Into all the world: the meaning of Global Mission

More and more I was convicted that time was short and Jesus was about to come. I determined that somehow I would share the hope of salvation with those whom I had neglected for years."

Result? Brenda led 11 fellow workers, friends, and relatives to Jesus Christ in 1991.

"From the day of my baptism three years ago in the college chapel, I felt God speaking to me, 'Go home and be My witness.' I was afraid, for there was not a single other Adventist in my family, my town, or even my state. It's a miracle.

God has sustained us. Many are now faithfully worshiping God, and many others are studying His Word. Yes, I have been beaten a few times, thrown out of my house, and our simple little church structure has been burned. We are still at great risk, for this is not a Christian country. Oh, but the joy that has been mine to work with God."

Result? Since 1991, 42 people now faithfully worship and witness for God in a land of 1.2 million people with previously no Adventists and very few Christians.

To become a Christian is to proclaim Jesus Christ. A Christian has no other business, no higher priority, than to tell others of Jesus' love and His offer of salvation. Seventh-day Adventists every where affirm with the apostle Paul: "We preach Christ." This is Global Mission.

A century of growth Seventh-day Adventists are one of the fastest-growing churches. At the time of the 1888 General Conference session, there was one Adventist for every 58,000 people in the world. In 1929 the ratio had improved to one for every 6,837. Just prior to World War II there was one Adventist for every 4,549. In 1960 it rose to one in 2,425.

Today, for every 758 of the world's population one is an Adventist. Of the 250 million people who live in South America, one out of 230 is a Seventh-day Adventist. Of the 46 million who live in the Philippines, one out of 90 is an Adventist. Rwanda, in Central Africa, how ever, takes the statistical lead with one Adventist out of every 33 people.

Around the world every 52 seconds another person is baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist.

New horizons

In the face of this rapid worldwide growth, most Seventh-day Adventists are shocked to learn that 89 percent of the church's 6.5 million members are concentrated in areas where only 23 percent of the world's population lives. This means that only 11 percent of church member ship is found in heavily peopled areas with 77 percent of the world's population. We praise God for the rapid growth of the church in Central and South America, the southern half of the African continent, South Korea, the Philippines, and the South Pacific Division. Could it be that God is now directing the church to additional windows of opportunity?

God prepares the church At the 1990 General Conference session the church officially launched the Global Mission initiative to establish a Seventh-day Adventist presence * in all unentered lands and people groups. In clear and deliberate language, the world session called for a rebirth of missions: to awaken the church to a sense of mission, under the empowering of the Holy Spirit, to take the good news from everywhere to everywhere. Global Mission is an initiative whose time has come.

In 1987 at the Annual Council in Rio de Janeiro, Neal C. Wilson, then General Conference president, first called for a global strategy that would place Adventists in every corner of the world. Robert S. Folkenberg, now General Conference president, was a member of the group that initially drafted the Global Strategy document that now serves as the base from which the Global Mission program has developed. God's leading has been evident as He positioned the church to respond to one of the most unprecedented sweeping geopolitical changes ever to take place in the history of the world.

In 1987 the earth was pregnant with change. The Soviet Union was about to open its doors, allowing free access to 280 million people hungering and thirsting for something better. The walls of Eastern Europe were coming down, and China's 1.2 billion people were on the verge of experiencing greater religious freedom. Tremendous opportunities were about to open among the vast millions of South Asia. Christian growth was beginning to make inroads into the 1.1 billion people of the Islamic world.

The world of 1992 is vastly different from that of 1987. We are in transition economic, spiritual, cultural, and political. Values are being redefined. There is a longing for stability, direction, and meaning. And where people are in transition, spiritual opportunities exist. Yet it is not only opportunities that indicate that Global Mission's time has come. The pace of the great controversy between good and evil has quickened. Satan knows that time is short, and those agencies that work with him are busy setting the stage of deception.

Jesus is coming again

Seventh-day Adventists are familiar with the signs of Jesus' coming. Every newspaper illustrates Matthew 24 and points to the nearness of His return. Negative signs seem to stand out false christs, earthquakes, pestilences, a semblance to the days of Noah. Matthew also speaks of a positive sign of Jesus' coming: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world... and then shall the end come (verse 14)". Is this sign being fulfilled today?

Paul says it will happen. Romans 9:25-28 affirms that God's children will be found in the lands where it was said God has no people. The text also places this harvest at the time when the remnant will be gathered. It will be a short work, and God will finish it.

What are the challenges? Where is the land that yet remains? Is a harvest taking place in those lands? What should the Seventh-day Adventist Church be doing?

The challenge

One out of every 6.5 persons in the world is a Muslim, and there are 1.1 billion of them. While there is one Seventh-day Adventist for every 758 population worldwide, in the Middle East the ratio is one to every 50,500. India's 900 million are predominantly Hindu. In north India, areas without an Adventist have a population twice the total population of the United States. China has 1.2 billion people. The combined population of North, Central, and South America is less than the population of areas within China without an Adventist presence. In the Buddhist world, one out of every 8,400 is a Seventh-day Adventist.

While there are no unentered groups of 1 million people in Eastern Europe, Western Europe has 43 such segments.

Massive urban areas that account for 60 percent of the world's population pose an increasing challenge to evangelism.

Progress—"Where they say God has no people"

Islam. Which area of the world has the highest percentage of church growth? Inter-America? South America? South east Africa? Papua New Guinea? Over a 10-year period, the church in one Middle Eastern country has experienced a growth rate of 814 percent. By the power of the Holy Spirit more than 50 new churches will be planted in the Middle East by the year 2000. Recently 43 were baptized in a country that has never had a Seventh-day Adventist presence before. Muslim North Africa has had similar experience.

Hinduism. 1992 marks 100 years of Seventh-day Adventist presence in India. During these years 800 companies and churches have been established. In the next eight years the Southern Asia Division hopes to organize 950 new companies and churches. More than 120 of these have already been established, 91 in areas of 1 million people that have had no Adventist presence. Nepal now has an organized company of believers.

Communism to Christianity. Thou sands of people are filling and refilling public evangelism halls in the independent countries that have emerged from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Cambodia, formerly unentered, now has several groups of believers.

China. According to a Chinese government report, there are 200,000 Seventh-day Adventists in China. Recent advances in religious freedom have made it possible for thousands to respond to the gospel. Within the guidelines provided by the government, the church has experienced significant growth.

Buddhism. Adventist work began in Sri Lanka 80 years ago. In all these years Adventists have a presence in only 10 of the 22 predominantly Buddhist districts of Sri Lanka. Since 1990, amid intense persecution and church burnings, groups of believers have been established in seven additional states. It is the goal of the Sri Lanka Union to have groups worshiping in all 22 districts by the year 1995. In Thailand, where Buddhism claims 62 million, the Adventist Church has planted 31 new churches and plans to establish 106 more by the year 2000.

Youth. A grass-roots movement among the youth of the church is impacting on Global Mission. Apart from the Holy Spirit, the most significant worldwide variable that is making Global Mission go forward is the young people. Think of the young Task-force teams scattered around the world. Consider the students from Spicer College and the difference they are making for Global Mission in India. Hundreds of young people are risking their lives at this very moment to plant the gospel in closed and hostile areas of the world. The Far Eastern Division has just launched the most dynamic youth missionary movement, with plans to send 1,000 missionaries into Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Communist countries.

Everybody to everywhere

What is Global Mission? I want to make one thing perfectly clear. Global Mission is an initiative to penetrate the unentered areas of the world with the gospel of Jesus. Every country of the world has "unentered areas." A next door neighbor can be an unentered area. In this task, every division, union, conference/ mission, church, and member has a part.

Some have misunderstood the Global Mission initiative. They have thought that it was a program for some far-off distant land for which they were to con tribute money. Giving money is important and appreciated, but Global Mission extends much further. If a conference/ mission or a church has not identified unentered areas close to home and be come involved in taking Jesus to neighbors and friends, that conference/mission or church has missed one very important aspect of Global Mission.

For example, the Atlantic Union, in the North American Division, has tentatively selected more than 50 unentered areas for penetration. The South American Division, with a membership of more than 1 million, has identified 4,172 unentered municipalities. By 1995 the division hopes to have a Seventh-day Adventist presence in every municipality.

Global Mission information for pastors

Global Mission office at the General Conference. For more information on Global Mission services, call toll-free (within the USA) 1-800-648-5824. For example, call:

• to involve your church in prayer for a specific unentered area.

• for more information on the progress and challenge of Global Mission.

• to find out how your church can be involved in small projects. Small projects are those that (1) are affordable; (2) focus on finishing the work preaching Christ and establishing a body of believers in an unentered area; and (3) include frequent reports to inform church members of results.

• for speakers for Global Mission weekends.

• for materials for a church Global Mission bulletin board (many churches are doing this).

Center for International Relations. Call if people or youth groups would like to volunteer to take Jesus to an unentered area.

Study Centers. Centers focusing on the challenges and opportunities of working among Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and the urban masses have been established in different parts of the world field.

Organization and finance

Membership involvement forms the backbone of Global Mission. Global Mission has been organized as the president's program. From conference/mission to the General Conference, the president takes responsibility for direction and emphasis. Global Mission serves to coordinate existing church resources to establish Seventh-day Adventist congregations in unentered areas. All play a part. Without the participation of dedicated Adventists and such ministries as the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, Adventist World Radio, Church Ministries, Communication, Education, Health and Temperance, Ministerial, Publishing, and other departments and institutions, Global Mission would have no resources or pro grams. All of these entities play a role and are vital in realizing the Global Mission objective. Global Mission itself is not a department, but an initiative to which every resource of the church is being summoned.

The General Conference provides a special Global Mission appropriation to the four divisions and one attached union in which are found most of the unentered territories. Approximately 12 percent of the General Conference Global Mission funds go for operation of the Global Mission Office at the General Conference. The Global Mission Office includes the Center for International Relations, Global Urban Mission, and the three Religious Study Centers located in England, India, and Thailand. Other divisions also receive funds for Global Mission projects as provided by donors through development. When donors send money for a Global Mission project, all of the funds are sent to the project and none of the funds are kept for operational overhead.

The window of opportunity for Global Mission may remain open only for a moment a moment filled with the great est display of the power of the Holy Spirit, a moment in which the unveiled ambitions of evil will directly conflict with Christ's desire that all people will go to heaven. We are God's ambassadors to proclaim the hope of Jesus Christ to a lost world. Now is the time. God's church will rise to the challenge of Global Mission.