What is Mobilization?
“Mobilization” and “mobilizing” are words that can lead to confusion and misunderstanding. By “mobilization” I’m thinking of the work of bridging the gap between people who have no access to the Gospel (in our case, the least reached ethnolinguistic people groups) and the people who could work together to tell them. It’s engaging with churches and individuals to come alongside of what God is doing in and through them to reach the world with the Good News.
“Mobilizing” for us means the work to inform, inspire, and invite Christians to complete the task commanded by Jesus in the Great Commission. That is, to tell all people in every ethnolinguistic group of people in every part of the world the Good News of His identity, purpose, death, burial, resurrection, and eternal plan; teaching them to observe all that He commanded us to do.
Mobilization includes the work of preaching, teaching, informing, inspiring, and inviting Christians to work together to equip people in every part of the world to tell others about Jesus and teach everything. Together, by faith, by dependence upon His Spirit, by obedience to God’s Word, we may complete our mission.
How should we as believers view our God-given mission? What are the foundations for correct understanding? Are there things that could shape our understanding of our role in God’s plan? There is much more that could be included, but these are things I think could be emphasized more.
Worth It?
Glorious Worth. God’s glory, His worth, His significance, His pre-eminence is at the very heart of the mission He gave to His disciples. What is hidden from the world is the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the person of Christ. He is the treasure. We learn of Him ourselves and then proclaim Him to others. Christ’s value as the Creator of all things, the first born of all creation, the author of life and the giver of every good gift is not known everywhere. Many people have not yet been told of Christ. He is the beginning and the end, the way, the truth, and the life. All things were made by Him and for Him. In Him we live and move and have our being. Our mission is to help the whole world to know Him and recognize His worth. We ship His worth as His ambassadors to every corner of the earth that all might bow to Him in worth-ship. The systematic progressive revelation of God’s glory as revealed in scripture and told in a big-picture foundational overview is missing from the lives of people in untold language groups and many modern churches. The knowledge of God’s glory is the foundation of our mission.
What’s Primary?
Mission is Primary. At the very heart of God’s plan for the world, from beginning to end, is His mission for people who believe Him. His mission is not a side show. His mission is not a department in the Church. It’s not just a good thing to do. His mission for us is a consistent, repeated, commanded theme throughout the Bible from cover to cover. His mission is the main purpose of God in the world. His mission for us is to share the Good News that we have received with every creature, every nation, every ethnic group, every language group, and every tribe, everywhere on earth. His mission is primary, not secondary. To that end, we must actively pursue the lost and intentionally disciple believers toward holy living and equipping for ministry to share the Good News with people near and far until every ethnic group has been told.
The Objective?
Everyone, Everywhere, Everything. The objective is to teach those who believe Him to observe, or to do, all that Christ commanded us. It may require clear direction, planning, and intentional action to accomplish. Much more than just evangelism, this mission means spending personal time with people, building relationships life on life, communicating to their comprehension, until they know who Jesus is, what He wants them to know, what He would have them to believe, how He wants them to behave, and what He wants us all to accomplish together. His desire is that those of us who have believed Him care enough about Him, and the other people He created, to ensure that everyone knows Him, knows His plan for them, and is equipped to pass on that knowledge to others. Again, this leads us back to not only knowing about God but knowing and relating to Him personally, as well as teaching others to do likewise.
Nearing Completion?
Complete the Mission. Less than 3% of all “missionary” work is focused on the people who have not yet been told about Jesus. Less than 1% of the funds designated “missions” is available to tell people who have no access, no hope of hearing the Gospel. About 41% of the population of the world has been totally unreached by the people who could tell them of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. They cannot believe what they have never been told. Our commission has not been completed until all have been told. To tell all language groups requires that we actually go to where they are to learn how to tell them in a language they understand.
What’s Next?
Vision casting. On the highest authority in both heaven and on earth, Christ gave us a mission to accomplish. Essential to accomplishing that mission is understanding the importance of the mission in God’s economy, knowing our status in relation to that mission, visualizing roles in which each of us can use our gifts to accomplish that mission, and rallying teamwork to do together what none of us can accomplish alone. Who can cast that vision? Anyone who can read God’s word and especially those who practice what they have learned.
What’s Coming?
The kingdom of heaven. Knowing God’s will for us on earth, His mission, is rooted in our knowledge of God’s plans for us beyond the death of our sin-cursed bodies. Knowing what is coming will help us, as an anchor for reality, to think correctly about earthly values, expenditures, investments, and worldview. This topic is so important that, after his resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples reinforcing what he had told them about the kingdom. (Acts 1:3)
What’s Real?
Truth is Anchored. Jesus not only claimed to offer truth, “Verily, verily I say unto you” or “Truly, truly I tell you”, but Jesus claimed to be truth, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” Therefore truth not only exists but is real, tangible, living, personable, knowable, and absolute; existing in the person of Jesus Christ. “Oh taste see that the Lord is good.” (Ps. 34:8) The truth claims of all people must be compared to Jesus Christ and His word. Our mission must be compared to His. Our view of reality must be measured against His. Therein is our mission; to proclaim Him where He is not known that others might know the reality of truth in the person of Christ, His written word, and His purpose for us in the world. Our worldview must be subject to His worldview.
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What’s Else?
David Platt on The Global Purpose of God:
“The global purpose of God is not just confined to a couple of verses here or there that talk about Missions.
Our God has a global mission that is clear in scripture from cover to cover on page after page after page.
The whole point, the whole purpose of God is to bring many nations to join themselves to God.
This is why we pray for the spread of the gospel to the nations. This is why we pray often for specific people groups, nations, ethnic groups that have not yet been reached with the gospel; because this is the word of God. He has promised to bring many nations. His purpose is to bring all the peoples, languages, tribes, to worship Him. So, we pray for the accomplishment of His purposes. That’s what we do. God has ordained our prayers to be a means by which that’s accomplished…
God has purposed for all the nations to hear the good news of His grace.
This is the purpose of God in the world.
This is the purpose of God through His church.
Therefore, this is the purpose of God in our lives.
God called us to do all kinds of different things, but what drives all of us is that we are living to see all the nations join themselves the Lord; [to see] all the people groups in the world know the grace and glory of God.”
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Mobilizing Christians to fulfill the Great Commission is both a team effort and an individual one. Each of us can have a part in casting God’s vision, encouraging each other to take steps of faith, and pointing each other to opportunities to serve.
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The Traveling Team:
The Traveling Team – “Each year, no less than 200,000 sincere, dedicated people contact one of the hundreds of excellent mission agencies in this country asking for information about possible service with that ministry. But the heartbreaking news is that less than 1,000 of those will ever make it to the field. Why? There is no one to nurture and guide and equip them to complete the process. In other words, the workers are plentiful, but the mobilizers are few!”
Mobilization the key to World evangelization –
http://www.thetravelingteam.org/articles/mobilization
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Worldview:
Worldview. God created us to know Him, experience His goodness, and reflect it back to Him. The problem is that we doubted His goodness and chose our own path. The solution is believing Him about everything; particularly about the identity, character, and work of Jesus Christ.
For people who have never heard God’s story, the resolution is to share God’s story from beginning to end so that they can believe it. Our role as His ambassadors is to tell the untold so that their stories can be compared with the truth of God’s story and have their worldview transformed by His.
Sean McDowell – “What is a Worldview?” – (Click Here)
(youtu.be/2l6tgPsOeUA)