culturally sensitive. This is especially true in our world today where political and social correctness has taken hold of nations and has brought upon its inhabitants the “relativism”, where truth is relative and what may be true to you does not equate to it being true for me. Our personal opinion or desires have no place in missions when it comes to God’s word. The Word of God calls us not to be afraid to denounce all evil and injustice wherever they exist, and call each person to repentance, no matter what it costs us personally and socially. Jesus thought us that there is great joy in Heaven when a single sinner repents of their sins, embraces the commands of God, and seeks first His kingdom. Therefore, we must teach only what the word of God teaches and not what man’s itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3) - even if preaching the Word is not politically or socially acceptable to do so. We are admonished by Apostle Paul when he wrote, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:16). We must recall the words of an Itinerate preacher by the name of Paul Washer who once said, “I do not preach the Gospel to a remote tribe. I preach the Gospel to men!” (Leviticus 19:18; Isaiah 1:17; Matthew 5:20; 6:33; Luke 6:27,35; John 3:3,5; Acts 17:26,31 ; James 2:14-26 , 3:9)
We affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people into the world as the Father sent him, and that this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the world. We need to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non-Christian society. In the Church's mission of sacrificial service evangelism is primary. World evangelization requires the whole Church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. The Church is at the very centre of God's cosmic purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel. But a church which preaches the cross must itself be marked by the cross. It becomes a stumbling block to evangelism when it betrays the gospel or lacks a living faith in God, a genuine love for people, or scrupulous honesty in all things including promotion and finance. The church is the community of God's people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology. (John 17:18; 20:21; Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 1:8; 20:27; Ephesians 1:9,10; 3:9-11; Galatians 6:14,17; 1 Corinthians 6:3,4; 2 Timothy 2:19-21)
Biblical assurance of salvation does not stem from a past “decision” to follow Christ or by someone uttering a simple prayer asking for Jesus to come into their heart so they would be saved. This teaching is simply not biblical! True biblical assurance of salvation demands that we must first confess our sins to God (1 John 1:8-10); to seek to have a heart that desires godly sorrow over worldly sorrow in such a way that we are not concerned by our wrong but to be so alarmed that we long to make things right and to be ready see justice done (2 Corinthians 7:10, 11). It requires that live as Jesus lived it (1 John 2:6), and it requires that we seek daily the fellowship of like-minded believers who make Jesus their “everything” in life and not simply an accessory to their life (1 John 1:7, Hebrews 10:19-25). To be assured of salvation we must continually examine the way we live our lives in the light of Scripture (2 Corithians13:5).
More than 2.7 billion people have yet to have the privilege of hearing the Gospel of Christ Jesus and be given the opportunity to be saved and called a child of God. We as disciples of Jesus Christ should be ashamed that so many people have been neglected for so long because we have failed to live the life that we were called to live, a sacrificial life we promised to live when we accepted the teachings of Christ. The fact that we have had some 2000 years to bring the gospel to every corner of this world and have failed to do so should bring us shame before the throne of God. Now is the time for all believers to repent of our lukewarm attitude towards evangelism.
Today, in many parts of the world, the Lord has moved in such a powerful way as to open the door to the hearts of people and to make them receptive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a golden opportunity for the Church to seize upon and to earnestly pray that God will continue to open doors that were one closed, and to bring salvation to all the unreached peoples of this small world and to allow us to share in the privilege of participating in this awesome endeavor of evangelizing the unreached peoples of the world. We must pled with the Lord that He will enable each of us to overcome our selfishness, and enable each one of us to share the message of salvation so that every person we come into contact with will have the opportunity to hear, understand, and to receive the Gospel. We cannot hope to attain this goal without personal sacrifice. Therefore, those of us who live in affluent circumstances need to accept our duty to develop an economically simpler life-style as to allow us the ability to contribute more to support to missions. ( Isaiah 8:6,7; Matthew 9:35-38, 25:31-46; Mark 16:15; John 9:4 ; Acts 2:44,45; 4:34,35; Romans 9:1-3; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23; James 1:27; 2:1-9)
There are many ways that we can communicate the Gospel of Christ in a non-personal matter. The radio and television broadcast, audio files, and the internet have help spread the Gospel to virtually every corner on the face of the earth. However, there is no substitute for one man living among a people, laying down his life so he may preach the Gospel not only in words but in loving actions as well. Therefore, just as God sent Jesus into this world with all the failings of a fleshy body to dwell among us (John 1:1, 14; 3:16); we believe that believers must humbly seek to empty themselves of all everything that hinders them from die to meet the needs of others. (Genesis. 4:21,22; Mark 7:8,9,13; 1 Corinthians4:5, 9:19-23; Philippians. 2:5-7; 1John 3:16)
We confess that the church has in past pursued church growth at the expense of Church depth, and divorced evangelism from Christian nurture. We also acknowledge that some of our missions have been too slow to equip and encourage national leaders to assume their rightful responsibilities. Yet we are committed to indigenous principles, and long that every church will have national leaders who manifest a Christian style of leadership in terms not of lordship but of humbly serving the flock appointed him by the Lord. We recognize that there is a great need to improve theological education, especially for church leaders. In every nation and culture there should be an effective training program for pastors and those they serve in doctrine, discipleship, evangelism, service. Such training program should not rely on any stereotyped methodology but should be developed by creative local initiatives according to biblical standards. It is one thing to do mass evangelism and to boast of the numbers of so-called “decisions”; it is quite another to establish a biblical church. (Mark 10:42-45; Acts 14:23; Ephesians 4:11,12; Colossians I:27,28; Titus 1:5,9; )
There are many gifts and callings in the body of Christ, but all of them are to work together on the mission field with the primary goal of planting biblical churches. It is one thing to do mass evangelism and to boast of the numbers of decisions; it is quite another to establish a biblical church.
