PRAGUE — “We thought this
would take years to develop, this concept of the internationalization of
missions,” said Gordon Fort, vice president of the International Mission Board’s
(IMB) office of global strategy. But it’s apparent “that God has already been
doing stuff that we had no idea about,” Fort said, “and we’re just beginning to
get in on it.”
Fort spoke of the
internationalization of missions — Christians all over the globe sending their
own missionaries into other countries to share the Gospel — at the European
National Partners in Mission Sending Consultation in Prague, Czech Republic,
earlier this summer.
Leaders from the
International Mission Board joined missionary-sending organizations from
Romania, Germany and Panama. Also participating in the discussions on global
evangelization were representatives from the College of Theology and Education
in Moldova and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
IMB photo Mark Edworthy, strategist for the International Mission Board’s European Peoples Affinity Group, addresses a meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, in which Baptists from several countries explored the internationalization of missions. |
During the conference,
leaders forged partnerships and shared their struggles and victories in sending
cross-cultural missionaries — people from all nations, to all nations to share
Christ.
Those from Central and
Eastern Europe spoke about their struggles with churches that still operate
under a communist-era mentality. Some shared stories of traveling to more than
300 churches, urging pastors to embrace a focus on missions. Others emphasized
the urgency of sending missionaries to unreached people groups in Central and
South Asia. The leaders shared ideas and needs, pinpointing ways they could
assist each other.
“When I see the pictures and
I hear the testimonies, I know that we are sharing lots of things, even though
we are so far (away from one another) and have different contexts,” said Carlos
Gomez, leader of PAAM, a Panamanian missions organization. “We have the same
challenges. We find problems with money issues (and) churches with no
missionary culture. But overall the main challenge we have is to go back to the
Word of God. What were we created for?”
While these international
missionary-sending organizations are growing, sending dozens of cross-cultural
missionaries annually, they are still relatively young. Throughout the meeting,
the 164-year-old IMB provided insight on evangelical strategy, missionary
training and equipping.
“This might be the greatest
contribution the IMB can make to global evangelization — more than anything we’ve
ever done,” Fort said.
IMB strategist Scott Holste
shared research showing missions leaders the urgency of sending missionaries to
countries without any evangelical presence.
“If you take all the
missionaries in the world … only three out of 100 are working with these
least reached people groups of the world … so we’ve got to partner together,”
Holste said. “We’ve got to get the whole church involved.”
Fort said, “We have sensed that God is really
stirring the church locally in this generation. And we have felt that perhaps
the greatest contribution we can make to global evangelization is making it
possible for those last peoples who have not heard.”