Christianity Today recently published a brief article debunking a number of myths about missions and missionaries — “Missionary Myths.”
Among the myths the article countered were:
- “There are pressing needs right here.”
- “Short-termers can do it.”
- “Let the nationals do it.”
- “The task has been completed.”
- “Maybe there are other ways to God.”
- “Missionaries have been poor witnesses of the gospel.”
The statement that caused me to pause was this:
…there are still 6,700 ethnic groups without a viable gospel witness. According to the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, approximately 1.8 billion souls still have not heard the gospel. And many more need to rehear it, particularly in secularized places such as Europe.
We are prone to thinking that evangelism is largely accomplished. Something on the order of 25% of the world’s population has never heard the gospel. One of every four people know nothing of the redeeming work of Christ. And many who know something of Christ do not care about Christ and dismiss their need for Christ and salvation. And they all — each individual person — will spend eternity in hell apart from the movement of God’s grace in their hearts and the preaching of a preacher to their hearing ears.
Words of Grace 