from November 4, 2012 prayer update

I had the opportunity to teach Perspectives lesson 9 (“the task remaining”) three times in October. The mantra of this lesson is that God has not called His Church to simply “engage” in the Great Commission, He has called His Church to “complete” the Great Commission.

What does it mean to “complete” the Great Commission? I believe the answer is simple, but it is not easy. Biblically grounded and culturally relevant evangelism, disciple making, and church planting with every people group on the planet. We embrace too small a vision (a less than Biblical vision) for our church when our church’s vision is anything less than this.

In this lesson a major topic I discuss is “the 10 greatest challenges for this generation”. What remains for the Church of Jesus Christ to do to be able to say she has completed the Great Commission?

One of these 10 greatest challenges is the issue of language. It is estimated there are 6900 languages worldwide. Only 490 of these languages has a complete Bible. Another 1660 have a complete New Testament. Another 950 have Bible portions. And 1400 have translation projects underway. Sadly 2300 (1/3 of the world’s languages) have absolute nothing. How can Biblically grounded and culturally relevant evangelism, disciple making, and church planting happen without the Scriptures in the heart language of the people?

The good news is Wycliffe’s 2025 vision. Their vision is that by the year 2025 (13 years from now) a translation project will be started with every language. Wycliffe gets it. It is not enough to engage in the Great Commission. God has called His Church to complete the Great Commission. With amazing advances in technology and methodology developed by a Wycliffe sister organization (The Seed Company), Bible translation work can now be done in half the time it took a few years ago.

Unfortunately the task is more complex than this. What if a person or perhaps an entire people group can’t read? Then translating the Scriptures into their heart language is not a sufficient foundation upon which to launch the work of evangelism, disciple making, and church planting.

Did you know that only 37% of the world is literate? Another 35% is functionally illiterate (able to do very basic reading and writing, but not using it enough to be useful). 25% are completely illiterate. And another 3% are visually impaired. Missiologists have labeled this challenge the “orality” challenge. 70% of the world’s nearly 7000 unreached people groups are illiterate. They are part of the orality challenge.

Many of the leading missions sending organization are taking this orality challenge very seriously, including Pioneers. They are embracing technologies that allow people to hear the Scriptures in their heart language (after it has been translated) via inexpensive devices powered by solar energy with memory chips containing the Bible and other evangelism and discipling tools. They are also embracing Bible storying methodologies for evangelism, discipleship, and church planting that better tap into how people learn in oral cultures. Many are also embracing CPM (church planting movement) methodologies built around simple church and easily reproducible forms, which are very well suited for oral learners. Methodologies like “discovery Bible study”.

For the college educated in mega-churches in the Western world, much of this is far outside the realm of our personal experience. But it represents the reality of much of the task that remains. Please pray for the work of Pioneers and other excellent sending organizations that are taking seriously the task of “completing” the Great Commission.