Pray for Ecuador

Ecuador

Stats
• Percentage of Evangelicals - 6.10%
• Human Development Rank - 72
• Number of Unreached People Groups - 12
• Persecution Index - N/A
• Population - 14,898,509
• Total Number of People Groups - 28
• Languages Spoken - 22

Ecuador's major exports are flowers, shrimp, oil and bananas. The gap between poor and rich has grown as a result of oil exploitation. Inflation, corruption, the 1995 war with Peru, and several natural disasters nearly bankrupted the country in 1999. Political instability since independence from Spain in 1830 has had a detrimental affect on the economy and people of Ecuador. Catholicism has had a profound affect on the culture, and as a result, many people are resistant to change despite freedom of religion. There are many indigenous tribes and group that live in the Andes mountains and the jungle of the Amazon who have yet to hear or who have had little exposure to the Gospel.

• An honest government is desperately needed to give stability and peace to this country while still tackling the serious economic and social problems there
• The Catholic Church has long held the majority and feuds have broken out against Evangelical churches resulting in sporadic persecution of many Christ-followers, such as believers in the mountain village of Apatug; pray that the hearts of those who do this are changed and that Christ is glorified above all
• Ecuador has Latin America's lowest population of Evangelicals; there are still dozens of unreached groups, particularly in the Andes Mountains and the rain forests of the east
• Praise that the Gospel has had a huge impact on the native Quichua people, growing from 120 believers in 3million in the late 60s to 45-50% Evangelical in some areas
• Pray for Steve & Carol Thompson, American missionaries who Brook Hills has worked with in the mission field; pray that God will continue to provide them with strength and that through them the Gospel will continue to spread and be heard
• Mission work among the jungle tribes has come a long way since the 1960s when several missionaries were killed by the Waorani tribe; there are now many believers among this group, and the families of those who died have continued to minister to the tribe over the years, displaying the tremendous power of God's love, forgiveness and grace

Missional Life (Updated)

Living a Missional Life

Living a Missional Life simply means we shift our thinking, life, resources, and priorities as the church toward God's gospel mission in our community, city, and the world.

Many churches and leaders gradually lose zeal for becoming "change agents" because of either corporate chaos or personal chaos in ourselves.

Obstacle #1: A sense of superiority to “the others.” Many Christians become egocentric because of their fear of extinction.

SIGNS OF SUPERIORITY

+ “us” and “them” language.
+ elevating a good life over groups of people who lack this quality.
+ focusing on past accomplishments rather than present obedience.
+ praise others and/or children when they separate themselves from the world and perform the “DO NOTS" rather than give encouragement and praise when they obey God’s Word to “BE” and “DO.”

RESULT: Christ is offended and withdraws grace and power for he reserves it for the humble. (1 Peter 5:5)

OUR RESPONSE: Remember the depth of our own sin both prior to salvation and after salvation and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, casting all our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:6-7)

Obstacle #2: Active Christians often have few non-Christian friends.

SIGNS of over-event-based activity among believers:

+ Not knowing everyone’s name in your small group and being a part of 3 small groups.

+ Searching for Christian events to attend each week.

+ Consuming other church’s resources by attending multiple local church events even though these events are designed to reach the unchurched.

+ Talking to non-Christians about changing their morals before telling them about Jesus.

+ Hearing a message/bible lesson, and regardless of the point, you think about how terrible a world we live in and how we need to protect ourselves from the world.



Obstacle # 3: Not preaching the gospel to oneself daily

The majority of your relational dilemmas are centered around conflict between other Christians rather than the dilemma of how to help your neighbor, a single parent, and show compassion to those less fortunate.


RESULT: Our gospel message that Christ came to save becomes less plausible because our actions communicate “Christ came to bring isolation.” (Luke 6:32-36)


OUR RESPONSE:

+ Cut down on the number of church activities during the week in order to spend time listening, blessing, and eating with your neighbors and co-workers.

+ Rather than being a part of several Christian communities that do not know you deeply, be vulnerable with one Christian community so they can encourage/challenge you with the gospel. Be apart of a community that always lets you in but rarely lets you down.

+Do not just gather as a group for study and prayer but be active together on a mission to meet needs around you. We often spend much time teaching people how to live in the church and neglect how to live as the church in the world.

SIGNS OF NOT APPLYING THE GOSPEL DAILY

+ You think to yourself, “I want to move on to understanding the bigger, better and deeper things of Scripture.” In reality, all true theology and doctrine should be further explanation of the gospel.

DISTORTED GOSPELS:

Ask yourself which distorted gospels below tend to lodge in your heart.

Approval Gospel: "I feel significant when I am liked, loved, and respected."

Moral Gospel: "When I obey, then I finally feel accepted and worthy to talk to God."

Comfort Gospel: "What else do I need to do, I prayed for christ to save me!"

Relationship Gospel: "If I follow Christ, he will bring me a great spouse."

Ministry Gospel: "I am down and devastated when ministry is not going well and the church is in disarray."

Family Gospel: "If I have Christian morals and values, my kids will be good kids. I just want them to have a good life."

Prosperity Gospel: "If I follow Christ, he will grant me health, wealth, and prosperity."

Individual Gospel: "Christ came to save individuals and my spiritual life is a private matter."

Service/Social Justice Gospel: "I feel significant and worthy of God’s love more after I have served those less fortunate."


RESULT: When we forget the gospel for everyday life, we will continue to speak Christianese (i.e, “Jesus take the wheel”) to people, and convert people to a moral life, a conservative mindset, and traditional values, yet without Christ ever taking hold of their life. Our message will be fragmented because it will be a rehearsed answer without true belief and practice. Because of this historic tendency of separating belief and practice, people will hear "be a better person/become religious" even though our words say "Jesus saves."

RESPONSE: To be continuously established in the gospel, and refuse to be moved from there. (Colossians 1:23, 2:6). The more we preach the gospel truths to ourselves daily, the more we will be compelled toward compassion for others to have it.

We see this in the writings of Paul in the book of Romans. Observe some of the major themes in the following chapters:

Romans 5: Paul praises God for giving him right standing before God
Romans 6: Paul proclaims the freedom from sin that comes in Christ
Romans 7: Paul realizes this freedom is sometimes forgotten in daily living.
Romans 8: Paul trusts in the gospel promise that there is no condemnation for those in Christ and nothing can separate us form his love.
Romans 9: Paul writes, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers.” (Romans 9:2-3)

Paul preaches the gospel to himself in Chapters 5,6,7, and 8 and it moves him to love and mission in Romans 9

Pray for China

China, People's Republic of

Stats

• Percentage of Evangelicals - 6%
• Human Development Rank - 94
• Number of Unreached People Groups - 365
• Persecution Index - 12
• Population - 1.36 billion
• Total Number of People Groups - 456
• Languages Spoken - 470

A Communist state since 1949, China has suffered immense economic and social chaos during the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s. Religious believers and intellectuals were severely persecuted, and an estimated 20 million Chinese lost their lives during Mao Zedong's rule. Agriculture and industry were largely privatized in the latter half of the 20th century, and both living and economic conditions have slowly improved. Unemployment is still high, but accurate statistics are difficult to determine. Elimination of all religious groups is the ultimate goal of China's Marxist government. It orchestrated the infiltration and subversion of organized Christianity in the 1950s, which led ultimately to the banning of all religious activity and the birth of the house church movement. Restrictions have slowly eased a bit in recent years, but strict monitoring and repression over all Christian and even Muslim activities is still the norm. The Chinese government attributes the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe to religion, and therefore maintains tight control on religious activities as a way to preserve power.

• Praise that the number of believers is growing despite Communist attempts to stamp out all religious practices; there are now believers in all levels of society
• Materialism, corruption and moral decline are stumbling blocks to spreading the Gospel
• Other social and economic problems: One Child policy results in 10million abortions a year (nearly all girls), growing divide between very wealthy and very poor, strained health care system, deforestation and resulting floods, polluted rivers and cities
• The government instituted Three Self Patriotic Movement was established to control and limit Christian activity under the auspices of patriotism and communication; although there are many who compromise the faith, many quietly ignore this push toward atheism
• Leadership training is woefully deficient and in need of protection from interference
• The growing house church movement is intensely persecuted and the government is intent upon eliminating this group they cannot control; there is a great need for bibles
• There are 60million members of the Communist Party, but there are secret believers among their ranks
• Daoism, Buddhism, ancestor worship and other idolatrous philosophies are growing in number; Islam is also a growing religion
• It is illegal to teach youth what is deemed religious superstitions, and many adults are afraid to minister to the next generation
• Missionaries are not allowed into China; pray that Christians can enter as tourists, students or other avenues and that the Gospel will be spread through their visits
• Bibles, video/audio tapes and other Christian literature are severely lacking, but demand is growing
• The internet and radio are major avenues through which the Gospel is shared; pray for protection of these resources and that they will have a lasting impact

Leftovers

As I am re-reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and I am challenged again by this chapter.

Leftovers! Are we giving God our leftovers as it relates to our resources, money and time?

Malachi 1:14 in particular really hit me hard. How often in our relationships (marriage, parenthood, etc.) do we make a commitment, only to fall short too quickly? What about in our school work, job, community organizations? Too often, I believe, we commit our best, and we truly desire to give our all; but in the end, sometimes all we can offer is our leftovers. Our leftover time, leftover energy, leftover resources, leftover money.

There are some powerful questions raised by this passage: What kind of offering are you bringing to God? Is it your best? Or is He only getting your leftovers? What are you doing to make God’s name great among the community?

Pray for Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Stats

• Percentage of Evangelicals - N/A
• Human Development Rank - N/A
• Number of Unreached People Groups - 55
• Persecution Index - 4
• Population - 32,902,000
• Total Number of People Groups - 70
• Languages Spoken - 50

For decades, Afghanistan has been in devastated by Soviet occupation, civil war, Taliban misrule and the US-led invasion in 2002. Half of all housing, nearly all complex irrigation systems and a large portion of all livestock was destroyed. Now, the main crop is opium, and Afghanistan has become the world's largest producer and uses revenues to supply weapons to various warring factions. The Taliban gained control of the country in 2001 and began imposing a strict form of Islam. No laws are passed that run contrary to this harsh form of religious belief. This has further devastated the country, and has had a particularly harsh affect on the women of Afghanistan. There is almost no religious freedom and little prospect of that changing.

• Praise that the Taliban was overthrown in 2002, giving hope to the possibility of positive change
• New leadership has had a difficult time gaining full control over the country
• Decades of war have left the ecology, infrastructure and society in ruins; pray for peace in this beleaguered nation
• Afghanistan is one of the least reach countries in the world; there are over 48,000 mosques here but not one church building
• Fear and suspicion prevent the few Christians that can be found from meeting together; pray that there will be opportunities for them to come together in community, fellowship and worship
• Women were severely oppressed during Taliban rule and were denied education, health services, employment and were restricted from leaving their homes; depression and suicide are common
• Several Christian aid organizations have worked with the sick and destitute since the 1960s, but they have been targeted by Islamist terror groups; pray for their protection and that they will have a lasting impact on those they reach
• The bible is not available in most of the dialects and minority languages here; pray for the speedy translation and effective distribution of God's Word

Living Missional

Living a Missional Life simply means we shift our thinking, life, resources, and priorities as the church toward God's gospel mission in our community, city, and the world.

Many churches and leaders gradually lose zeal for becoming "change agents" because of either corporate chaos or personal chaos in ourselves.

Obstacle #1: A sense of superiority to “the others.” Many Christians become egocentric because of their fear of extinction.

SIGNS OF SUPERIORITY

+ “us” and “them” language.
+ elevating a good life over groups of people who lack this quality.
+ focusing on past accomplishments rather than present obedience.
+ praise others and/or children when they separate themselves from the world and perform the “DO NOTS" rather than give encouragement and praise when they obey God’s Word to “BE” and “DO.”

RESULT: Christ is offended and withdraws grace and power for he reserves it for the humble. (1 Peter 5:5)

OUR RESPONSE: Remember the depth of our own sin both prior to salvation and after salvation and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, casting all our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:6-7)
Obstacle #2: Active Christians often have few non-Christian friends.

SIGNS of over-event-based activity among believers:

+ Not knowing everyone’s name in your small group and being a part of 3 small groups.

+ Searching for Christian events to attend each week.

+ Consuming other church’s resources by attending multiple local church events even though these events are designed to reach the unchurched.

+ Talking to non-Christians about changing their morals before telling them about Jesus.

+ Hearing a message/bible lesson, and regardless of the point, you think about how terrible a world we live in and how we need to protect ourselves from the world.

+ The majority of your relational dilemmas are centered around conflict between other Christians rather than the dilemma of how to help your neighbor, a single parent, and show compassion to those less fortunate.


RESULT: Our gospel message that Christ came to save becomes less plausible because our actions communicate “Christ came to bring isolation.” (Luke 6:32-36)


OUR RESPONSE:

+ Cut down on the number of church activities during the week in order to spend time listening, blessing, and eating with your neighbors and co-workers.

+ Rather than being a part of several Christian communities that do not know you deeply, be vulnerable with one Christian community so they can encourage/challenge you with the gospel. Be apart of a community that always lets you in but rarely lets you down.

+Do not just gather as a group for study and prayer but be active together on a mission to meet needs around you. We often spend much time teaching people how to live in the church and neglect how to live as the church in the world.