The Challenge
Limitations of Traditional Methods
Good things are happening in ministry around the world. And yet while many battles are being won, we are still losing the bigger war!
During the past 100 years, the world has remained about 30 percent Christian. Despite over 2,000 years of effort and investment, entire populations remain virtually untouched by the gospel. Current solutions provide answers for reaching hundreds of thousands but a winning strategy requires reaching millions and billions. The painful reality is that traditional approaches to missions are simply not sufficient to finish the task.
Limitations of Traditional Methods
At the present rate, many will reach the end of their lives without even a chance to hear the gospel.
Billions of dollars are spent on Christian missions every year, yet the percentage of Christians remains the same.
Most missions efforts do not focus on the ultimate goal of making obedient disciples.
Most ministry results in the planting and harvesting of seedless grapes—the fruit is real but only lasts a single generation.
Too often, local ministry is tethered to outside money and management.
Models that require professionals to lead and sustain ministry severely limit explosive growth.
An obedience-optional gospel that aims at “decisions” does not transform individuals or communities.
Fifty million new leaders are needed for a one-to-100 ratio for the five billion lost souls.
A Gospel of Salvation presents Jesus as Savior and produces Believers who gain heaven and miss hell. A Gospel of the Kingdom presents Jesus as Savior and Lord and produces Followers who seek to obey the King in everything.
The Harvest is plentiful (Mt. 9:37) But we haven’t trained workers from the harvest. It’s creating consumers, not producers.
Only 1% of all Christian work truly targets the unreached.
Traditional methods measure activity instead of results, short-term progress instead of permanent change, conversions instead of disciples, and one generation instead of many.
We assumed one expression of church would work for all within reach. We underestimated the power of people to resist change from what is familiar.
Building our “Brand” often supersedes building the Kingdom.
What is heard is mostly lost. But what is lived is really learned.
With a heavy emphasis on “Our passion is…” traditional methods can easily neglect God’s command in 1 Corinthians 9:24 to run in a way that will win the prize.