How is “The Mission” Doing?

The Mission Given: Acts 1:6-8

Practicing Christians as a percentage of total world population since 1900. It took 18 centuries for practicing Christians to grow from 0% of the world’s population to 2.5% in 1900, only 70 years to grow to 5% in 1970, and just 40 years to grow to 12% by2010, that share had risen to roughly 14$.

Before He ascended, the disciples asked Jesus a question that still tempts us today: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” They wanted to know the schedule. Jesus gave them a mission instead.

“It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).

That single sentence still defines the Church’s mission two thousand years later. Not a timetable, but a task. Not curiosity about the end, but courage for the journey. So, what is the Church’s mission? Witness. And where do we bear witness? The world — all of it, starting next door and reaching to places most of us will never see.

Jerusalem—our own location
Judea & Samaria—the nearby and near-culture a bit further away.
The ends of the earth—both in distance and also in culture and language

How Is It Going? Better Than You Think

When we see local churches closing or shrinking, it is easy to assume the Church is shrinking, or that Christianity is a Western relic in a post-Christian age. The data says otherwise. From the end of the apostolic age until 1900, statistics from the U.S. Center for World Mission say there was one true Christian (not just nominal, but believing in Jesus as Savior, baptized, and trusting only his work on the cross) for every 100 people alive. By 2025 that number is now below 1 for every 7. There are only 14 countries where evangelical populations are shrinking (4 countries) or growing slower than the population growth (10, including the U.S. and Canada). According to The Global Status of Christianity, between 2000 and 2020 the average number of new Christ-followers added every single day looked like this:

Africa — 37,825 new believers per day
Asia — 13,443
Oceania — 473

Latin America — 16,988
North America — 1,999
Europe — 8

The center of gravity of world Christianity has shifted decisively to the Global South. The Church is not dying. It is moving — and growing fastest in places many of us rarely think about.

The Task That Remains

Growth is not the same as completion. Vast regions of the world — concentrated in the band of latitudes between 10 and 40 degrees north, stretching from West Africa through the Middle East and into Asia — remain largely unevangelized. This “10/40 Window” is home to most of the world’s unreached people groups, and it is where our ministry has focused much of its energy.
Sadly, the Church in the Western world (our home) has not responded to this need. While 99% of practicing Christians and 90% of foreign missionaries work and live in the West or other evangelized regions, only 1% of Christians and 10% of foreign missionaries work and live among the world’s unreached peoples and places. Nine of every ten Christian missionaries serve where the Gospel has already successfully gone, while only one goes to the places where Christ is not known.
Why is this? There are many reasons, but one is that the remaining work is hard to start. Other religions have long held sway there. Another is that our compassion for the unreached is constricted by a perception that many of them are our enemies. We often aren’t bothered with the thought that some of them will finally end up in hell.

Where We Work

Indigenous Ministries currently centers on these: Iraq, Egypt, India, and the Philippines. In each, the approach is the same — equip nationals to reach nationals, rather than substitute outside workers for local believers who already know the language, the culture, and the cost of following Christ where they live.

What We Do

Child Sponsorship – Sponsorship connects a family or individual here with a child in Iraq or Egypt, providing for education and basic needs while opening a door for the gospel in the child’s family and community. Our program links children and their family with our team of workers and local churches to provide witness and discipleship.

Pastors’ Conferences – Regular conferences equip pastors and church leaders on the ground with training, encouragement, and resources they often cannot access otherwise — strengthening churches from the inside out.

Church Planting – New congregations are being started in places with little or no gospel witness, led by national believers who plant churches in soil they already understand.
Training Leaders – Long-term impact depends on trained leadership. Institutions like Grace Bible College and its extension, the Middle East Theological College, exist to raise up the next generation of national pastors, teachers, and church planters.

Acts 1:8 gives us more than a mission statement — it gives us a map. Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the end of the earth describe concentric circles of responsibility, moving outward from home. Here is what that could look like for us.

“Jerusalem” Efforts — Right Where We Are

Pre-evangelism: offering a “cup of cold water” through practical community assistance that opens doors for relationship and trust. Evangelism: personal witness and local outreach efforts that share the gospel directly with our neighbors.

“Judea and Samaria” Efforts — Our Region

Working regionally in cooperation with other denominations, ministries, and agencies — including hospital chaplaincy and ministry to international students in our area.
“End of the Earth” Efforts — Among Evangelized Nations
Supporting missions to Mexico and South America, to many nations across central and southern Africa, and to the cities of North America — places where the gospel has already taken root but still needs laborers. Many of these places have large concentrations of unevangelized people.

“End of the Earth” Efforts — Among Un-evangelized Nations

Focusing specifically on the 10/40 Window and supporting and training indigenous workers, as well as supporting those missionaries already laboring among unreached and non-evangelized peoples.

What Can You Do?

Three simple, biblical responses: Pray. Give. Go.

Specific Ways to Participate Today

Sponsor a Bible College student in India — $100 a month. Our graduates move directly into church planting and concentrate on unreached tribal areas.
Make a gift or a monthly commitment to the Middle East Theological College. We will graduate the first Iraq-trained Bachelor of Theology class ever this next spring, Lord willing.
Help fund the 2026 Egypt Pastors’ Conference so Egyptian pastors can learn expository preaching that applies the text of Scripture to life.
Sponsor a child in the Middle East (Iraq or Egypt) — $39 a month will not only help feed a family but open the door to gospel discipleship.
Minister overseas with IM in order that when you return home, you can pray and give with more understanding

The kingdom is not waiting on a timetable we can calculate. It is waiting on witnesses — in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. The question Jesus’ first disciples asked was “when?” The question He answers is “who?” Will you be one of them?

– Craig Miller, Director of Educational Development