What do you have? What do you do with it? The following information came from a video shown at Urbana 2000; I just saw it last night. I hope this little section may make many American Christians re-consider what they are doing with what they have. It has for me.
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WESTERNIZED CHRISTIANS & LOST PEOPLE“Jesus said to them, ‘Friends, have you caught any fish?’”
Despite the amazing progress made in world evangelization in the last quarter century,
TWO BILLION people in the world still live without the opportunity to learn about Jesus Christ.
“He said to them, ‘cast the net to the other side of the boat, and you will find some’.”
An estimated
Ten Thousand people groups have no indigenous Christian witness. Yet Christians are allocating only a tiny fraction of their resources to these un-reached peoples.
Worldwide,
Christians earn a total of $12.3 trillion a year.Only 1.7% is given to
Christian causes of any kind.
Of this 1.7%, only 5.4% is given to
foreign missions.
Of this 5.4%, only 1% goes to efforts directly focused on the people
without an opportunity to hear about Jesus.
“Jesus said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’.” —Luke 10:2
95% of all people who have never heard the news of Jesus
live outside of the western hemisphere; yet
few western Christians will go with the gospel
beyond their own borders.
(FOR INFORMATION ON THE 10/40 WINDOW,
LOOK BELOW AND CLICK
HERE.)
Most, 74% of all Protestant missionaries, work among groups that are already at least nominally Christian.
Put another way, only 1 of every 20,000 Christians goes to tell the Good News to the people who actually have not heard.
“Jesus said to them; ‘Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do’.” —Mark 1:38
In the United States of America alone, there are over Thirty Thousand different Bible study guides, and over 20 different English Bible translations.
At the same time, more than three thousand languages don’t have a single printed verse of scripture.
“Jesus said to them; ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners’.” —Mark 2:17
Furthermore, over 90% of major Christian resources and media tools benefit majority Christian countries.
In short, most of our offerings to God go to meet our own needs.
“Jesus said to them, ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?’” —Luke 15:4
Scripture quotations taken from:
New Revised Standard Version Bible Copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches in the United States of America.
Video resources courtesy of
International Fellowship of Evangelical Students
(IFES Media)
James Ewing Media Services
Jeffrey Pohorski
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19–21).
