Like Wayne Grudem's session, this amazing message by David Devenish has been excellently reported on by Mark and by Adrian Warnock, so I won't go into the same amount of detail. Instead go read their accounts! Instead I will share just a few thoughts as to what spoke to me.
His text was: Romans 1:1-6, 13-14, 15:17-24, 16:25-27
"3 reasons for reaching the unreached. 1. Prophetic Promises. 2. Apostolic Passion. 3. Eschatological Necessity - "The gospel must be preached". 4. Contemporary Urgency".
David made a passing reference to the advance of Islam demanding a commitment to the gospel. He noted David Pawson's prophecy that Islam will take over as the predominant religion in the United Kingdom. I was glad to note that he (and I hope therefore the rest of the Newfrontiers apostolic team) reject that prophecy - the gospel is THE power of God.
"An unreached people group is a group with no indigenous community of people who are able to reach them without cross cultural people groups. There are about 6, 000 unreached people groups in the earth still! And they must all be reached! What is stopping us from reaching them?
1. Non missional churches. We can react wrongly against independent mission thought.
2. Culture bound instead of Culture challenging churches.
3. Identification by Muslims of Christianity with the West. Hollywood immorality is identified with Christianity. The only way to overcome these attitudes is to plant small communitys of believers that demonstrate that Christianity is something different. Church planting is the only way!
4. Culture and Linguistic Challenges. It is hard work!
David closed with a quote from John Piper. "God will find passionate admirers in every unreached people groups". He said, "Our mission is to bring grace and apostleship to bring the nations".
No comments:
Post a Comment