Many of us, (myself included) were raised to think that in order to fulfill the Great Commission, we had to send missionaries to foreign lands to learn new languages, proclaim the gospel and plant churches. And that’s what we did. Decades later, the evidence is in. Thousands of churches have been started. In many of these far-flung fields the percentage of Christians now exceed the percentage of Christians in our own country. And the degree of commitment that believers exhibit in many of these same countries would put us to shame.

The point of this article is to alert us to the fact (if you haven’t already discerned this for yourself) that while the light of the gospel is ever shining brighter in many parts of the world, it seems to be losing its radiance here at home.

 

 Currently Lifeway is reporting a decline with the largest evangelical denomination in North America. You can read about it here . This is a trend representative of North American evangelicalism.

 In our own denomination, the Associated Gospel Churches , although we are seeing a growing number of individual churches that have been planted, we are not seeing an overall increase in conversion growth. People are not coming to faith in Christ like they once did in the post war years. Much of the growth that does occur in in our churches is what is called “transfer growth”. Christians moving from one church to another for various reasons. Many of our own Christians have come from other churches.

 Among the youth, George Barna is reporting that following the teen years, most ‘twenty somethings’ who were active in churches while under the influence of their families are leaving the church and are opting for a vague and ill-defined set of values that rejects doctrinal substance and embraces a feelings based spirituality.

 At the same time, we have the claims of some segments of the emergent church claiming that either there is no hell, or that almost everyone will be saved in the end (universalism) because after all, a loving God would not tolerate the ongoing torture of lost souls throughout eternity. Evangelicalism is headed for some serious turbulence ahead as a younger generation determines what it wants to believe. It seems the same battles that were fought during the liberalization of the church in the last century are being revisited, but now it is not on the fringes. This is now happening in the heartland.

 All of that to say that we are in trouble if we ignore the trends, and if we fail to see what is happening in our own fellowship.

 There is an adage that holds true generally. The light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home. The church that will be effective in proclaiming (by proxy) the gospel in distant lands should, theoretically, be even more effective in proclaiming the gospel at home.

 We must turn our focus on what it means to “do Missions” right here where we live. I am not talking about missionaries whom we support who work here in Toronto  (God bless them)!  I am talking about the concept that each of us, as Christians are called to be missionaries where we live. Let us apply as much fervor,  investment and prayer into reaching the lost in our own back yard as we do towards missions in foreign places and other cultures.  Let’s bring Missions home! Let’s engage with our world!