Gaining Momentum
Do you realize that the Great Commission may be close to completion? We are living in a day when Christ’s command to take His message to every nation is rapidly gaining momentum.
When the disciples asked about the end times, Jesus responded, in Matthew 24:14, “The Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.” Looking at Jesus’ words in the larger context of Scripture, we realize that while the exact timing and details are still a mystery, the outcome is clear. One way or another, every nation will be reached with the good news of God’s forgiveness and redemption in Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:16-17 says, “For by him [Christ] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Walt Wilson, GMO’s founder, points out that “all things” includes bits, the most basic form of digital data. Bits form bytes, and bytes form text, images, video, and audio that we use to communicate the Good News. The opportunities we have for sharing the gospel in the Internet era didn’t surprise Jesus; He planned it from the beginning.
Other Great Commission efforts are also accelerating. Wycliffe Bible Translators can now, in a two-year timeframe, translate enough Scriptures to plant a church in a language group. OneStory (a partnership between Campus Crusade, Wycliffe, and other ministries) is creating Bible-based stories that can be easily learned and repeated in oral-learning cultures. There so many things I hear about God doing around the world; in faith, I believe He’s doing even more that is still unreported.
As I write this, Global Media Outreach is currently seeing as many as 24,000 indicated decisions for Christ each day — double what we were seeing just 6 months ago. This is due solely to the power of the Holy Spirit that is unleashed through our obedience to God’s will. Yet I am convinced that we have many, many more steps to take before God’s intentions for Spirit-powered, Internet-facilitated ministry are fully revealed.
Within the next decade, perhaps sooner, some 95% of the world’s population will be digitally connected — many of them through digital media devices using cell-phone networks. One thing is clear from the brief history of online ministry: wherever digital data can be accessed, we can share the gospel.
God’s redemptive plan, centered in the person of Jesus Christ, continues with full force in our present day. The clouds gathering on the horizon suggest that something big is brewing… yet while we see indications of what God might do, we won’t know for sure until it happens. Still, I can say with 100% certainty that each day brings us one step closer to the plan’s fulfillment.
Countless believers have faithfully and obediently been part of the Great Commission. To think that we could be witnessing God’s grand finalé — let alone actively participating in it — is humbling, challenging… and motivating.
Praying Forward
I often write about my ministry activities in the past tense. There are several reasons for this, such as the long-term nature of some projects and the fluid nature of ministry — some things are waylaid by other priorities, and others end up being dead ends. I find it a challenge to ask for prayer for specific things. While “general” prayer support is welcome and needed, I firmly believe that asking for specific things — according to God’s will — is vital to the mission. So from now on, I’m hoping to find ways to better communicate specific prayer requests.
Please pray for accelerated development of effective discipleship resources for new believers; specifically, pray for wisdom in developing experimental online learning course. As the number of indicated decisions for Christ through our online outreaches continues to increase, so also does our need to provide effective discipleship resources for new believers. I’ve been interested for a long time in the potential for online learning (aka “distance learning” or “e-learning”) as a discipleship tool. Last fall, a co-worker and I began developing a course on essential principles of spiritual growth. Though the project was delayed by other needs — we got the first draft lesson done last month — we’re hoping to soon complete the first four lessons and release them for a public trial.
Pray for the creation of a new 30-day guide for new believers and my role in producing videos that will cover topics for each day. Video production continues to be a major aspect of my work with GMO. I’m planning a major production trip to San Diego in early May. In addition to helping with the script writing, I’ll be shooting 30 one- or two-minute video segments for this guide. I may also be shooting for two other video projects during this same trip.
Pray for the people, means, and opportunities needed to translate and record the remaining language videos for our key web sites sites. My immediate focus is getting the videos created in Japanese. Recently, I was wondering how we could get the scripts translated… and two hours later, a Japanese-speaking volunteer walks into our office! I’m hoping that we can complete the other remaining languages this year — Portuguese, Russian, Italian, and German. This means GMO will be able to share online a gospel presentation and basic follow-up materials, in text and video, for the top 10 languages used on the Internet. These languages represent 90% of the world’s online population.
Pray for students interning with GMO during the Silicon Valley Summer Project. I’ve been asked to help recruit interns as a way of raising up the people GMO needs to carry out our mission. I’m planning to direct our ministry’s first-ever summer project this June and July. We’re hoping to have four to six students work as interns in GMO’s Silicon Valley office. We’re trusting God to bring the right students to us, and provide for all the logistics that go into this type of endeavor.
I’ve said many times that I’m often aware — in some way — that people are praying for me and my ministry. Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer! It is futile to expect supernatural results without supernatural power, which only comes when we ask for it in prayer. I’m going to be setting up a special, semi-private prayer request page on my website and emailing a web link to it. If you are not already receiving my email updates, you may subscribe using this form.
Immeasurably More
One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 3:20, in which Paul proclaims, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” It applies to every aspect of our Christian life, from our own spiritual growth to fulfilling the Great Commission. Though I’ve seen this truth in action many times, I am still amazed at how God works.
A unique attribute of digital, internet-enabled ministry is that we can collect an abundance of data that reveals what God is doing through us. Last October, Global Media Outreach recorded the 2,000,000th indicated first-time or recommittment decision for Christ in 2008 — our goal for the whole year. Yet that was just the beginning of what God was going to do. While our efforts remained largely unchanged, the Lord caused the results to grow at ever increasing rates. In December alone, GMO saw over 494,000 indicated decisions (more than all of 2006!)
The final result for 2008 was 3,097,355 indicated decisions for Christ! We had over 17,459,221 visits to our web sites, from both computer and cell phone users in 191 different countries. Our ministry has seen God exceed goals in previous years — but I don’t think anyone even thought a 154% result even remotely possible.
With 669,449 email contacts, 2008 was also a banner year for our growing community of “online missionaries.” And this number does not include any follow-up messages that may have been sent or received. In these messages we continue to see that our numbers represent real people with real spiritual needs who are searching for truth answers.
“I’m very grateful that I’ve been given the chance to know God and accept Jesus as my personal Savior.”
– J, Indonesia“just want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to accept christ back in to my life again. – A, Georgia (USA)
“i want to deep study bible in a profound manner and [learn] the exact meaning of it! and would want to convert from hindu to a christian!” — N, India
“what should i do to accept God with all my heart.” — J, Philippines
“how can i make my faith more deep?” — J, Lebanon
“I happen to be a muslim but thanks be to God I have accepted Christ as my saviour help me be more powerful in the Lord; spiritually strong in my Christian life.” – H, Ghana
Each year God is bringing an increasingly abundant harvest as a result of internet-enabled media ministry. This boom in evangelism makes our growing discipleship focus all the more important. I look forward to the day when, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we see more and more people come to faith in Christ, grow in their relationship with God, and then go out and reach even more people.
The vision of Global Media Outreach is to give everyone on earth multiple opportunities to know Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith. This is what we “ask or imagine” — but God, through His power within us, can do immeasurably more “…to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Harvest Tools
It’s both humbling and awe-inspiring to see what God is doing through our ministry. This October we recorded the 2,000,000th 
indicated decision for Christ (first-time or recommitment) this year — as many as 10,000 decisions in one day! And to date, our volunteer “online missionaries” have answered over 500,000 emails.
Global Media Outreach recently launched new evangelism websites so that we are now providing an online gospel presentation in each of the most common internet languages (English, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Italian, and Russian) plus Swedish. A part of this effort is to eventually provide brief online videos in each language. This includes one gospel message video for evangelism, and 16 follow-up videos for discipleship. Last May I produce the French version of these videos. This past September we added Spanish; October brought us Chinese; and this month… Arabic! 
Producing each translation of the videos is a significant undertaking. Even before I get involved, my co-workers have been busy getting the scripts translated and finding “talent” to present them on camera. My job is to produce the highest quality video possible, so I invest a lot of effort in the process. (And getting our tele-prompter program to display Chinese and Arabic text was a feat!) From a professional standpoint, these are simple talking head videos. But what is truly exciting — what often comes to mind when I hit the “record” button — is how God can use these videos to impact people in these language groups with the message of Christ.
Every day, in 191 countries, our ministry is seeing the living realization of Jesus’ words in John 4:35-36: “The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!” What a joy it is to be involved in developing these new videos, these “harvest tools” that God can use to bring people to eternal life! What a joy God has when people respond to His love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ!
