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ILLUSTRTATION: ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN?
Addressing a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, "We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously...The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable similar in both groups.
Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith.
SOURCE: Erwin Lutzer, Pastor to Pastor, p. 76
We live in a very stress-filled world. In fact, experts say that 43% – almost half of all adults – suffer adverse health affects due to stress. One million workers here in the United States are absent on an average work day because of stress related complaints.
[Are Fathers Necessary?, Citation: Charles Colson, How Now Shall We Live (Tyndale, 1999)]
In How Now Shall We Live, Chuck Colson notes the disturbing realities that plague children who grow up without a father:
Children in single-parent families are five times more likely to be poor, and half the single mothers in the United States live below the poverty line.
Children of divorce suffer intense grief, which often lasts for many years.
Even as young adults, they are nearly twice as likely to require psychological help.
Children from disrupted families have more academic and behavioral problems at school and are nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school.
Girls in single-parent homes are at a much greater risk for precocious sexuality and are two and a half times more likely to have a child out of wedlock.
Crime and substance abuse are strongly linked to fatherless households.
Statistics show that 60 percent of rapists grew up in fatherless homes, as did 72 percent of adolescent murderers, and 70 percent of all long-term prison inmates.
In fact, most of the social pathologies disrupting American life today can be traced to fatherlessness.
SUFFERING
12433. Beaten Into Higher Value
A bar of steel is worth five dollars. When it is wrought into horseshoes, it is worth ten dollars. If made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty dollars. If wrought into penknife blades, it is worth thirty-two thousand dollars. And if it is wrought into springs for watches, it is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth a higher value. But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed through the f...
Women, did you know that sexual promiscuity takes a heavier toll on you than it does men? You are more susceptible to STD than men, for example. A woman is eight times more likely than a man to contract HIV from a single sexual encounter and four times more likely to get gonorrhea when exposed. Women are also more likely to suffer serious damage, such as sterility or cervical cancer, from STDs (Linda Chavez, Girls Behaving Badly).
According to the American Institute of Stress [I’ll bet that’s a fun place to work], 43 percent of Americans suffer from stress-related health problems. (Source: Referenced in Fast Company, May 2000, "Cease and De-Stress", http://www.fastcompany.com/feature/stress.html)
Luther"'s ten qualifications for the minister:
1) He should be able to teach plainly and in order.
2) He should have a good head.
3) Good power of language.
4) A good voice.
5) A good memory.
6) He should know when to stop.
7) He should be sure of what he means to say.
8) And be ready to stake body and soul, goods and reputation on its truth.
9) He should study diligently.
10) And suffer him self to be vexed and criticized by everyone.
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of one hundred people; here’s the way the world would look:
There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, and 8 Africans.
50 would suffer from malnutrition and one would be near death. Only one would have a college education, and only one would own a computer.
80 would live in substandard housing.
70 would be unable to read.
6 would possess 59% of the world’s wealth and all 6 would be from North America.
We attend church without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death. We are better off than 3...
Vital Statistics From Operation World (6th Edition, 2001, Patrick Johnstone, and Jason Mandryk) Paternoster, Waynesboro, GA
1. 15-25% of the population of the world is yet to hear a clear presentation of the gospel so that they can personally place saving faith in Christ for salvation.
2. Only 6.3% of the world’s population lives in a culture without a witnessing church – though in large populations many would have little chance to visit one.
3. 93.7% of the population lives where they have a witnessing church, but most Christians are not sharing their faith, usually about 2% do on a regular basis.
4. 98% of the world’s population has a resident national or expatriate witness in their midst. This is to emphasize the importance of working through church planters and missionaries in the developing world and especially in the 10/40 window. (ChristianAid.org; BibleLeague.org; GFA.org)
5. 60.3% of the world’s population or 3.6 billion compromising 6000 people groups out of the 12,000 people groups on the earth with a population of over 10,000 people are more than 2% evangelical or more than 5% adherents to Christianity.
6. 39.2% of the world population or 2.3 billion with a population over 10,000 people with 1600 people groups have less than 2% evangelicals and less than 5% adherents to Christianity.
7. .5% of the world’s population (many being migrant over or cross-border minorities) with 30 million people and 4400 people groups have more than 2% evangelicals or more than 5% adherents to Christianity.
8. A church for every people group. The challenge to adopt a people group for payer and ministry gained momentum in 1990’s. Progress was logged for the 1,583 peoples listed in the October 2000 Joshua Project List with the following results:
A. By the end of 2000 there was a church planting team in 1084 of the people groups and evidence of a congregation of 100 members in 487 people groups. This does not include the possible 2000 people groups of under 10,000 population that remain inadequately researched and may need pioneer church planting. The biggest need is the inadequate mechanism for holding those committed to their promises for adoption, insufficient verification and over-simplification of the task but thank God for what was achieved. This means that there are only about 500 people groups of over 10,000 that are yet to have a church planting team. We need to train the church planters and equip them to help complete Matthew 24:14 and the whole of the five aspects of the great commission.
B. DAWN – Jim Montgomery’s strategy to reach out to the edge and then draw a matrix of the whole community and church plant the whole.
9. World A – 28.% of these countries have had exposure to the gospel – (2% with no witness; 4.3% with resident witness; 21.9% with indigenous church) (West Africa to Sudan; Horn of Africa – Somalia; North Africa and West Asia; E. turkey, Iran Afghan. NE Pakistan, Turkey, Central Asia. Siberia, China, Mongolia; Western China, Himalayas, Myanmar, India (caste distinctions) Indo-China, Thailand, South and Southwest China, North Korea, Malaysia, Israel, Central and East Africa, East Asia,
10. 90% of the all the least reached peoples on the earth live within the areas shown on the map in p. 17 of Operation world. In the all the rest of the world are about 350 people groups with 82 million individuals which are in the least reached category.
11. There are 20 million Christians among the World A people groups and probably some on going church planting ministry among the 2,500 of the 3,500 people groups represented in this group. Within these Affinity groups on p. 16 is the best key to reaching these people groups.
12. Relatively few of these 3500 people groups have no known Christians but in most cases they constitute a small minority on average 1.2% of the population. They face many pressures and even persecution.
13. Churches and individuals need to have a vision for the lost and unreached people groups of the world to complete all five aspects of the great commission.
A. Mark 16:15 – The evangelistic challenge
B. Matt 28:18-20 – The discipling/church planting challenge
C. Luke 24:44-49 – Repentance and the teaching challenge
D. John 20:21 – The missions challenge and the suffering challenge
E. Acts 1:8 – The global challenge (To the uttermost parts of the earth)
14. There must be great commission disciple-makers made of each ethnic group. (Matt 28:18-20) This gives western Christian great opportunities to equip, facilitate, train and support disciple-makers and church planters in the developing world as teachers, givers and catalysts. Leadership training programs and seminaries are greatly needed around the world. Leadership is the key.
15. Christian radio has a potential coverage of 99% of the earth population with the gospel as well as training locals for church planting and church leadership.
16. The Jesus Film has been shown to nearly 5 billion people and has recorded around 150 million decisions for Christ. It has a potential coverage of 99% of the world’s population
17. New Testaments are available to 94% of the world’s population
18. 93.7% of the world’s population has a local witness available to them.
National Center for Health Statistics (www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats)
Only 39% of elderly Americans report that they are in good health
Over 33 million Americans have arthritis to the point it alters their daily lives
Nearly 150 million Americans suffer with some sort of disability dealing with the eyes, extremities, or other disability which alters there life to the point of acquiring the label "impaired."
