Good News About the Good News
In 1974, evangelist Billy Graham and theologian John Stott brought together 2,400 Christians from around the world in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The meeting wasn’t designed to inspire so much as to conspire. To talk about finishing the task Jesus gave all believers: Go into the entire world and make disciples of Him.
Since then, the Lausanne Movement has become a resource for Christians everywhere who are serious about fulfilling Jesus’s “Great Commission.”
Last year, the Movement issued a report stating that an estimated 29 percent of the world’s population
— around 2.1 billion people — “have little or no gospel access.”
That’s way too many. But it’s also good to hear than more than 70 percent of the 7.2 billion people on the planet either have heard the Gospel or have access to it.
Who Are the Christians?
In 2018, about 2.5 billion people professed some form of Christian faith. The majority identified as Catholic (49 percent), Protestant (22 percent), or Orthodox (12 percent). The rest include everyone from Anglicans to Mennonites, and certain groups at odds with historic Christianity.
Are all of these 2.5 billion people truly followers of Jesus, people who have trusted in Christ for forgiveness and new life? Based on Jesus’s own words about many calling Him “Lord” on false pretenses, no. There’s also a lot of false teaching out there; in Micronesia, for example, spirit worship often mixes in with “Evangelical” faith.
But there are millions of people who actively and faithfully are following Christ.
Where do most of them live? The biggest single number live in Africa (more than 630 million) and Latin America (a bit over 600 million).
In what countries is Christianity growing the fastest? One of them, if not the top, is Nepal. That’s right — a little country nestled along India’s northwest corner, famous for gigantic mountains and the people who climb them (or die trying, quite literally).
“The country has one of the fastest-growing Christian communities in the world, tripling to more than 300,000 in the past 10 years,” according to a recent CBN report. “Those numbers are continuing to climb.”
The Life-Changing Gospel
Wherever it has gone, the life-changing news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, rose from the dead, and restores to fellowship with God all who trust in Him has produced good things. Education. Hospitals. Respect for human dignity. Prosperity.
The Gospel heals wounds, breaks addictions, gives hope, mends relationships. And it brings people of every tribe and nation to the living and true God.
How can Christians complete the task assigned to them by the Lord of the church?
Certainly one way is the wise and extensive use of technology. A few years ago, former Apple executive Walt Wilson, now head of Global Media Outreach, said, “We are the first generation in all of human history to hold within our hands the technology to reach every man, woman and child on the earth by 2020. Our generation has within its grasp everything that is required to fulfill the Great Commission.”
Wi-fi is everywhere, or close to it. It’s a tool for the rapid spread of the good news.
But it’s not enough. There has to be a component no technique or electronic innovation can duplicate: Relationships.
There is nothing like in-person, face-to-face, eye contact communication. Whether it be sitting in a suburban coffee shop or living in a primitive jungle camp, Christians have to be with and live life with those who don’t yet know Jesus.
Tracts, websites, television and radio programs, podcasts, you name it — all are great ways of introducing people to the Savior. But with that introduction made, there needs to be personal follow-up. Mentorship. Discipleship.
Granted, sometimes that’s hard, given distance and a government’s restrictions or similar things. Yet whenever possible, making a personal investment in the lives of unbelievers is one with eternal returns.
Currently, according to the Lausanne Movement
, “Researchers are tracking over 150 church planting movements, and more are being added every year … Disciples reproduce. Leaders reproduce. Churches reproduce and love and obey him by helping the widow and orphan, healing the sick, stop selling children into slavery, casting out demons, and sharing the good news of the Kingdom.”
What could be more exciting than to be part of this kind of world-transforming activity? Whether in your neighborhood or Nepal?