>From George Verwer, International Chairman, AD2000 Mobilizing New Missionaries Submitted by: Graham Jack <100773.105@compuserve.com> (G.Verwer's Helper)

WHAT IS IT? It is a vision and breakthrough concept and strategy to help get 200,000 new missionaries from the whole body of Christ out into the mission field that exist in every nation of the world.

In many ways, its nothing new, as some churches have been doing it since the church in Antioch started things moving, as recorded in Acts 13.

At present, across the globe, only a small percentage of churches are in to Acts 13 sending, and our goal is to see this change. Only faith, prayer and action will do this. At the same time, we believe each church needs to have specific goals and aims in the area of sending. We are praying for over 100,000 churches to be involved.

We have made a list of some of the sending nations and how many churches need to be involved to make this happen globally. By dividing the task into small units, we can see that it is not so impossible as most of us have thought.

Approximate NUMBER OF CHURCHES Needed to send 200,000 new missionaries (According to Country and Area) (This represents less than 10% of the churches in the world)

AUSTRALIA - 2,000, ARGENTINA - 1,000, BRAZIL - 5,000, CANADA - 5,000 CARIBBEAN - 1,000, CENTRAL AMERICA & MEXICO - 5,000, EASTERN EUROPE - 5,000 EAST ASIA PACIFIC - 4,000, GREAT BRITAIN - 5,000, INDIA - 10,000 KOREA - 5,000, NEW ZEALAND - 1,000, REST OF AFRICA - 5,000 SCANDINAVIA - 2,000, SOUTH AFRICA - 5,000 SOUTH ASIA(India,Pakistan,Nepal & Sri Lanka) - 5,000 REST OF SOUTH AMERICA - 4,000, USA - 25,000, WESTERN EUROPE - 5,000 REST OF WORLD - 1,600, = TOTAL SENDING CHURCHES - 101,600

Below is a guideline that shows how the church can produce 200,000 workers... # members Send 10,000 100 5,000 50 1,000 10 500 5 Under 500 1 or 2

..These are only guidelines and some countries and churches may do more or less than what we have suggest. In counsel with others, we are in the midst of adjusting these numbers. We realize that most long-term missionaries need several sending churches, but we are hoping they will have a home church that they can consider their Antioch. We must allow maximum flexibility on how all this is done.

Every biblical church in the world needs to send at least one worker longer-term into the harvest field, even if it starts with a one or two year field training program. Tens of thousands are in various colleges and training institutions who need to be affirmed, supported and then sent out, especially among the unreached people.

Acts 13 - Breakthrough 2000 is a vision and concept in which we all become more focused and specific about sending out workers

We have overheads and a tape that presents how this can be done. We have as our goal the mobilization of 200,000 workers and we need about 100,000 churches around the globe to get involved in specific ways.

There are many model sending churches around the globe and we can learn so much from them. There are books about them and how it is done. Of course, God will lead different churches in different ways, and this is where I cry out that we would have a grace-awakened attitude towards each other.

As individual churches and whole denominations take ownership of this vision in reality and action, then the tens of thousands will get into the training and be headed to the harvest fields. Many churches only need to send one or two to enable us to reach the goal.

Every church at their next business meeting should have an Acts 13 time of waiting upon God and then make the decision to actually send forth some workers. It is the sensible, biblical act of love and faith that any church can engage in.

If you are interested in more information, please request the cassette, Acts 13 - Breakthrough 2000 as well as the leaflet, Questions and Answers About Acts 13 - Breakthrough 2000.

If you have any questions, please write to:George Verwer AD2000 Mobilizing New Missionaries Network Highfield Oval, Harpenden, Herts AL5 4BX, UK or P O Box 17, Bromley, Kent, BR1 3JP, UK E-Mail: george.verwer@verwer.ict.om.org Fax: 44 181 777-0788

Your Questions Answered About ACTS 13 - BREAKTHROUGH 2000
[Only two questions and answers are included here; to get the whole document, including Why 200,000 new missionaries? What kind of Missionaries? How will we track this?, and How will all these missionaries be suported?--write to the address above.--NW] ..

HOW WILL WE PRESENT THIS VISION & STRATEGY TO THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST?
This vision and challenge is being launched by the Missions Mobilization Track of the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement. Working with Luis Bush, this initial challenge will go out to the world-wide network. We believe each aspect of the AD 2000 & Beyond, including every Task Force and Track, will see how it fits into the vision and work that God has given them. Our dream is that everyone linked in any way with the movement will take ownership of this vision and share it with others, especially any churches with whom they are linked. Our prayer is that other umbrella organizations, like national missionary alliances, will also take ownership and begin to run with the vision (most of them already are into this kind of vision or something similar). Many parts of this challenge are not new to people who are already on the cutting edge in recruiting and sending. We hope to see a spiritual explosion in answer to prayer (still the heart of our strategy as per Matthew 9:35) that will cause hundreds of mission agencies, networks and key churches to take hold of this breakthrough concept. We hope they will contextualize it in to their own situation whether they are part of AD 2000 & Beyond or not. WE ARE NOT ASKING PEOPLE TO JOIN SOMETHING NEW or be in subject to someone. We only want them to seriously pray and then seriously obey just as those early Christians did at Antioch in Acts 13. How does this strategy/concept fit into the whole Joshua Project 2000? If you have read about this, then you already know that sending workers, especially to the more unreached people is already at the heart of the Joshua Project. ACTS 13 - BREAKTHROUGH 2000 is a vision and strategy that will help make it happen. Biblical research, prayer, mobilizing and training should lead to actual workers being sent. ACTS 13 - BREAKTHROUGH 2000 shows that reaching every person and having a church for every people is do-able. We realize this might not happen by the year 2000. That is one of the reasons the word BEYOND was added to the name some years ago, long before I ever got involved in the Movement. It would be a huge mistake if we allowed things we don't agree with about AD 2000 and the Joshua Project to keep us from the basic biblical task of sending out workers. I believe this would clearly grieve the Holy Spirit of God. I would urge everyone to read Chapter 9, 'Graciously Disagreeing and Pressing On' in Charles Swindoll's book The Grace Awakening. Without this kind of I Corinthians 13, biblical reality we will never be able to do what God wants us to do. Without on-going biblical renewal, we'll never reach our goals. This particular vision/concept/strategy must be woven into all the other great goals and aims that we have on our hearts. Quality of life and biblical purity in Christ must be at the heart of all we do. Other vital emphases like worship, spiritual warfare, church growth and ministry to the whole person, and the whole of society, are all part of what burns upon our hearts. God will, of course, lead different people, churches and organizations in different ways, but I believe with godly humility we can all learn to appreciate one another's visions and ministries better and thereby produce huge synergetic action that will result in millions coming into the Kingdom...

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
That depends where you already are when it comes to vision, missions and the unreached peoples of the world. We must all by faith take some dynamic giant steps forward. Many of you have the tape where I first shared this vision and concept after I returned from Argentina. The heart of this vision came to me on a flight from Cordoba to Buenos Aires after taking part in Love Latin American. Please listen to that tape and share it with as many as possible (with the acetates or copies, if possible) that I used during the presentation. In the near future we hope to have a much better folder and other materials to present the vision. Do anything you can to get this information into the hands of pastors and Christian leaders. Urge them to get this into the next Agenda of any kind of meeting where people can discuss and pray about it as it was in Acts 13. Urge them to read the passage together and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to them, as they minister to Him. I BELIEVE WITH ALL MY HEART THAT THE SAME HOLY SPIRIT THAT SENT OUT THE WORKERS IN THE BOOK OF ACTS WILL DO IT WHEREVER PEOPLE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT HIS COMMANDS AND KINGDOM. PLEASE, PLEASE, GO FOR IT!

EOF