Every Person a Mission

During our 2021 General Assembly, the word of the Lord went forth, declaring that we should believe for the greatest harvest we have ever seen in the Pentecostal Church of God. The mandate was clear, and missional goals were established for this decade of the 2020’s to pray, plant, and water for…

100 Nations
10,000 Next-Gen Leaders (1,000 In U.S.)
10,000 Churches And Ministers
1,000,000 Christ Followers

Although numbers allow us to be strategic in goal-setting and planning, the real purpose behind the numbers is to impact eternity. By reaching a nation, church, minister, next-gen leader, and Christ follower, we impact eternity. When we win one person for Christ, we change the trajectory of eternity and celebrate with the angels of Heaven.

Personally, I believe in “every person a mission,” that each one of us is called to impact eternity in our own unique way. How that is accomplished rests in our commitment to establish intentional relationships with pre-Christians. Some of those relationships may occur through spontaneous meetings, but others may develop  over the course of time.

For me, one spontaneous meeting occurred in April when I stopped by Starbucks on my way to the International Mission Center. There I encountered a tall, muscular first responder who was dealing with unforgiveness and emotional trauma from his first divorce of thirteen years. He was struggling with his understanding of God, yet in a split second, the Lord dropped a word of knowledge into my heart that touched his life. Now, I was somewhat amused when he tried to give me money out of gratitude for our time together, but of course I declined. (That didn’t turn out so well for Gehazi, who became leprous after receiving money from Naaman!) I invited him and his family to lunch with the hope of helping them in their journey of faith. But if I had walked in and out of Starbucks without engaging this man in a conversation, I would have missed my moment to impact eternity.

Of course, other pre-Christian relationships involve building relational equity and developing consistent communication. My relationship with my barber is a good example of this. He has been cutting my hair for over a year, and after the first couple of appointments, I started sharing my faith and praying with him before leaving. Oftentimes,I would ask if I could pray for him, but sometimes, I would just grab his hand and pray before he gave his consent. I could tell he appreciated it, so I wasn’t worried about his response after the fact. After several declined invitations to attend church with me, I invited him to attend a men’s breakfast one Saturday morning, where I happened to be the key-note speaker. He initially declined because Saturday is one of his most profitable days, but when I offered to pick him up before 9am and bring him back by 11am, he finally relented. I will never forget the tears in his eyes when I brought him back to the barbershop after the breakfast. We prayed together again, but this time, our prayer impacted eternity. Sometimes, it may take a year or even years to see the harvest come, but we must keep praying, planting, and watering.

Right now, in social media and on television, we are constantly hearing the message: “Here a truth, there a truth, everywhere a truth, truth.” It may not be politically correct to say, but it is still biblically correct to say, “There is only one truth; and He is the way, the truth, and the life.” No one can know the truth unless he/she knows Him, and we are the ones called to share the truth.

In pondering this decade of harvest for our PCG family, I am sensing the urgency of God’s heart. I believe that God is seeking to accelerate our missional pace to do something of eternal significance.

“Status Quo” is the name of the cemetery where people and churches and organizations die—the place where missional movement and impacting eternity are non-existent.

My hope and prayer, however, remains strong because I see a fire burning in our PCG family to engage in this last day harvest. After all, we don’t just have a message; we are the message. When the world is at its worst, the Church can beat its best. And here’s the good news: I believe that RIGHT NOW we are at our best because we are living as “every person a mission” and, therefore, impacting eternity.