What can I do about planting a church for every people?

22 December 2011

When I first read Alan Johnson’s book, Apostolic Function, I was challenged. What could I do to help those I contact participate in planting churches where there do not exist? If it is true that few people go to places and people they have never heard of, I wanted to expose the students of our Bible school with unreached people groups. We hung posters in our chapel, we distributed prayer brochures of unreached peoples, and we named the buildings on campus after the unreached people groups of Kenya. We had prayer emphasis in chapel, took mission trip to unreached people groups, and annual mission conventions in which we educated students on the needs of those that are unengaged by missionaries and the gospel.

Nehemiah received his “call” through Hanani, one of his brothers, who shared a report of the people of Jerusalem. In a similar way, the call comes to many through information as well as inspiration. Since we began sharing the information on unreached peoples, Steve and Mary Njihia are in missions today because they prayed daily from the prayer guide and God called them. Arnold Ngari has started a practical ministry team at EAST to reach out to Muslims in Nairobi because he saw the South Asian banner in the chapel and began to develop a burden for the Muslims. Susan Kimani is beginning her mission career with an unreached people group next year because she caught the vision on EAST mission trips. Alfred Sangala asked to do his EAST internship with the Gabbra people because he saw their name on our administration building and felt God calling him to work among them. An American student spent eight weeks in Loglogo among the Rendille because she wanted to do a mission internship in Kenya and we suggested doing it among the Rendille. I believe that unreached people will one day join us around God’s thrown because we get the information out. Apostolic function is every member of every church doing everything they can to see that every person everywhere has a chance to attend a church in their culture and language. We can do our part through every poster, brochure, and conversation we have.

Johnson, Alan. Apostolic Function: The Paradigm of Missionary Identity: J. Philip Hogan World Missions Series Monograph Vol 1. Springfield, MO: Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, n.d.