Are Lost Sheep Unreached or Unevangelized?

* Once upon a time, long ago, in a distant land, a shepherd made a paradigm shift. He decided that it was not cost effective to go wandering around at night in dangerous places during a storm just to look for one lost sheep. How much was just one sheep worth compared with the hourly wages of the shepherd? He decided that precision, efficiency and predictability were more important than meandering around in the night calling out for just one lost sheep that had already heard the call many times. He decided it would be a much better use of funds if he would allocate his resources to locating lots of sheep who had never heard the call of the shepherd. He thought, "if a lost sheep clearly hears my call one time and doesn’t come, it’s time to move on to other potential lost sheep." The new paradigm would cost a lot less per sheep. “Fewer dollars per lamb” was the new slogan.
* Since the emerging paradigm demanded precision, he met with an international committee of itinerant shepherds to precisely define unreached and unevangelized. Maybe the unevangelized sheep were those who had never heard the call of the shepherd, and unreached are sheep who heard the call, but have not yet arrived back in the sheep fold. Since sheep tend to move in flocks they could proudly proclaim that an area had been fully reached when 20% of the lost sheep were safely in the fold. With this wonderful paradigm, billions of sheep could now be classified as evangelized and reached while every single one of them is still lost and outside the fold.
* The parable could go on and on, but maybe the crucial problem is not the definition of evangelized or unreached, but the deeper problem of an innapropriate paradigm shift. The Good Shepherd doesn’t count the cost of finding a lost sheep and is not motivated by a cult of efficiency, but is passionately in love with lost lambs.

Why Christian Love Muslims

Christians must love Muslims because God loves Muslims. Because of His great love, the Lord God Almighty has commissioned Christians to share wonderful good news with the whole world.

Out of love we share this good news and invite Muslims to become followers of God and His Living Word.

1. All people are invited to love God and submit to him all their hearts.
2. Christians are disciples of the living Word of God, Kalman Allah, Jesus Christ.
3. We seek to obey the written word of God, the Holy Bible.
4. The Bible tells us that God created the every human being in the whole world. He created us so that we would worship and love the true God. But all people rejected Him and rebelled against His love.
5. God has given the whole world wonderful Good News. He loved us so much that He came in the person of Jesus to die in our place, for our sins so we can be forgiven, adopted into His family and live with him forever.
6. The Spirit of God gives His disciples the power to live holy lives. People who live holy lives will love God, love all people and influence society for good.
7. The Bible commands all of Jesus' disciples to go into all the world and share the Good News with all nations. Missionaries can’t make converts, only God brings people to Himself.
8. God longs for all people to know Him but has given freedom to accept or reject His free gift of eternal life through forgiveness of sins. God will not force himself on anyone.
9. Missionaries share the Good News with humility and respect. We do not coerce or trick people into believing the Good News. We love Muslims and want to share the Good News without pride, committed to the dignity of all people.
10. Because we love God and love Muslims, we warmly invite Muslims to accept God’s love and forgiveness. We invite you learn more about the Word of God by reading The Gospel of John in the Holy Bible.

Interview With God

http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/popup-frame.html

The Membership Club

Once upon a time there was a wonderful club. It was called The Membership Club. The only purpose for its existence was to gain more members. Here is a sample of the Constitution.

Aims:
1. Get more members, so as to get more members, so as to get more members, etc.
2. Establish new members in branch clubs which will be self-governing, self supporting and self-propagating.

Activities:
1. Study books on “Club Growth.”
2. Mobilize every member for a continuous “Total Mobilization Membership Movement” (TMMM).

Club Motto: “Joined to Reproduce.”
Once in a while a crisis would arise. There would be a problem member in the club. One such member had the nerve to raise his hand in a meeting and ask:
“Why should I be a member of this club?”
The answer quickly came from the members in unison:
“You are “Joined to Reproduce’.”
“Yes, but why?” the rebel stammered.
“So that new members can be self-propagating,” sounded the chorus in an angry tone.
“Yes, but...why should we...?”
“Sit down.”
“Heresy.”
“Liberal,” shouted the angry mob.

Are we merely planting membership clubs?
After all, nothing is born merely to reproduce - except maybe weeds, and membership clubs.

We are born to sing praises to God, and then invite the whole world to join the choir. Numeric growth might be good, but ONLY if the growth is an outcome of a healthy missionary community of worshipping of pilgrims who are becoming like Christ. I suspect that external quantities are most often not a true reflection of inner qualities.