Romans 1:5-6 (MSG) says "Through him (Jesus) we (that is, all of us) received both the generous gift of his life AND the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through the gift AND call of Jesus Christ!" (emphasis mine) The gift of salvation and the task of passing it on to others go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other. Our very identity in Christ is wrapped up in BOTH salvation and sharing it with others.
The Lord started to slowly move us out of our comfort zone. We began to strategically befriend our neighbors and co-workers, in the hopes of being able to share Jesus with them. What we learned was that it wasn't nearly as scary as we had thought! But life was not smooth sailing either. Over the next few years we were tested and tried through the illness and death of family members, job losses, financial struggles, physical injury, etc. We wondered if God would ever move us forward in the calling He had on our lives.
Then, in 2007 we joined an organization called Apartment Life, which places Christian couples in apartment complexes to plan community events and provide resident care. The whole premise behind the program is to create opportunities to connect with non-believers for the purpose of building relationships that will allow you to share Christ with your neighbors. Suddenly our call to reach the lost had a framework!
We poured ourselves into planning events and trying to get to know our neighbors! We begin to open our home to the kids in the complex and pretty soon parents were coming over too! Holidays were now a time to invite neighbors over who had no family in the area! We shared our faith anytime there was a chance and pretty soon we realized that we were ministering to people not just because God had commanded it, but because we sincerely loved our neighbors and wanted to see them come to know Jesus! This was missionary service on our home turf, without the difficulties of culture shock or a language barrier!
In 2008, Stephen joined the staff of our church, Victory World Church, and then a few months later, I came on board as an Events Coordinator. To all outward appearances, things were going great! There was just one problem. We couldn't forget that day long ago in Manila. However, over the years we had felt that God was going to call us to serve somewhere other than the Philippines. We just didn't know where.
Then one day in October of that year, I was on the website of a church about a block from our apartments. We had partnered with them on several events and I was checking out their calendar to see what they had going on. On their home page, there was a picture of a couple, David and Nicole Hannah, with the words "Missionaries to Italy". I had never heard of anyone going to do mission work in Italy, so my interest was piqued. This may seem a little dramatic, but in that very instant my life was changed forever. As I read the statistics about the spiritual darkness in Italy, I was totally overwhelmed! Facts jumped off the screen at me! Statistics like:
The percentage of Evangelical Christians in Italy is 0.4%. In northern parts, the number is even less - 0.1%! That's only about 252,000 total Christians out of 58 million people. To give you a comparison, the current percentage of Evangelical Christians in China is 3% and in the US, it's about 33%.
Even though Italy is known as the seat of Roman Catholicism, less than 5% of Italian Catholics are practicing. Most Italians are Catholic in culture, but deeply cynical about the Church.
Out of 33,500 Italian cities, towns, and villages, 32,000 have NO established evangelical church! If you wanted to visit every community in Italy where there was no church for just one day and you did this 365 days a year, it would take you almost 90 years to visit them all!
As I read, the Lord arrested my heart for the Italian people. I began to sob uncontrollably and quite honestly, Stephen thought I was crazy when I told him I thought God was calling us to be missionaries to Italy. However, I began to do research on my own about the spiritual climate in Italy and everything I read told the same grim story. I went to Stephen and told him what I had learned and asked that he pray about what God was leading us to do. He reluctantly agreed, but once he did, he felt the same way that I did. God was saying, "Go and preach to the Italians."
I know what you're thinking. Not a bad gig! Sign me up for missions in Italy! Pasta, cappuccino, and pizza! Venetian canals, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Coliseum! But what you may not know is that while Italy may be a great place to live, it's a very difficult place to minister. Only 10% of missionaries return to Italy for a second term. Satanism is very strong in northern Italy, with Turin being one of the global centers of its activities, which include praying for the removal of all evangelical missionaries from the country.
Upon learning this, we then had a choice to make. Life was good here in the States. Stephen and I both had fulfilling, successful jobs working for our church. We had an apartment ministry on the side and were actively engaged in ministering to our neighbors. Why would we want to give all that up? While those things were all good, the problem was that God had clearly spoken and told us to go to Italy. Italians desperately need to know Christ as Savior and Lord, but the harvest is greater than what the current workers can bring in! We could stay in the US and continue with the status quo and no one we knew would have ever found fault with that. Or, we could choose to be obedient to God . As you may have guessed, we chose Door #2. The rest of our story has yet to be written, but we are walking it out day by day, trusting that God will make the path clear.
But what about you? Maybe you are not called to move to a foreign county to preach the Gospel, but you ARE called to share the Gospel with non-believers. In 1 Timothy, Paul writes, "He (God) wants not only us but everyone saved...." (2:4, MSG) So, what are you doing about it?
I will be the first to admit that it's really easy to get busy with things that are legitimately important. Good things, like serving in your church, taking care of your family, doing your job well. While those things are necessary, I'm not sure how those excuses will hold up when we stand before Christ and have to give an account of why we didn't share the message of Jesus with our neighbors. Romans 13:11 (MSG) says, "But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God."
With that in mind, I want to challenge you to ask yourself some hard questions today:
What are you CURRENTLY doing to fulfill the Great Commission in your daily life? (And I mean outside the four walls of your church.)
Think of 5 people that you know right now who need to hear the Gospel. These can be family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. What are you going to do about it? (Before you rush out to tell them that they need Jesus, keep in mind that not every non-believer is ready to hear about Christ yet. You may have to nurture relationships with these people before they are ready to hear what you have to say, but begin to think about how you can strategically start doing that. However, the most important thing is to show them the love of Jesus, regardless of their receptivity to the Gospel!)
If you can't think of at least 5 people in your life that don't know Jesus, I would venture to say that you need to develop friendships with more non-Christians. We are called to be salt in a flavorless world, not sit in our pretty salt-shaker collecting dust! Think of some things that you could change in your day-to-day routine to put you in contact with more non-believers. This might include taking up a new hobby you've always wanted to try or joining a club or gym to meet new people. Think about the areas where God has gifted you and the things you enjoy and figure out a way that you can meet new people in those contexts. This will give you something in common with those people and take some of the pressure off in trying to come up with things to talk about!
Lastly, is there something that God has called you to do in regards to reaching the lost that you have not yet acted on? If so, what's holding you back and what are you going to do about it?
God has chosen you and me, as believers, to carry the Gospel to the world. Sometimes that can mean traveling across the ocean, but a lot of times He just wants us to start with the people across the street. Do something TODAY to help the lost people in your life take one step closer to Jesus. I promise you that you'll never regret it!
For a practical guide on how to share Jesus with non-believers, check out I Want To Bear Fruit by Chuck Quinley. Also, for more information about our mission work in Italy, please visit
www.theverners.org.
