International (MNN) — The story of Jesus has spread to every country on Earth. But one-third of all people still haven’t heard about Him.
Jim O’Neil serves on the Board of The Alliance for the Unreached. He talks about why North American churches should join the cause to reach the unreached. “Think about being in those parts of the world where there are no Christian neighbors. So there’s no community of faith. They don’t have resources announcing Jesus into their communities. One of the most beautiful attributes of our faith is this relational connective tissue. Jesus invites us, community by community, to be touching humans, and bringing them to faith in Christ.”
Churches planting churches
O’Neil has seen this approach work. He served as a Gospel worker in Asia for 13 years. He helped plant several churches, and these churches themselves went to unreached Muslim populations in Indonesia. “This fledgling group of churches sent their sons and daughters, and they took the Gospel to the unreached.”
The churches even overcame bias to accomplish this work. O’Neil says, “Up until that point in time, that community viewed the Muslims as the enemy. Somewhere in their journey with Jesus and in their discipleship, they began to realize they too, are image-bearers of the great God.”
God can reach people with His love any way He wants, O’Neil says. It can happen through television, radio, or the internet. But God delights in using a loving community to spread the Good News.
O’Neil encourages readers to read over the Great Commission found in Matthew 28. “Those ‘all nations’ are on Jesus’s heart. Sit in that space just for a few minutes with Jesus. And say, ‘Jesus, what do you want me to do with this?’ Allow Jesus to speak to your heart and watch what he does.”
