Yesterday I met with a couple who are preparing to serve as missionaries with The Mission Society. We talked about various possible directions, focusing on possibilities of working among the unreached peoples of southern Asia or working with the house church in a closed country to help them reach beyond their borders. It was exciting stuff, just thinking of being part of a movement to share the gospel with people groups who have yet to hear.
It is hard to imagine people who have no clue about Who Jesus is. They haven’t had the opportunity to make a decision about him, to answer that important question he posed to Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” As we were wrapping up our time together, we began talking about their children and how they were doing with the whole idea of packing up and living in a far-away place. At that point, they related an experience their 13-year old daughter, Mary, had recently.
Mary was talking to a friend a few weeks ago. The friend suggested that they should spend the night together that Saturday. But Mary, knowing the coming Sunday was Easter said, “It probably wouldn’t work out since Sunday is Easter.” The friend responded, “But Easter is a holiday – do you have to go to church on holidays?”
The discussion served as a reminder to me about how many people all around us in the U.S. are as clueless as to who Jesus is as those who live in places that have never had access to the gospel. Why is it that they are clueless? We can blame the media, the lack of prayer in schools, MTV, postmodernism, or whatever we want. But the fact is that the way people learn about Jesus is when someone who knows Him shares about Him in word and through their lives. In an unreached people group, the reason people don’t know is because there is no one there to do that. But in our U.S. culture, it suggests rather that the many who do know and believe are not being very intentional about telling those around them.
