Global Focus
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”––Matthew 9:35–38
Dear South Cities Family,
We serve a global God who cares about his global glory. He is working to save a people from their sins by the blood of the Lamb that will worship him from every tribe, tongue, people, language, and nation. And we believe the pattern in the word of God for how he will accomplish his mission is through the church. That is, local churches that treasure Jesus above all else and are therefore led to think about, pray for, and work towards making disciples of all peoples––those near and those far.
We use the word “peoples” on purpose. We believe Jesus is seeking and will have worshipers from every ethnic group––sometimes there are hundreds of ethnic groups (people separated by language, geography, and culture) in small areas of space. There is no perfectly accurate way to figure out how many people still haven’t heard the good news of Jesus, but one place that tries to gather information accurately and helpfully is the Joshua Project. According to their latest data there is still about 42% of the world that is unreached––having less than 5% of people as believers in Jesus. That’s equal to about 3.4 billion people who will be born, live, and die with no access to the gospel that could save them from their sins, bring them eternal life, and bring them into the family of God. This is a helpful number to help us feel the sadness and horror of the lostness of the world. I hope it helps you–– like Jesus did in the passage above––have compassion on them, because they are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
We believe the word of God lays forth clearly that the goal of missions to those who have not heard the gospel is clear: preach the gospel and gather those who believe into churches where the gospel can be faithfully preached, Jesus can be faithfully followed, believers can faithfully love each other, and can then faithfully spread the gospel to their neighbors. This way, there is a faithful witness, a lampstand in the darkness for a long time to come. So, that is our goal as we think and pray about these things––to raise up and support workers that either a) go to places with no faithful local churches to preach the gospel and establish one that will seek to plant others, or b) go to places where faithful churches are few, weak, struggling, or have a particular need to support and to strengthen them for a season.
We’re not a huge church, but we can and are called to do our part to think, pray about, and work towards this great cause to see the gospel run and churches established both near (in these south cities) and far (overseas) for the sake of the name of Jesus. If you want to know more about how we’re thinking through the call of the church to make disciples of all peoples you can read our Guiding Principles document.
We also want to use this week of Global Focus to kick off a year of prayer for a few particular people groups that some of our global partners are seeking to preach the gospel to and see local churches established. Would you begin to pray for them even now and commit with us to pray for them and our global partners for the next year that God would grant the gospel to run, save, and bring new believers together to worship?
As we pause for Global Focus this week, would you pray for your heart to be stirred up in compassion for the lost in the world both near and far? Would you pray for your heart to be stirred up for those who are harassed and helpless? Would you pray for more laborers to go into the harvest? Would you ask God––starting today and through the next week––if he may be calling you to pray about or move toward a call to go to the peoples?
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Global Focus Events
View the full schedule of events here.
Ways to Be Involved in Global Outreach at South Cities
Pray!
Join a Barnabas Team
Help with practical needs when our global partners are home (vehicle use, home to stay in, meals)
Learn more about our Nurture Program, if you are sensing a call to go to the nations
(Email global@southcities.church, with the appropriate subject line for the information you are looking for: Barnabas Team, Practical Needs, or Nurture Program.)
Praying compassionately for more laborers for the harvest with you,
Pastor Dave
