Today, more than 7 billion people live on
this planet we call earth.
A planet where technology dominates.
Where knowledge increases daily, and comes at you faster than you can absorb it.
Where people run to and fro and never seem to get where they want to be.
Where the gulf between rich and poor has become a chasm and everyone always wants more.
Where religious and political tensions escalate.
Where masses of people flock to the cities, looking for something better.
Where millions have lost sight of God, yet many are looking for answers.
[Music Bridge]
When Jesus looked on the crowds He had compassion on them.
Today He still looks on the crowds with compassion.
And He's looking, through us.
Will we accept His invitation to share His love with the crowds who don't know Him?
Jesus called us to make disciples.
He called on us to take His message of Hope to every nation and people.
For more than 150 years, Seventh-day Adventists have been sharing Hope in Jesus' soon return.
And God has blessed. His work is going forward in many areas of the world. Yet some areas
remain mission challenges, and in some areas, the challenge seems to be growing.
In 1900, Adventists began to answer this call to share the gospel with the world outside
of North America. In 1900, 68 percent of the Church's evangelistic workers were working
in North America; thirty years later, 77 percent were working outside of North America.
This shift required a major expenditure of funds and a constant effort to stay focused on mission.
1
Back then, if you were to ask Christians in general where the mission fields were,
they would have probably said Africa, Central America and the islands of the Caribbean, and South America.
Missionaries shared stories back home about life and work in the mission field
and often spoke at camp meetings and in churches. And they wrote books about their experiences.
Today the world has changed and so has the Adventist Church. What was once a church based
mainly in North America, is today a Global church.
If we look at how Adventist Church membership has shifted, we can see where the church has
grown and where we still have challenges. In these maps, the darker colors represent
areas with many Adventists compared to population. The lighter areas show where there are few
Adventists compared to the population. Another way to say this is that this is an area of greater mission challenge.
Today, the church has grown tremendously in areas of the world that were once considered
the main mission fields, like southern Africa, and South America and Inter-America.
Maybe it's time for them to answer God's call to send more workers and mission offerings
to the unreached areas of the world. They are being called on to pray for the unreached
people and areas of the world.
One of these areas was an area that came to be known as the 10/40 Window.
"The 10/40 Window is a term that we use to describe a territory.
Basically it's a window 10 degrees north of the equator at the bottom,
and at the top it's 40 degrees north of the equator. And this window stretches from
NW Africa, right through the Middle East, and into Asia. This is a prime focus of
Adventist Mission because you have a majority of the world's population living there. You have
almost half of the major cities of the world there. You have people who are living in poverty, people who are rich.
You have people from religious backgrounds that are totally different than Christianity.
Not only do you have the majority of the world's population, but you have the fewest Christians.
So that's why the 10/40 Window is still such a prime focus for holistic Adventist
Mission."
Mike Ryan: "The 1040 Window is still a tremendous mission
challenge to the Seventh-day Adventist church. Some people may say well I thought we have
emphasized that for 20 years, which we have, there have been thousands of new congregations
established inside that window. But when you consider the population and the growth of
the population, it's difficult just to keep pace with it. To have a little lighthouse there
that has the capacity to personalize the Gospel and to draw people to Jesus, that it takes
people on the ground and on that location. This is why church planting or putting in
new groups of believers is an absolutely essential quality of the church growth plan."
Despite the challenges, Adventists have been
working throughout the world. If we look back a few years in the city of Bangkok,
we see one project that shared God's message in a unique way.
Gary Krause: "Bangkok is a city that represents the 10/40
Window very well. Just the sheer numbers of people. Millions of people, the noise,
the chaos, the different systems. People know where they're going, what they're doing, etc.
Cory Goodwin was an Adventist Volunteer Services
worker in Bangkok. Since Cory is an artist, he decided to use his talents in the neighborhood
where he stayed. He wanted to share the Adventist message with the neighborhood so he painted
a wall mural. This large painting sits near an Adventist center of influence. It depicts the second
coming of Jesus in a style the Thai people can understand.
Cory Goodwin: "When the idea popped into my head,
"Hey you should do a wall mural for the street here," I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.
I just wanted to do something colorful, something uplifting for the street,
but it became this big three-story wall mural and not only that it was on the second coming.
I've seen people and their attitudes change as the mural progressed. They at first were like,
"What are you doing?" They were a little bit skeptical but as they saw it
develop before their eyes, that's when they started to be more positive and encouraging.
Now, this community benefits from this beautiful
message on the wall. You can just imagine the number of people who have seen this and
may have been introduced to Jesus for the first time. God is calling us to use creative
methods to reach the people throughout the 10/40 Window.
Gary Krause: "However there's a million ways that we can
try to do things differently. We may do something that doesn't have any success. That's okay
because we learn as we go, but if we stay within, "This is the way we've done it for
the last hundred years and let's stick with that," then I'm afraid things are not going
to progress in regards to mission. So God calls us to creative ministry. The apostle
Paul said I've become all things to all people. He doesn't mean compromise. He means I find
what the need is and then I find what is appropriate to share the gospel message. So the way that
I might do ministry in a city in North America should be very different than the way I do
it in Bangkok, because the people are coming from a totally different cultural and religious background.
You can't just dress up the message in Western clothes; you have to find new,
fresh wineskins of ministry."
Mike Ryan: "People ask what how are we actually going
to go into the 10/40 Window? Particularly the large urban areas. Cities in which we've
never had a presence. How are we going to do that? And we know that because of certain
world religions that are there in certain cultures that there are certain methods that
we have that are really not going to be effective. We've tried them there and they're not only
dangerous but probably not very cost-effective. It's very interesting because Ellen White
is very clear that we really need to concentrate on using Christ's method."
Gary: "In the 1040 Window we have a wonderful opportunity
to start what we call centers of influence. These centers are holistic ministry centers
based on Christ's method. So basically they provide a platform for ministry and
Ellen White says that Jesus mingled with people, He showed sympathy, He ministered to their needs,
He won confidence, and then he bid them to follow Him."
Some 20 years ago, the Seventh-day Adventist
church started Global Mission to look at the areas where the church has struggled to grow.
Global Mission focused on planting churches in these hard to reach areas through projects
and sending out Global Mission pioneers.
Today we are still focused on the same call. We are continuing to reach people in some
of the most challenging areas. Please continue to pray for those on the frontlines of mission.
Pray that through Christ's method, people all around the world will come to know Jesus!