Have you ever thought about how much of your regular giving goes to see those who have not heard learn about the Water of Life? While other ministries are very important and deserve our support, we should be attentive to our support of those who have not yet heard the Gospel.
Engaging through Prayer
Dear God, so many times my giving priorities are not made in prayer and with an understanding of your Kingdom priorities. Help me to seek you as I give and invest in the things that you would have for me to support. I pray that the resources needed to reach those who have never heard the Gospel would be mobilized by the power of your Holy Spirit and the obedience of your people. Amen
Personal Reflection
What if all the money you gave in a year was like water flowing out of a pitcher and into various glasses on the table. Which glasses would be most full. One with quite a bit of water might be the glass for your local church. Another might be a key ministry that you support faithfully. Now look at the other glasses on the table that are near empty. Which ones are they? What does your missions glass look like? More specifically what does the glass for missions to those have not yet heard look like? Use this visual picture to consider your current giving patterns and ask God if you need to make some changes.
Engaging the Church
So many churches today are getting very intentional and focused with their missions giving. Is that your reality? If so, how have you included those places with the fewest Christians in your strategy? For churches who are giving much more broadly, do you have a sense for which of your missionaries and projects have a focus on the unreached and un-evangelized? Take some time to assess your giving and ask God for wisdom to know if you should stay the course or make changes to your approach.
Organizational Application
If you are an organization that is working in areas where those who have never heard live, how might you use some of the data and perspective in this infographic to raise the awareness of your constituents? You may have this need as a burning passion, but are you explaining it to your constituents in a way they can understand?
If you are a ministry working among those who have great needs but have a significant Gospel witness, what is your response to this message? You might look at how your work is raising up those around the world to go as missionaries or working with diaspora who are from places with little access. You also might need to consider other lenses describing who is reached. Just because someone lives in a country with a higher percentage of Christians doesn’t mean that they have adequate access to the Gospel. If that is the case in your situation, work to explain your unique contribution and approach.
In the end, whether you are working in a place like Haiti with great needs and a large Christian population or a place like Pakistan with so few Christians and great persecution, your work needs to be seen and presented as part of the bigger picture of God’s Kingdom on the Move!
Sources
1
Johnstone, Patrick, Future of the Global Church (Chicago, IVPress, 2011) page 165.
http://www.gmi.org/products/books/future-global-church/
2
Joshua Project http://joshuaproject.net/help/faqs
3
Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo, eds. World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill,
accessed January 2015), www.worldchristiandatabase.org.
4
The Foundation Center, International Grantmaking Update, 2012,
http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/pdf/intl_update_2012.pdf.
5
Giving USA 2015, the Annual Report on Philanthropy,
http://givingusa.org/product/giving-usa-2015-report-highlights/.
6
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, ECFA State of Giving Report 2014,
http://www.ecfa.org/Content/2014-ECFA-Annual-State-of-Giving-Report.
7
Charities Aid Foundation, World Giving Index 2014,
https://www.cafonline.org/about-us/publications/2014-publications/world-giving-index-2014.
8
David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200
(Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2001), page 661.
https://missionbooks.org/products/detail/world-christian-trends-ad-30-ad-2200
9
Joshua Project, www.joshuaproject.net
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Permissions
The representation of this data is copyrighted by World Mission and the information within is used by permission. GMIis sharing this visualization as a Missiographic with permission. Anyone seeking rights to utilize this infographic must receive permission from World Mission. Please email World Mission for more information at [email protected].