SVM2 is pursuing the development of a widespread student mission movement made up of multitudes of collaborative National Student Mission Movements in country contexts globally. A purpose of such national initiatives is to see a new generation of “message bearers” (alternative term for missionary) raised up from various backgrounds and sent into the harvest fields of the world which possess the greatest spiritual need.
Could we see 100,000 new message bearers propelled from the campus ministry organizations and local churches of the world into anointed work among such peoples?
It appears that this is one of the passions on the heart of the Father as the body of Christ globally quickly moves toward the culmination of the Church age. Yet it is not the number of new message bearers that really matters but the lives of those presently outside of a relevant hearing of the gospel who will be reached with the transforming reality of the love of Jesus Christ.
We know that Jesus receives tremendous glory when a person, a village, a town or a city is brought to the revelation that He is truly God and salvation is found in Him alone. This takes place when message bearers are sent out in power with the love and message of Jesus Christ. This is our goal. A question to consider, then, is what means are necessary to mobilize 100,000 new message bearers and move us toward God’s purpose of reaching the world for Jesus Christ in our lifetime.
Lots of focus has been spent on the goal with wonderful vision and big dreams yet not as much on the pivotal work of implementing the practical means necessary to obtain those goals. What are such means? They are really quite simple. They are nothing new or profound but instead old truths that God calls us to come back to. It is not some new trend or formula that will get us there. Instead it is a simple returning to Biblical and historically proven methods and models to enable and empower a generation with a compelling vision of global harvest.
The four primary components which the SVM2 network is pursuing are:
1. Putting a Deliberate Long-Term Challenge Before the Emerging Generation For Cross-Cultural Ministry Among the Unreached
2. The Formation of Thriving Global Prayer Teams Within Campus Ministries and Churches Globally
3. The Development of Student Mission Fellowships Within Campus Ministries and Churches Globally
4. Affiliates or Leaders of Campus Ministries and Churches Who Make It Their Aim to Mobilize The Emerging Generation Which They Influence Toward a Thriving Vision of Global Harvest.
teamworkThis article will focus on the fourth of such means (Unifying Affiliates) to helping see 100,000 new message bearers raised up. Let us look to the book of Nehemiah as our blueprint. Most of us will remember well the narrative of how God stirred up a vision of the broken down walls of Jerusalem being rebuilt. How God broke the heart of His servant Nehemiah and motivated him to action. Then the Israelites as one body committed themselves to the task of rebuilding the wall. Each one was from a different background yet recognized the needs together of pursuing the completion of such a great task before them. You will remember that the wall was completed in only 52 days! Such was unheard of and would not have been possible had every tribe sought to complete the task on his/her own.
Today, God is raising up a corporate and common vision among campus ministry organizations and churches. This vision is to infuse within the emerging generation of believers around the world God’s heartbeat for all humanity and the desperate rescue effort He has undertaken to show them His greatness and power to save. The building of the wall is beginning and yet the challenges before us are great. The broken down walls of true mission vision catching on among the emerging generation are serious and in massive disrepair.
Seeing this changed requires leaders, who are influencing the emerging generation, to let God’s purpose of revealing Himself profoundly to all humanity become their own preoccupation. These then see a core part of their role in spiritual leadership as teaching, engaging, equipping and motivating many in their ministries with a heart and passion for global harvest.
As SVM2 is a network of leaders, students, ministries and organizations, these particular leaders (influencers) of the emerging generation of believers are called Affiliates. These are from four potential ministry backgrounds:
1. Campus Ministry Organizations/ Fellowships
2. Denominations and Church Networks
3. Mission Sending Agencies
4. Bible Schools, Universities, Mission Training Schools, etc
Affiliates are in the process of allowing their hearts to be burdened, as Nehemiah’s was, for the broken down walls of the current lack of mission vision. Somehow God has touched their hearts with His own of the urgent purpose of seeing every person globally given a chance to respond and choose to love and follow Jesus. One of the powerful truths in Nehemiah’s narrative is that following the hearing of the walls being broken down he goes into a four month period of mourning and fasting.
He does not immediately seek to commence some work to change the situation. First he seeks God and allows the Holy Spirit to give him a clear vision of how to move forward. When we see the reality of the broken down walls of mission vision it is imperative that we give ourselves to seeking God and allow Him to lead us and guide us into what particular action He would have us do.
What are some practical ways to cultivate a broken heart for the global situation presently?
1. Check out stats in Operation World of various countries in the 10/40 window where very few believers are found.
2. Read books and articles about trends against believers and Christ in various parts of the world.
3. Familiarize yourself with some of the negative or wrong thinking surrounding mission vision within the Church.
If we are to truly see the vision of 100,000 new message bearers actualized it will only come as campus ministries and local churches commit to contribute their part to the whole. 100,000 new message bearers is a corporate, international goal with Affiliates from each ministry and church committing themselves to rebuilding the broken down wall in their particular sphere. This is what made the Israelites effort of rebuilding so noteworthy and what in the end made it effective. Together they pursued a common goal yet each one doing so alongside their particular tribe and focusing on a certain part of the wall.
Today, this plays itself out in the following model. An Affiliate from OSCER (Romanian National Chapter of IFES – International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) commits to see the Bucharest campus ministries which he/she oversees infused with the vision of global harvest. He/she sets and commits to a faith goal of seeing 100 message bearers raised up and sent from the Bucharest campus ministries in the next ten years.
Another Affiliate in Accra, Ghana from a large Pentecostal denomination oversees several student/youth ministries and commits to seeing his/her young people implementing core components to increase mission vision. He sets and commits by faith to contribute to the 100,000 by seeking to influence 200 message bearers to go out as long term laborers following graduation from college or university.
Simultaneously, an Affiliate from Singapore sets and commits to pursue a faith goal of helping influence 60 from his/her Baptist youth/student ministry towards becoming a message bearer. He/she also helps them connect with the right mission sending agency or structure for them.
Next, a mission mobilizer from an inter-denominational mission-sending agency in the USA chooses to be an Affiliate and help mobilize 200 long term laborers for the unreached over the next 5 years. These will be sent through their particular sending organization and empowered for anointed service. And these examples continue on and on from Indonesia, the Philippines, Kenya, South Africa, Canada, etc.
Do you see the potential ripple effects this could produce? Could we see 1,000 Affiliates purposefully teaching, engaging and equipping their student ministries with the vision of global harvest in our lifetime? 1,000 Affiliates committing, on average, to influence 100 people to become message bearers will result in the 100,000 new message bearers we are praying for God to raise up. Such a focused effort from leaders representing multitudes of ministry, organizational and denominational backgrounds with a clear evangelical commitment and bent pleases the heart of the Father. We know that He is the author of unified and common goals and vision being worked out within our various ministries.
If you are reading this and are an influencer of a ministry or fellowship focused on the emerging generation of believers, I want to challenge you to prayerfully consider choosing to become an Affiliate of the Student Mission Movement.
Head here for more information about SVM2 Affiliates. Download the link entitled “Affiliate Statement of Affirmation” and read through this. Once finished if you believe the Holy Spirit is encouraging you to pursue such ends within your particular ministry proceed to the “Become an Affiliate” portion and fill in the online form.
God is raising up a corporate and common vision among campus ministry organizations and churches. We can see this taking place in pockets all over the world. Yet, as we see through the powerful example of Nehemiah, much more could be done (and a lot faster) if we bind our hands together in the effort, each one taking responsibility for his/her piece of the whole and relentlessly seeking to build the student mission movement globally. Let us commit ourselves afresh to such ends for the sake of global harvest and “winning for the Lamb who was slain the rewards of His sacrifice!”
