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2020 VISION Amazing Stories of What God is Doing Around the World Bill & Amy Stearns Bethany House, 2005, 234 pp. ISBN 0-7642-0016-X |
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The authors have updated the
popular Catch the Vision 2000.
An overview of missions in the Scripture is interspersed with powerful
stories of God’s redemptive work in the far corners of the earth. A missions pastor told me (of the first
edition), “I was staying overnight with friends. When I found the book on the night stand, I read it all the way
through before I could put it down.” A list of resources for growing
your global vision is given at the end.
A 13-week Bible study guide for the book is available at www.BillAndAmyStearns.info “God does want to bless
you...because He’s got a demanding role for you....” (15) “In A.D. 1000 the ratio was 220
unbelievers for every true believer in Christ.” Now it is about 7 unbelievers for each believer! (21) “The invisible, omnipotent God
wants to be known for who He is.
...God is infinitely intense...about protecting and projecting His
character, His reputation.” (35) “You were selected by God to
land in this era of history.” “You have a reason for being part of the big
picture for such a time as this.”
(45) The Bible has an introduction, a
story line, and a definitely climactic ending. The introduction is Genesis 1-11. Revelation is the climax.
“The Book is firmly plotted with a single purpose, an unbreakable
thread running through the entire saga, which has the universe as a backdrop
and you as one of the principal players.” (47-8) “God has a twofold program to
restore His creation. Part of the
program has to do with reclaiming His usurped kingdom, and part has to do
with redeeming or ‘buying back’ mankind, who fell under the power of the evil
usurper.” (50) “The first eleven chapters of
Genesis establish the main characters: God, angelic beings, and man; the
setting: earth and ‘the heavenlies’; and the conflict: Satan’s fight for a
kingdom and God’s redemption of mankind.” (62) “Maybe Abraham was like many of
us, whose real problem is finding the balance between being blessed and being
a blessing!” (67) Mongolia: “From possibly one believer in 1990, the
church mushroomed to about 30,000 Christians by 2004.” (73) “We who belong to Christ fit
precisely into God’s repeated promise that by us—Abraham’s and Isaac’s
descendants by faith—all the nations of the earth shall be blessed!” (78) To Israel: “...in your role as a
priest for others there is high accountability, because God’s name is at
stake.” “Israel was to be a nation of
priests, interceding for and serving the nations of the world in the name of
God.” (p. 89, referring to Ex. 19:5-6)
“The Lord your God dried up the
waters of the Jordan before you...that all the peoples of the earth may know
that the hand of the Lord is mighty” (Joshua 4:23-24). (95) “Perhaps David’s constant
reference in his psalms to ‘the peoples,’ ‘the nations,’ and ‘the ends of the
earth’ suggest why he became ‘a man after God’s own heart’—the heart that
yearns after the world’s lost.” (104) “God is jealous about His name,
about His reputation, because a bad reputation drives people away. And His plan is to ‘draw all men to
Himself’!” (107) “There are now more Spanish
speakers in the body of Christ than speakers of any other single
language. All the unreached people
groups of all of Latin America—mostly small, primitive tribes...—have been
engaged by mission teams.” “South
America has 50,000 new churches per year.”
“Latin American Christianity is changing the face of the
church....” (152-53) “A ‘worldview’ is simply the way
we look at things: what we do, what we value, and what we think is true and
real. And perhaps your woldview so
far in life has been tinted by cultural Christianity, which emphasizes personal
top-line blessing and de-emphasizes the reality of Satan’s
counter-kingdom.” “Our worldviews
[like a pair of colored eyeglasses] color everything we look at.” (163) “The
way we look at life through our cultural worldview ‘glasses’ is the way we know
it to be.” (164) “[I want] to be clean and pure,
not just to be ‘good,’ but because my daily standing before God has huge
implications beyond my life, I want to be a vessel fit for God’s use
in His plans! All of this is
extremely important, because God is carrying out His purpose through us, His
people!” (167) Definitions: (175, 176) ·
Revival: when nominal Christians are challenged to
live up to their commitment in Christ. ·
Evangelism: When Christians share their faith with
non-Christians in their own culture. ·
Missions: Taking the blessing of redemption in
Christ to the nations who have never heard. ·
World C: 10% of the world who are committed
Christians plus the 20% who are nominal Christians ·
World B: The 40% of the world population who are
non-Christians living in people groups with churches. ·
World C: The 30% of the world that makes up the
populations of unreached peoples. ·
“A people group is a significantly large ethnic or
sociological grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common
affinity for one another. For
evangelistic purpose, it is the largest group within which the Gospel can
spread as a church-planting movement without encountering barriers of
understanding or acceptance.” (see www.MissionFrontiers.org)
(179) ·
A reached people: “A nation is missiologically
considered ‘reached’ when it has a strong enough church to evangelize its own
people.” (179) ·
“An unreached or ‘least-reached’ people has no
church movement. If there are any
Christians, they are less than 2% of the population.” (180) “In mainland China, sub-Saharan
Africa, and Latin America, there is now a Pentecost every hour—more than
3,000 newcomers join the body of Christ every hour of every day, 24/7!” (185) “...why isn’t all of Christendom
buzzing with the news that we can finish the task? What’s the catch?
Here’s the easy answer: There is a cost. That’s the catch.
Obedience costs. Real
discipleship costs. The price? Giving up our small personal agendas that
detract from God’s global cause.” (196)
“Since it’s global war there are going to be casualties and body
counts. Living out your part in God’s
great purpose won’t be easy.” (198) “Being led by God is
biblically accurate and crucial; not moving till we get an experience-based
‘call’ is suspect.” “We as God’s
people have been very clearly commanded and commissioned. We are to align our lives with God’s
objective of making follower-learners (disciples) of every people, including
our own.” (215) “God didn’t organize the Word
with one section of study on His heart for blessing the nations; instead, He
integrated that unchangeable purpose into passages dealing with His
character, obedience, blindness, the meaning of the Incarnation, the growth
of the church, and so on.” (216) “God’s great purpose
incorporates every God-given discipline in your life—and every ministry in
the life of your church.” (216)
“Every God-ordained ministry that strengthens believers within the
church can be expanded as it aligns its purposes with the purposes of God.”
(218) ****** |
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