The current popular 10/40-Window missions strategy emerged in 1990 and is still going strong. It focuses on areas in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia between approximately 10 degrees to 40 degrees north of the equator, which happens to be heavily populated with Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists—groups that by nature oppose Christianity, but they still must hear.
The idea of reaching people for Christ in those areas has become a missionary approach that makes sense and that anyone can get behind by personally going, praying or giving.
Those who lay it all on the line and actually go to those often-hostile regions and cultures are heroes in our minds. But time is short, and few of us will go ourselves. There are vast reasons that prevent us from going to those areas, and my purpose isn’t to address our reasons.
Rather, I’d like to look at some of the people groups Jesus spoke of, and these are groups any of us can take the message to. These are not divided by locale, but by need. And if we pick a group below, all we need is the same gospel message and faithfulness to actually get out there in a meaningful way. Here they are:
- The homeless. Rather than judge the reason for their homelessness, Jesus considers their need of food, drink and clothes. He points them out in Matt. 25:35-36 and commends those who minister to them as having ministered to Christ Himself. I’m not suggesting a social gospel where you build homes for the homeless and pat yourself on the back. In this case, along with those that follow, I’m suggesting developing a strategy of combining mercy with truth. Target this needy people group with a plan to go visit and help once a week or once a month and meet some physical needs while sharing the gospel. It’s not an easy group to reach because they likely will be suspicious at first. But mercy, love and the gospel over time will yield fruit and Jesus’s commendation.
- The sick. That is those in the hospital, hospice, nursing home, cancer center, etc. Jesus said in Matt. 25:34-40 that visiting the sick is the same as having done it to Him. This is the group I have picked out, and once a week I go to a local health care rehabilitation center with my ukulele and a few friends, and we visit patients, singing to them, sharing a Bible promise from the promise box I made for the occasion and sharing the gospel whenever possible. Some of the promise verses are gospel promises, which helps start the gospel conversation (John 3:16, John 1:12, etc.). Again, this is about sharing mercy and truth. We genuinely want to encourage them and lift their spirits, but we also want to make sure they are right with God and ready to pass from this life to the next.
- Prisoners. This is the group my husband has chosen to focus on. In that case, one of the goals is to help them with steps to overcome addiction, and the first step in that process is to recognize they are sinners (not hard to convince them) in need of a savior. Jesus said that visiting prisoners is the same as visiting Him in Matt. 25-34-40. There are other ministries that minister to the children of prisoners, which is a merciful way of ministering to prisoners. If you pick prisoners, find a regular opportunity to get in their space with a program that includes the gospel. My husband and I visited teens weekly in a local juvenile detention center for years. For the boys, it was basketball and a gospel message. For the girls, it was crafts and a gospel message.
This people-group focus doesn’t require uprooting or learning a new language. It does require sensitivity to the culture the need has created and a plan to regularly get yourself in their presence with a gospel-sharing goal.
In closing, I encourage you to study the combination of mercy and truth in the Bible. Mercy and truth is found 10 times. The combination is part of God’s character and part of the directive He gives to us. It’s a great strategy for evangelism.
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Ps. 86:15
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Prov. 3:3-4
By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. Prov. 16:6
Jody