This is an article from the March-April 1997 issue: Countdown to AD2000

Adopt-A-People A Truly Biblical Model of Mission

Adopt-A-People A Truly Biblical Model of Mission

This article was reprinted from the AD2000 Adoption Guidance Program-- a Web-based source of information on adopting-a-people with links to dozens of mission agencies that you can adopt through.

The Old Model: Focus on Missionaries

For generations, the local church's perceived responsibility to missions has been summed up in the person of the missionary. As long as the missionary was sent, clothed and fed, his prayer letters read and the requests mentioned, many churches felt that they had done all possible for reaching the world for Christ.

Probably no one among the home congregation had any sense of destiny, or appreciation for the people among whom the missionary served. If the missionary shared his own convictions about the value of the people, he may have earned their admiration: "What a godly man he is to care so about these foreigners!"

Unfortunately, this missionary-as-missions perspective often led to immature focus on personality: "I support the Brett family" or "I pray for the Smiths," just as those in Corinth said, "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos."

A New Model: Focus on Peoples

But in a growing number of churches, a new paradigm is taking hold which goes directly to the point: a focus directly on the world's unreached peoples, and on reaching one people in particular. This new model enters into the holy of holies, the very heart of God.

In order to fully understand, one must interpret the phenomena of peoples. What is God's purpose for them? Several words in the Old and New Testaments refer to ethnic peoples. All reflect God's focus on culture, language, ethnicity, more than geography or politics as the defining aspect.

Therefore, our English word "nation," rendered primarily for the words goyim in the Hebrew and ethne in the Greek, misses the mark in the modern mind. Webster's primary definition for "nation" is a body of people recognized as an entity by virtue of their historical, linguistic or ethnic links. But in recent years, perhaps because of the variety of cultures emigrating West, we define "nation" more superficially, as those living under a specific government, enclosed

within a geographical boundary. We need to return to the older Webster model for our understanding of "nation" to correctly interpret the prophecies and commands concerning them.

The Bible reveals that mankind was designed as the image-bearer of God. But one culture and one language was insufficient to bear the image of One so many-faceted. So God created multiple ethnic groups, the goyim. He desired that each one would bring its rich texture of language, music, art, and feature into His sanctuary of heavenly worship.

We view the completion of this purpose in John's Revelation. "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation (ethne) and all tribes (phule) and peoples (laos) and tongues (glossa), standing before the throne and before the Lamb," (Rev. 7:9).

This picture is the fullness of the Gentiles (ethne) spoken of in Romans 11:25, the Body of Christ. (Fullness is the Greek word, pleroma, used for the loading of a large ship with soldiers, crew, goods, and treasures. Matthew 24:14 says that when the ship is full of the treasure of every ethne, it will certainly sail. But who are the longshoremen?

The Commissions

Throughout history, God commissioned His agents to bring ethnic peoples to Him. But only the Messiah could fulfill God's plan of redeeming the goyim: "I will also make you a light of the nations (goyim) so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth," (Isa 49:6 NAS) .

Jesus then commanded His followers to take this gospel to all the ethne: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations (ethne), baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you," (Matthew 28:19-20 NAS). Note that they were not charged to stay in Jerusalem until every person had heard, but to make certain that every ethnic group had disciples planted among them to leaven their own cultures.

While missions historically sought to reach new cultures, currently an imbalance exists. More than nine-tenths of giving and going supports discipleship and mercy in cultures where the gospel is readily available. Only one half of one percent of our offerings go to work among the least-reached. Both parts of the commission, "baptizing" (winning new souls) and "teaching them to observe" (discipling new believers) must be emphasized for Great Commission obedience.

The Adoption Model

People group adoption focuses primarily on the goal of reaching the people, rather than only on the means. To "adopt" means to commit to seeing a church planted among one unreached people, remaining focused when a church planter returns home or changes fields. By "unreached people," we do not refer to one's unsaved neighbor, but to those cultures which have no witness in their own language and worship in their own way.

Through adoption, the goal of a church for every people becomes achievable. Numerically, there are at least 3,000 evangelical churches for every Joshua Project people.

Many resources are available to help. One place to start is the AD2000 WEB site (http://www.ad2000.org), which includes an Adoption Guidance Program and data on 1739 of the largest and least-reached peoples (the Joshua Project Peoples).

The Adoption Guidance Program will help with each aspect of adoption and points toward many other resources and agencies.

God has already hidden each people in His heart and seeks to adopt them into His family. In people adoption, we act as His agents to welcome our brothers and sisters home, into the relationship which God, in Christ, prepared for them.

Debra Fleetwood Wood is the Director of Publications with the AD2000 and Beyond Movement located in Colorado Springs.

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