By Ryan Shaw

God is on the move! He is preparing the way to bring forth a massive student mission thrust internationally over the next several years. This will not happen, however, apart from our willingness to partner with Him in bringing this thrust into being. Deuteronomy 11:13-15 highlights God’s vision and will to give us the rain for our land in its season. In personalizing “our land” we can bank on God – the promise keeper- to pour out on the student mission world with His “rain.”  

However, there are two requirements to receive the rain, however. We must love the Lord our God and serve Him with all our hearts and souls. This demands searching ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to determine what might be holding us back from meeting these requirements. Then doing whatever it takes to rid ourselves of these distractions. God wants to send the rain and build the student mission movement internationally. The two articles in this month’s Abandoned Times highlight two critical issues in the student mission world today: A disproportionate focus on short-term mission alone and the necessity of the fullness of the Spirit in order to accomplish God’s global purposes. Read both of these with spiritual eyes and ears wide open asking God to move you to action surrounding both of them.

Why a Long Term Mission Vision is Needed in the Emerging Generation

By Paul Van Der Werf

Paul lives in Pasadena, CA and is the director of operations for SVM2.

Over the last decade, participation in short-term missions has exploded here in North America.  In fact, it is estimated that over 350,000 North Americans participated in some sort of cross-cultural mission trip last year alone.  To give that some perspective, there are a total of 35,000 full-time cross-cultural message bearers from North America that are currently serving cross-culturally.  Ask anyone these days what their church or fellowship is doing regarding missions, and the answer is invariably about a recent or upcoming spring break or summer trip to Mexico or China.

The problem is that most churches, fellowships and students these days equate a short-term mission trip as the culmination of involvement in missions.  This is a problem for several reasons:  First, the fact is that almost all short-term mission trips don’t take place among those that have the greatest need and the least opportunity of a gospel witness.  This is because the vast majority of short-term trips partner with existing churches and ministries, and rightly so.  However, the definition of the ‘unreached’ in our world is that they need someone to go and live among them, learn their language and incarnate Christ to them.  This isn’t possible in a short-term trip.

Why a Renewed Long Term Mission Vision is Needed Today:

There are three key reasons we need to lift our eyes and refocus our efforts.  First, bringing the gospel to the least reached is a central theme of the whole bible.  God’s on a mission to bless all peoples, and bring people from every nation, tribe and language to be a worshipper of Him.  Given that God’s mission of bringing all peoples in relation to himself and his chosen method of doing that is us (humans!), Peter Wagner is correct in asserting that “Once you decide to ask Jesus Christ to take control of your life, involvement in world missions is no longer optional.”

Second, our involvement must be modeled on the life of Christ.  Philippians 2: 5-11 shows us how Christ was a cross-cultural message bearer.  He left his home culture and comforts (heaven), and became like those he wanted to reach (humans).  He learned our language, ate our foods, walked our streets and showed what living the God life that we have all been called to was to look like.  He didn’t commute.  He didn’t come for just a summer.  He came and lived among us.  In order to reach those that need it most, we need to do the same, and by definition, this can’t be accomplished through a short-term assignment.

Third, as stated above, the two billion unreached will not be reached through short-term missions.  It will take a longer term vision and many longer term workers to go and be Christ’s hands and feet to the lost and the dying of the world.  God has called us to make disciples of all nations, and making disciples takes longer than two weeks or a summer.

What Can I Do to Go Beyond the Current Short Term Mission Focus in My Church:

First, seriously consider going for a longer term yourself (2+ years).  Given the globalized world we live in, there are more opportunities than ever for people of all types of skill-sets and giftings to be used in strategic ways to bring the good news to those that need it most.

We encourage you to formally make a commitment to be a GOer when you graduate by signing the Message Bearer Creed.  Making this step will connect you with resources you’ll need, ongoing email and encouragement from the Message Bearer Follow-up team and specific connections to strategic opportunities among the forgotten of the world.  Making a two year commitment to serve among the least reached is a great first step toward exploring how God’s best gifted and equipped you to be about his Kingdom global work for a lifetime.

Second, think about how you can use the current short-term focus of your fellowship or church group as a launching pad for longer term vision and involvement.  Short-term missions trips are a great opportunity to get your peers more involved in ongoing prayer to cast the vision for the unreached.  A resource you can use is the GO Mobilization Packet (you can order these at SVM2.net.).  This is a resource designed to be used out of the box to help cast a longer term global vision while your team is ON their short-term trip.

Finally, pray for our generation.  Pray that we would go beyond the current short-term focus and that we would regain a vision for doing ministry as Christ did it, and truly make disciples of all nations.

Short-term missions is a great first step, a baby step actually, toward how God desires our generation to respond to His global dream of people from all nations, tribes and languages to be reconciled to him.  Take the first step, but don’t stop there.  Let’s keep walking the path that God has for our generation!

By Evan Burns

Evan Burns lives in Spokane, WA with his wife Kristie, and they are both members of the SVM2 Facilitation Team.

As Moody was getting into the carriage to hurry to another service, he was touched on the shoulder by an unknown, frail, old man.  With his finger pointing at D.L. Moody, he said, “Young man, when you speak again, honor the Holy Ghost.”….  Later in his ministry, Mr. Moody would say to his successor R.A. Torrey before he would leave for his evangelistic campaigns, “Torrey, don’t forget to honor the Holy Ghost.  Tell them about the Holy Ghost.”  

Moody, arguably the most renowned evangelist at the turn of the century, was challenged by two ladies in Chicago.  At the close of each evangelistic meeting, they told him that they were praying for him.  To this Moody replied one time, “Why don’t you pray for the people?”  They said, “You need the power.”  This set Moody thinking.  He resolved in his heart to urgently plead for God to fill him with His Spirit.  One day, while walking down Wall Street in New York, Moody recalled, “Oh, what a day!—I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name.  I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand.  I went to preaching again.  The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted.” 

The sermons were not different, but the servant was.  The truths were not new, but now they were potent and penetrating.  Few were converted before, but now converts came by the hundreds.  Before, it had been the driven energy and determination of the man, but now it was the dynamic of the Holy Spirit.

Biblically and historically, whenever there is a true outpouring of God’s Spirit upon His people, it is always followed by four signs:  passion for Jesus Christ, power in prayer, boldness in witness, and joy in peril. But before there is a filling of the Spirit, there must be an emptying of self.  This includes repentance, confession of sin to another, a surrendered heart, and lifestyle obedience.  

Repentance is the first word of the gospel, not love or even grace.  It is, “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  John the Baptist said, “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”  Fruit-bearing is the evidence of salvation.  The fruit of the Spirit is the natural produce of a branch fully connected to the Vine.  Christ-like character proves we are truly indwelt with the Spirit of Christ.  This divine character is not developed easily—it is wrought through the Refiner’s fire.  We must be actively confessing sin to one another, obeying and surrendering to God’s will even at the cost of humiliation and reputation.  This is the quality of a vessel required for the overflow of the Spirit. 

A surrendered heart is one where God is exalted to His rightful place—as King.  Humility simply says, as Louie Giglio aptly puts it, “You are I AM, and I am not.”  A surrendered heart says with Job, “Though He slay me, still I will hope in Him.”  God dwells on a high and lofty place and also with the one who is broken and contrite of heart, who trembles at His word.  This is the prerequisite for a life overflowing with God.  Emptiness always precedes fullness.

The filling of the Spirit is a simple concept, much more so than what our traditions make it out to be.  The Holy Spirit is God.  He (notice the personal pronoun, not “it”) is called the Spirit of Christ.  To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with God, to be filled with Jesus, who already indwells us.  We see in Acts (which is more accurately named, “Acts of the Spirit”) that when God’s people were filled with the Spirit, their filling was directly connected with their perseverance in prayer and their passion for the glory of Christ.  When the Spirit came upon them, He compelled them to proclaim the gospel with supernatural boldness, often in the face of certain death or suffering.  And the evidence of the Spirit also enabled them to have abundant joy in the grip of persecution. 

After three years of being apprenticed under Jesus, the disciples would be the premier candidates for any ministry position today.  Nevertheless, this education and training was insufficient according to Christ.  Before He left, He specifically instructed them to wait for the filling of the Holy Spirit, and today more than ever we need this fullness of the Spirit.  Then when the Spirit would fall, they were to be witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the remotest parts of the earth.  So, what did they do?  They waited and prayed with fervent persistence.

The church was birthed in a prayer meeting. It was continually saturated with the Spirit, and with blood-earnestness, as it sought to proclaim Christ, no matter the cost.  And still today, this legacy is ours to inherit.  God’s people are filled with the fullness of God when they seek with all their hearts to know Christ and to make Him known, at whatever cost.  This life of fullness has been called the exchanged life.  It is a life set apart, even from its fellow church-goers.  Very few believers discover this tremendous secret.  The exchanged life is sold out, poured out, crucified, and magnified.  It is the jealous fire of God burning within. 

“O, that God would make us dangerous.”

Jim ElliotiHHHi

Abandoned Devotion Gatherings
Abandoned Devotion Gatherings are 5-8 hour gatherings, on campuses and in local churches, for the express purpose of seeking God through extended worship, uncompromising challenges, and radical prayer to see the message of Jesus spread globally in our lifetime. These gatherings have been catalytic on many campuses to stir a new hunger for more of Jesus and a new passion for reaching the forgotten globally.
Host an Abandoned Devotion Gathering on Your Campus


Haystack Nights
In 1806, God used a Haystack to change the world!  It began with a group of five college students that gathered for prayer and had read the great commission and believed that the words were for them. SVM2 is celebrating the 200 year anniversary of this great event by sponsoring a united initiative to tell the Haystack story on campuses, at conferences and in churches in 2006 - igniting prayer for our generation to bring the gospel to the forgotten.
Host a Haystack Night on Your Campus

Ignite Training
A training weekend designed to bring together like-minded student leaders from schools across North America for spiritual formation, leadership development, receiving practical, effective ideas and strategies to take mission vision in their community to the next level, and the opportunity to broadly connect with one another and form relationships. Host an Ignite Training

ABANDONED DEVOTION BOOK

Secrets of the Secret Place
By Bob Sorge

Many books attempt to provide a recipe on how to have a personal relationship with God, yet fail to promote relationship and instead give the reader a formula. Sorge, however, keeps the main thing, the main thing-- whole-hearted devotion and pursuit of God. "Secrets of the Secret Place" emphasizes that each person is different and therefore has a unique relationship with God. Sorge gives helpful hints and tips that enrich one's relationship with God and keeps the focus on Christ rather than the individual.


GLOBAL PROCLAMATION BOOK

God So Loves the City
Edited by Charles Van Engen

The growing complexity of the world's cities demands a fresh look at the church's urban mission. In this volume an international team of urban practitioners explore the most urgent issues facing those who minister in today's cities. The team's unique methodology leads us toward a new theology of urban mission.

Are you committed to serving Jesus cross-culturally in the nations when you graduate? If so, join with hundreds of others in today's united student mission movement by clicking here.