“Our aim is to see our church engage in praying specifically for the Lord’s Church in various lands across this vast planet. It is our goal to engage in faithful prayer with our local church and to think honestly about how to go beyond prayer. Can we partner with HeartCry or another group of churches who are laboring in that region?”

When we consider the Great Commission found in Mathew 28:18-20, it’s apparent that God has a plan to save his people from among the nations of the world. The picture of Revelation 5 further validates this reality of a global people gathered from among the nations of the world praising God. However, 42% of the world is unreached with the good news of Jesus. How do we get there? Consider what Alexander Strauch once said:

Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, believed that if money could motivate the merchants of England to cross life-threatening oceans and enter the interior of China at great personal risk of loss of life, could not the love of Christ motivate missionaries to do the same for the sake of the gospel? [1]

The answer is that God is sovereign and he will save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21), but our God has also called us to pray for the nations and go to the nations with the message of the cross. We must be resolved to pray earnestly for the nations and look for opportunities to engage through our local churches and connected mission agencies.

Each week we as a church gather for worship, and just prior to the call to worship by the public reading of the Scriptures, we have what we call a “Missions Moment” with our church family. This is organized and led by David Crowe—our pastor for missions. He chooses a nation from around the world and provides the statistics pertaining to the Church of Jesus Christ in that particular location and other challenges to the spread of the gospel among that particular nation.

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