GLOBAL 2020 UPDATE FINISHING THE TASK: BIBLES, BELIEVERS AND BODIES OF CHRIST FOR EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE “Go and make disciples of all nations.” These were some of Jesus’ last words on earth. We know this Great Commission is a call given to every follower of Jesus, not just for a chosen few. It’s a call for all believers, in every church and every country, for all generations. Jesus’ command to reach the lost is as urgent today as it was for the first century Christians. Today, we’re living in exciting times with unprecedented opportunities. For the first time in history, because of modern developments, it is now possible to see every nation, tribe, people, and language reached with the good news of Jesus. However, there are challenges and barriers we can only overcome by working together with a spirit of self-sacrifice. Even today, 2000 years after the resurrection, there are still hundreds of people groups with No Believers, thousands of languages with No Bible in their language, and millions of places with No Body of Christ. This means that billions of people will go into eternity separated from Jesus forever—unless the global church rises up to take a firm hold of the mandate we were given 2,000 years ago. We are living in a time in which communication, translation, and transportation can reach the most isolated and overlooked people on the earth-people who have never heard the Good News of Christ. Now is the moment to come together, collaborating and innovating for such a time as this. To this end, the Bible, Believer and Bodies of Christ initiatives are collaborative arms of the same mission, working hand-in-hand with local leaders and their communities to catalyze transformation through the Gospel message. FINISHING THE TASK UNTIL CHRIST’S RETURN: TOWARDS THE COMPLETION OF THE GREAT COMMISSION Finishing The Task unites and mobilizes the global body of Christ to courageously take up the mantle of catalyzing, multiplying and supporting church planting movements in every unreached people group and place, until everyone, everywhere has access to a Bible, believers and a Body of Christ. FINISH THE TASK 2 THE PRIORITY OF PRAYER IN FINISHING THE TASK “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” 1 Chronicles 16:11 Prayer is the foundation of all that we do as we seek God’s wisdom in order to carry out His plans. Finishing The Task is committed to fostering unity in prayer, focusing specifically on Christian organizations partnering with the Church in obedience to the Great Commandment and towards the completion of the Great Commission. To this end, FTT will be establishing a prayer initiative that unites our partners in prayer for the Great Commission. FINISH THE TASK 3 BIBLE: COMPREHENSIVE BIBLE TRANSLATION IN THE LANGUAGES OF UNENGAGED AND UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS Worldwide, less than 2% of all Deaf know Jesus, making them the largest unreached people group in the world. In order to make the Bible accessible to every person on earth, Finishing The Task is committed to speeding up the work of Bible translation. While this has traditionally meant the work of translating the full Bible into the written languages of the Unengaged and Unreached People Groups (UUPGs), this work now also includes making the entire Bible accessible to oral communicators and to the community of the Deaf People Groups—those who access the Bible in their “heart language” of signing. Worldwide, less than 2% of all Deaf peoples know Jesus, making the Deaf community the largest unreached people group in the world. In December 2019, the FTT Deaf Coalition was established to raise awareness about the Deaf community and their unique Bible needs. With the establishment of the Deaf Coalition in addition to FTT’s continued focus on the broader oral culture groups, FTT is committed to developing a focused strategy to make the full Bible available to these people groups as part of the goal to provide a Bible for everyone, everywhere. FINISH THE TASK 4 BELIEVERS AND BODY OF CHRIST: PARTNERING WITH CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS Finishing The Task has been in collaborative conversation with Church Planting Movement leaders to envision together the next strategic finishing line of the Great Commission. A Church Planting Movement (CPM) is defined as the multiplication of disciples making disciples and leaders developing leaders, which results in indigenous churches planting churches. These churches then spread quickly through a people group or population segment and the new disciples and churches begin to transform their communities as the new body of Christ lives out Kingdom values. When churches reproduce consistently to four generations in multiple streams, this is defined as a sustaining movement. WHAT GOD IS DOING THROUGH HIS BODY AROUND THE WORLD *These movements exist across every continent and worldview, in both rural and urban areas. • 4,589 reports of active teams trained in CPM and seeking to start movements which includes: • 1,606 CPM efforts awaiting fruit • 1,322 efforts of which many are yielding 2nd and 3rd generation churches • 1,376 Church Planting Movements • 76.9 MILLION believers in all CPM engagements • 4.8 MILLION known churches in all CPM engagements • 56K believers per CPM (average) • 16 average believers per church, per CPM (average) While not part of the formal definition of “movement,” most of these church planting movements have at least 100 churches with 1500+ baptized disciples within 4—5 years of the initial church plant. FINISH THE TASK 5 OUR VISION INCREASE IN MOVEMENTS Church planting movement engagements in every people & place by December 31, 2025. 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2 011 2013 2015 2017 BASED ON 15% MOVEMENTS INCREASE IN CHURCHES 5.25M 4.9M 4.55M 4.2M 3.85M 3.5M 3.15M 2.8M 2.45M 2.1M 1.75M 1.4M 1.05M 700K 350K 0 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 A BEST ESTIMATE WITH LIMITED DATA Incomplete sample, but pattern seems to hold East Middle AFRICA North South West Central East ASIA South Southeast West East North EUROPE South West Caribbean Central AMERICAS South North Austrailia-NZ PACIFIC Melanesia Micronesia 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 CPM ENGAGEMENTS CPMs FINISH THE TASK 6 LOOKING FORWARD—FTT STRATEGY 1. Speed up the task of Bible Translation; 2. Use every available channel and means to spread the Gospel; 3. Plant all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people; 4. Mobilize all kinds of people to plant all kinds of churches; 5. Unite around the Great Commandment and the Great Commission; 6. Empower every believer to be an ambassador for Christ; 7. Organize and mobilize people to pray for the Great Commission. AS THE WORLD GETS DARKER, THE CHURCH SHINES BRIGHTER The work of reaching the unreached has not stopped in the midst of the challenges brought by COVID-19. In fact, in some areas, it has presented an opportunity to reach out and meet felt needs in a way that opens the door to the Gospel. For example, Kumar, working with e3 Partners, reports remarkable outreach during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. He and his team have fed over 74,000 men, women and children in 3200 villages and 5 large cities. They have seen 18,790 people profess faith in Christ and have started several new house churches during the pandemic. In addition, after searching for two years for a Mathukaran UUPG (the cow people), they found them during their feeding campaign. They fed and shared the gospel with approximately 250 Mathukaran people and 64 responded positively to the Gospel. We are praising God as these are the first ever known believers among the Mathukaran people! FINISH THE TASK 7 UPCOMING EVENTS OCTOBER 13—15, 2020 JANUARY 2021 THE 2020 GLOBAL ASSEMBLY JANUARY 2021 FTT GLOBAL SUMMIT OF PASTORS FOR FINISHING- ONLINE GLOBAL SUMMIT THE-TASK (GAP4FTT) INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA The January 2021 FTT Global Summit will be an opportunity for believers throughout The GAP4FTT Conference is being organized the world to come together on a truly global by the GAP4FTT Korea Steering Team. platform to hear from Pastor Rick Warren FTT, along with our CPM partners, has come about the urgency of reaching UUPGs with alongside GAP leaders to provide logistical the Gospel. In addition, church planting support for the International Track, in movement leaders, practitioners and field addition to training towards understanding workers will be facilitating workshops to and equipping towards engagement. inform, equip and inspire the global Church to get involved with the Great Commission The GAP4FTT Conference in South Korea work of getting a Bible, Believer and Body will have three parts: of Christ to everyone, everywhere. Onsite Conference at Incheon, South Korea Plenaries and workshops will be offered in the The onsite conference will gather 500 local major languages of the world, including ASL. Korean Pastors (Korean-speaking Track) from Tuesday, October 13 to Thursday, FTT, FTT Partners and CPM leaders are October 15, 2020. collaborating to establish and support regional, national and local leaders in their effort Other Conference Locations to reach the unreached in their respective In order to bring GAP4FTT teaching and areas by planting churches that will result resources to those who are affected by in sustaining movements leading to Gospel the current limitations of international travel, saturation and transformed communities. regional conference locations will also be established in select locations through the The January 2021 FTT Global Summit will Korean missionary network. Conference hosts provide an opportunity for these leaders and facilitators will be encouraged to gather to share their stories from the field, network local pastors and community leaders for together and further strategize for the a focused time of training and networking.