International (MNN) — All over the world, leaders are needed too run businesses, operate organizations, manage ministries—and share the Gospel. World Mission is developing great leaders for Christ, an especially vital piece of strategy to bring the Good News to unreached people groups.
Greg Kelley of World Mission explains how leadership development is vital to the Great Commission.
“Jesus said, ‘Go make disciples of all nations,’ and it’s impossible to make a good disciple without good disciple-makers. We have to keep that at the forefront when we’re talking about missions, particularly in the unreached world,” he says.
Developing Leaders
World Mission has several leadership development initiatives with the purpose of spreading the Gospel, one of which is Shiloh Centers.
“If you’re in an area where Christianity is illegal, conversion means death. There are no [safe] physical locations, so sometimes we’re building buildings, sometimes we’re refurbishing, but [the buildings] become Shiloh Centers,” Kelley explains.
“Shiloh has a very important meaning in the Bible. It’s the presence of Christ. There are a lot of really cool things about Shiloh that we zero in on, and we create these Shiloh Centers. Leaders go, and then they have the equivalent of a Bible training to raise them up [and] send them back into these places.”
(Photo courtesy of Yucel Moran via Unsplash)
Kelley says World Mission also has country directors, or national leaders, who are indigenous people that oversee efforts to train others to share the Gospel in their area.
“There are efforts on the ground . . . that really are pouring into people and raising them up and launching them into these places that we’re working on,” he says.
A Dangerous Mission
A difficult reality for those training to spread the Gospel is the persecution many of them will face. Even in countries like Ethiopia, which has a large percentage of Christians, certain people groups have very few believers, making it difficult and dangerous at times to evangelize.
The Somali people group has a population of around 7 million, but a very small percentage of this group is Christian. Recently, Muslims from the Somali tragically stoned a man who was part of a group listening to the audio resources World Mission distributed in the area.
Kelley says this dangerous situation means that leaders are mindful of how they go about sharing the Gospel.
“In a place like Ethiopia [they use] one on one evangelism [or] friendship evangelism. They’re not doing big outreaches where they’re gathering people together,” he says.
Get Involved
There are several key ways you can help World Mission’s development of discipleship leaders. Kelley explains one way is to invest in the leaders who are being trained and sharing the Good News. World Mission sends solar-powered audio Bibles to many leaders to help them learn more about their faith. National leaders also need financial support so that they can continue training others to serve Christ.
(Photo courtesy of World Mission)
You can donate to World Mission here and specify what you would like your donation to support.
Another key way to support World Mission’s efforts is through prayer. Kelley encourages North American believers to learn more about these unreached groups so they can pray for the unreached and support ministries pouring into them.
Kelley says, “If we’re not investing in these places that are 0.00% Christian, there will never be a discipleship making movement because we have to target within that specific people group and raise up leaders that will then understand how to make disciples, how to do evangelism, how to plant churches.”
“All those things are possible but if the body of Christ is not engaging intentionally in these areas, it will never happen.”
Header image courtesy of Jehyun Sung via Unsplash
