“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
When is much still too little? How can we recognize “abundantly far more?” Questions such as these came before our Home Council, at its quarterly meeting in February. The Council gathers four times a year – a group of men and women appointed by God in leadership of our Mission. The topic was our sixty-fifth anniversary year. In 1937, sixty-five years ago, we sent our first missionaries. How might we mark this year’s anniversary? How might we celebrate the milestone?
Some members liked the idea of praying for sixty-five new missionaries, beginning now in our sixty-fifth year. I rather liked the idea myself. It was catchy. Perhaps we could complete it, if God blesses, in five years or perhaps in ten. But the Council did not endorse the idea.
They did affirm the urgent need for additional laborers, and they called our entire fellowship to pray for them (Matthew 9:37-38). The Council believes that some of these laborers – perhaps many of them – will come from emerging, non-traditional sources. The Council envisions international teams of missionaries, some from traditional sources in the United States and Europe and many from “mission fields” elsewhere in the world. The Council went on to emphasize the compelling need for outreach along the unreached frontiers of the world – they mentioned Central Asia, and Buryatia in particular. But they did not endorse the goal of sixty-five new missionaries.
One member explained. “I was ready to vote for this prayer goal – sixty-five. But I think that God kept us from it. I think the goal is too small. It could satisfy us with something less than God’s best.” He went on to refer to Ernest Weinhardt’s famous vision at the very beginning of the World Mission Prayer League. In 1929 Weinhardt pictured a dynamic relationship of prayer and sending and going, linking the resources of the reached world with the spiritual need of the unreached. Weinhardt pictured thousands of missionaries dedicated to this task. And he believed that God could make it happen.
In the sixty-five years since our founding, we have sent almost 650 missionaries. We have not yet reached our first thousand. And the spiritual need of the unreached remains.
So let’s get realistic: sixty-five is a goal too little. Let’s count on the God who is able to do “abundantly far more.” Will you join us in prayer for his abundant provision – for the wonderfully abundant calling he has placed before us?
"The Way I See It", March 2002
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