FORWARD TOGETHER Continued from page 7


He visited Gentiles, such as Rahab, Ruth, and Namaan. In the Psalms, He inspired more than 175 references that related to the nations of the earth coming to salvation in Him.


Jesus was a missionary. He knew why He came. In Matthew 20:28, He explained that He had not come “to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” In John 10:11, He declared He would lay down His life for His sheep. In John 1, He revealed the mystery of His incarnation. In verse 29, He is the Lamb of God. In 12:32, He showed the manner of His death—He would be lifted up and draw all people to Himself. He came to the earth and lived among men and became one with them that they could become one with Him. That is the work of a missionary. I am convinced that God is calling His people to be a missionary people and His church a missionary church. The Church will fulfill its purpose by a great


commitment to the Great Commission. Before the foundation of the world, God decided the death of His only Son would not be in vain. More people are now alive on Planet Earth than have lived in history, nearly 7 billion. The greatest harvest of souls ever is going on. Around the world, 3,000 souls are saved every 25 minutes. The Great Commission is coming to your house. Embrace it. Practice it. Process it. In recent months, I have read that the Church of God is recognized as the 25th largest denomination in the United States. Considering that 224 North Amer- ican denominations exist, that’s pretty good. Reports indicate that the only two evangelical churches experiencing growth last year were the Church of God (2.04 %) and the Assemblies of God (.96 %). Am I boasting? No. I’m saying we have a responsibility to the 21st century to rise from our Pentecostal foundation and go forward to achieve our God-ordained destiny. We have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this. Pluralism, terror- ism, recession, starvation, genocide, abuse, immorality, war, shattered lives, broken


homes, disease, prejudice, sin, idolatry, and materialism oppose the mission of God. The Church must respond with Great Commission action. If not now, when? If not us, who?


I remember the words of John F. Kennedy when he accepted his party’s nomination for the presidency. He said, “The New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of chal- lenges. It sums


Read “Finding Jesus Behind Bars” in the October print edition of Evangel.


up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. . . . It holds out the promise of more sacri- fice instead of more security.”


I call the Church of God to the chal- lenge of the Great Commission. I ask of the church not security, but sacrifice. The Great Commission is the solution.


*Unless otherwise noted, scriptures are from the New King James Version.


Social Club or Real Church?


RALPH WINTER, one of the greatest missionaries and trainers of missionaries in the 20th and early 21st centuries, was heard to refer to many churches in the United States as “social clubs.” The people pay dues, attend club meetings, enjoy mutual fellowship, and then go home without anything having been accomplished. Unless a church looks beyond the limits of their walls and their church property line, they have not become a Great Commission church. An exercise that produces a dramatic wake-up call for Christians is available to anyone who has access to a computer. The website www.worldometer.info, a service of the British Broadcasting Company, shows a continuously counting “clock” that records world population, births this year and this day, and deaths this year and this day. It is sobering to watch the rapidly streaming numbers reveal 115 deaths every minute of the day, around the clock.


Christian demographers tell the church that among the world’s 6.8 billion inhabitants, a little more than 2 billion people do not know the name of Jesus. They have never heard it or the truth of the gospel. The Church has its work cut out for it. —Bill George (from Until All Have Heard)


EVANGEL | October 2010 27


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