This past week, I (Doug) was pondering some of the various groups that have challenged us to “finish the task.” There’s (speaking of which) “Finishing the Task” ( https://finishingthetask.com/ ) and 24:14 ( https://2414now.net/ ). Those who have been around a longer while might even remember back to AD2000 & Beyond ( https://www.ad2000.org/ ) and, of course, Adopt-a-People ( https://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/adopt-a-people-the-global-strategy-to-reach-all-of-the-unreached-peoples ). There’s “A Third of Us” ( https://athirdofus.com/ ) — and now, even, “Finish 2030” ( https://finish2030.com/ ). All of these campaigns have one goal in common: Fulfill the commands that Christ gave so long ago, summed up in Great Commission passages like Matthew 28:19-20. So we have several questions:
- Which campaign helped you or your church/group to get up and get moving the most? In what way did you respond?
- Is the idea of a campaign even a sound one in the first place? …or is it misguided?
- What’s the perfect idea for such a campaign, in your mind? How might we motivate churches and organizations to press forward?
It does seem like churches and groups have been moving toward fulfillment more in the past half-century, right? I mean… think about it…. Some of our readers probably remember the first Lausanne Conference (in Lausanne, Switzerland). I mean… we’re just two years away from the 50-year anniversary, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_International_Congress_on_World_Evangelization . It was at that conference — and the one before it, in Amsterdam ( https://billygrahamlibrary.org/amsterdam-1986-banner/ ) — in which world evangelism kick-started again in our day, right? In Lausanne, Ralph Winter introduced “hidden peoples” and — everybody was completely bowled over. Can you imagine… 48 years later… that missions has picked up this kind of steam?
What was the deciding moment for your organization or church? Where can we go tomorrow? We’d love to hear. Just click… Comment.
There’s also https://madetomultiply.org/ . What’s your favorite?
As a mobilizer since 1992 my finish line has never been a date, or a single house church established in an unreached people group or even a self-multiplying church-planting movement among every people, tribe, language, and nation. These restricted goals irritate me as they don’t, in my opinion, help the church engage in Christ’s heart and plan. In these strategy step goals, we tend to adjust the goal of Christ to something sub-par that we think we can measure or promote and fit between rounds of golf. Bologna! If THE GOAL is to do our job in speeding Christ’s return – 2 Peter 3 – and THE PLAN is to disciple all ethne – Matthew 28, then how many hands have been raised, people groups adopted or initially engaged is simply myopic.
In World War 2, the allied goal was not a beachhead in Europe or Japan but the total unconditional surrender of the enemy. Shouldn’t our total surrender to Christ and all the ethne as true disciples be our slogan? If so, then let’s stop coming up high school garage band names. Or maybe I can wait to reuse the campaign button in my desk that I got from Wycliffe as a church kid that says, “Every tribe by 85.”
Could these slogans be contributing to our lack of disciples and boring the church? Yes, we need the bible languages it is not available in, as we also need to prioritize the unreached and engage those people groups not yet engaged. I believe in these strategical endeavors. The majority of Buddhist, Hindus and Muslims do not personally know a Christian capable to share Christ. Frankly, we must reconcile the races, care for the widow, the orphan, the poor and the foreigner. These are integral parts of the mission.
During our discipling, fighting and dying for the values of Christ’s kingdom progressing toward Christ unknowable return date, I believe things are going to get much harder, more treacherous, restricted, illegal and deadly. Our typical triumphant slogans of finish may likewise lack the sober depth of resolve needed for the sacrifice, persecution, and martyrdom we should expect.
But even if we make radical transformative progress toward all of slogans and we surrender all to the strategic tasks, I don’t think we’re finished till the King returns!