Then saith he unto his disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” ~ Matthew 9:37, 38 (KJV)
READING: John 4:27-38
Many books and websites remind us that there is a tremendous need to reach the unreached people groups and plant churches among them, especially into the 10/40 window. But, even outside the 10/40 window, there are thousands of small towns and villages that do not have the viable presence of a dynamic growing church. Those unreached villages should be the responsibility of the believers who are nearest in their vicinity. These more local believers often need training and motivating to do it.
Even though our current church plant can take up most of our own strength and energies, we ought to instill in our people the vision for others around the world who have much less opportunity to know and grow in Christ. We should expose our congregations to other church planters and give them a worldwide vision for reaching the needy nations around the world.
Every church is tempted to focus only its own needs. Therefore, missions visioning should be an integral part of our church planting strategy and the teachings that we give them. Do you invite missionaries in to give the vision for the nations? Have you considered a missions conference to motivate your people to reach out beyond the four walls of the local church? If not, why don’t you pray about it and then do it?
Dear Heavenly Father, I believe that is never too soon to train my people to have a heart to reach other nations. Please give me your heart for the nations and the wisdom to organize our church to have an impact in the nations. Amen.
