Whole Gospel, Whole Church, Whole World
(Final in a three-part series – the full length version of this article appears in the Spring 2012 issue of Save Our World magazine from Church of God World Missions, available online at www.cogsaveourworld.org).
By Grant McClung
Whole World
The whole gospel must be lived out by the whole church in the whole world. Mission in our world is not only defined by maps (geography) but by the significant missiological opportunities of migration and global mobility in a borderless world in which more than 200 million people are living outside their countries of origin. The late missions visionary/missiologist Ralph Winter wrote that, “Diaspora missiology may well be the most important undigested reality in missions thinking today. We simply have not caught up with the fact that most of the world’s people can no longer be defined geographically.”
It is a world now demographically defined by mega-cities and multicultural societies. The urban challenge is massive but the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit is amazing. Pentecostal/Charismatic churches are found by the thousands in 80% of the world’s largest 3,300 cities. Multicultural, international, English-language churches are being planted exponentially in mega-cities around the world. Typically, these congregations represent dozens of nationalities and are filled with refugees, diaspora immigrants, international students, expatriate business people, and bi-lingual nationals.
According to Dan Brewster of Compassion International, the whole world challenge must also include minors [children], an oft-forgotten “M” opportunity. Brewster is a leading global advocate for children. He joins missions strategist Luis Bush in championing the cause for the “4/14 Window,” a strategic push to disciple children in the ages of 4-14, most of whom are growing up outside of a Christian influence and away from access to the gospel.
The whole world is a hostile and violent one in which believers are threatened with militancy, marginalization, and martyrdom. God’s global people are facing persecution, dangers, and challenges unprecedented in the history of the worldwide expansion of the church.
Prayer Points: Let us pray for (1) kingdom workers in the diaspora and those developing the new field of “diaspora missiology;” (2) urban church planters and leaders of international churches in major cities;(3) children’s workers and advocates; (4) the persecuted church and families of Christian martyrs.
A historical anecdote is told about a Roman centurion and his men who were hopelessly lost somewhere in the northern corner of what we now call “the U.K.” (United Kingdom). No doubt he was far beyond the familiar “Hadrian’s Wall” or other Roman-built geographical markers. With a dispatch back to Rome, he sent his plea to his commander: “Send new orders. We’ve marched off the map!” As we obey Christ’s commission in world evangelization, we will be “marching off the map” into unfamiliar, new places and challenges. Our Master, however, is the sovereign Lord of the Harvest (Matthew 9.38) and has assured us that He is working with us — even to the ends of the earth and until the end of the age (Mark 16.20; Matthew 28.20).
He promised that, “…this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24.14). Until He comes, our motto is the final “M” in world evangelization: “Maranatha” – “the Lord is coming!”
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Grant McClung is the author of Globalbeliever.com: Connecting to God’s Work in Your World (www.MissionsResourceGroup.org, 2010) and International Missionary Educator with Church of God World Missions