CHRISTIAN TO WORLD CHRISTIAN
HOW TO ACCEPT GOD’S INVITATION AND COMMAND TO BECOME A WORLD CHRISTIAN
We’ve all been there. The moment you reread the fine print on an invitation and realized... you messed up. Maybe you went to the wrong location or you got the dates mixed up; things didn’t go as planned. Sometimes, it’s because you misread the details on the invitation. Sometimes, it’s because you never thoroughly read it at all!
Missing a party isn’t entirely devastating, but for Christians, there’s an invitation that is worth your utmost attention: God invites and commands every follower of Christ to be a part of his mission to reach the world! He invites us to become “World Christians.” This is our purpose as believers: to make disciples of Jesus from all nations (Matthew 28:18-20).
A World Christian is a Christian who has closely read God’s invitation into his global mission and has taken active steps to “attend” by obeying his commands. World Christians have a different perspective than your average Christian on three things: God’s word, God’s world, and God’s work. We will dive into each of these perspectives.
GOD’S WORD:
When striving to align your heart with God’s, we should start with God’s word. The Bible is filled with verses displaying that God’s heart is for his glory to be known in all the earth. (Psalm 67:1-2; Psalm 46:10; Habakkuk 2:14; Romans 15:20-21; etc.). Read more about the mission theme of the bible here.
There are three key verses that highlight God's heart for the world all throughout scripture:
Genesis 12:1-3
Matthew 28:18-20
Revelation 7:9-10
Memorize these verses and meditate on them because they reveal God’s heart for the world and will help shape your heart to look more like his. As we grow as World Christians, we also need to grow in our knowledge about the current state of the world and global missions.
GOD’S WORLD:
A term that is helpful to know as you grow in your understanding of the world is the term: 10/40 window. The 10/40 window is a term Christians have created to identify where the greatest need for the gospel is in the world. The 10/40 window gets its name because it runs from 10 degrees north latitude to 40 degrees north latitude. It runs from the northwest of Africa to the far-east of Asia to Japan. If you cannot visualize latitudes very well—do not worry—you are normal. It looks like this:
In this area of the world lives a total of about five billion people (two-thirds of the world's total population). Out of those five billion people, about three billion would be considered unreached.
The world is not just made up of people who are saved and unsaved because the unsaved can be divided into two subcategories: reached and unreached.
Someone who is reached has access to a bible in their own language, a church (or multiple) that they can visit, and there are Christians who they can meet. Those who are reached have access to the good news of the gospel. Many places in the world would be considered reached (including the U.S.).
Someone who is unreached will live their entire life without access to a bible in their own language (since a translation may not even exist), a church that they can visit (since a church may not exist), and there are no Christians who they can meet—birth to death—with no access to the hearing the gospel. Not one opportunity to hear and believe in Jesus because no one has been sent to tell them (Romans 10:13-15).
Unreached is very different than reached.
Those three billion people represent about 96% of the worlds unreached population. That doesn’t mean that there are not unreached people in other parts of the world (like South America or the U.S.), but 96% of the world’s unreached live in the 10/40 window.
Out of all the world’s cross-cultural missionaries, only 3% are sent to 96% of the world’s unreached.
These statistics seem disproportionate and there are several reasons why there are so few missionaries in the 10/40 window. Some countries have made Christianity illegal, there are often language and cultural barriers, it can be more expensive to reach new people groups, and there are many other obstacles.
But there are also reasons why 3% of missionaries decided to go to the 10/40 window and why there is hope for the unreached who live there. They saw God’s heart for the world, that he is worthy of all nations’ praise, and that there is a strategic need for the Gospel in this area of the world. Jesus will redeem people from every nation, language, and tribe (Revelation 7:9). This is not only a great hope, this is a promise: the unreached won’t be unreached forever!
We are all called and commanded to play a part in God’s work of reaching the unreached because we are all sent (John 20:21). Let’s dive a little deeper into ways that you can join his mission today.
ACCEPT GOD’S INVITATION
GOD’S WORK:
We can get involved in God’s global mission by joining in God’s work. This is where our heart responds by taking action. We can actively be involved in God’s work through going and sending. This is how we respond to the invitation from God’s word to go to God’s world.
Being a part of this mission means changing our lives and often our plans. This does not mean everyone is supposed to go into vocational ministry or drop out of college and move overseas as a missionary. You can join God’s mission in going and sending right where you are in 101 different ways! These are the categories of roles that we can play in getting involved in God’s global mission, no matter where we are located:
GO HERE: Befriend and share the gospel with unsaved reached and unreached peoples where you live. There are many international students, immigrants, and refugees from the 10/40 window who come into the U.S. every year. Many come from unreached places, but they can now be reached because they know you! Read more about how to befriend them here.
GO THERE: Get on a plane and go overseas. If you are in college, take a short-term overseas mission trip during your breaks; invest them well while you still have breaks! This is a great opportunity to engage face-to-face with the unreached, work alongside long-term missionaries, and get vision cast for going long-term yourself. The unreached are not going to be reached by short-term missions. We need many people to change their addresses long-term. We can connect you here with opportunities to go short-term and long-term involving your specific major, career, or passion.
SEND through GIVING: Support a missionary friend or missions organization through prayer and financial partnership. Giving is a practical and literal way to invest in those who are taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. If people are going to go sacrificially, we need people to send sacrificially. Ask God how you can start giving specifically, sacrificially, and cheerfully (2 Corinthians 9:7). If you don’t know someone who you can support, The Go Fund is an organization that specifically aids long-term qualified missionaries who are going to the unreached by eliminating the barrier of student debt for them. Check them out and start giving here.
SEND through PRAYING: Pray for those who are unreached in the world and for those who are taking the gospel to them. Prayer is the most important step towards becoming a World Christian because it involves all of the other roles in going and sending! If you are not asking God where he wants you to go or what he wants you to do and taking the time to listen, you probably won’t receive much direction. Take the time to pray. This can be as simple as praying for an unreached people group or asking God to grow and soften your own heart for the world. A great website to help you start praying every day is The Joshua Project: Unreached of the Day. Prayerfully ponder what God has taught you about his global mission and ask him what specific roles he wants you to join him in. May we pray earnestly for the plentiful harvest and for more laborers to go into the harvest (Luke 10:2). May we also pray the bold prayer of Luther Wishard: “I am willing to go anywhere, at any time, to do anything for Jesus.”
Now that you’ve read this article, you’ve heard about God’s global mission and how you can get involved in making disciples of all nations! That means that you are somewhere in-between a Christian and a World Christian. We say “in-between” because we all have room to grow in becoming a World Christian. We can all grow our hearts more for the world and take steps of obedience in his mission. This growth spectrum can be represented in the picture below.
Regardless of where we put ourselves on this growth spectrum, we are commanded and invited to be a part of God’s mission to reach the world. Take a second and pray about how God would have you be a part of his global mission. And, don’t forget the last part of the invitation: the Holy Spirit empowers us and is with us, “...and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
By Kate Sego
Kate has served The Traveling Team as one of our travelers since Fall 2021. She graduated from the University of Arkansas. She has a is to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations.
