Understanding the Times

Frontiers invited one of their young British team leaders to share his insights into why this is such a crucial time to send young people into pioneering settings to make disciples of Jesus. Here’s what he had to say:

Understanding the times

As followers of Jesus, it’s essential to understand the times we live in. Like the men of Issachar, “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32), we, too, need to discern our present moment and respond accordingly.

Theologian Karl Barth suggested we “hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” We believe this is a critical moment in the history of missions. I’m a 25-year-old guy living right in the heart of the Middle East where God is shaking things up in ways that haven’t been seen for centuries. I want to point to three realities that call for the next wave of gospel workers to be sent from these shores to those who haven’t heard.

Open doors

Paul said, “I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me” (1 Corinthians 16:8-9).

The history of missions is the history of doors opening and closing. Doors open to Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the church responds, and the kingdom advances. Doors close to missionaries serving in China, the Chinese church responds, and the kingdom advances. Today, previously ‘closed’ Middle Eastern countries, in trying to diversify their economies, are opening up to increased non-Muslim influence. Moving around the world has never been easier and the wind of God’s Spirit blows. Will we respond, like Paul, to open doors for effective work? Or will we be put off by those who oppose us?

Broken cisterns

“[They] have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

Many young people in the Muslim world are realising that traditional religion cannot hold the water which will quench our spiritual thirst. They’re searching elsewhere, so much so that It’s likely more have come to faith in Christ from a Muslim background in the last two decades than in the previous 14 centuries. Of course, disillusionment with the religion of their fathers doesn’t always lead to faith Christ. In Türkiye, for instance, multitudes of young people are now identifying as ‘deist’ (belief in a creator who set the universe in motion but does not intervene in human affairs). This can be a crucial first step in openness to the gospel. Who will show these thirsty people that there is a “spring of living water” instead?

The next generation

“We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord … [that] they would put their trust in God” (Psalm 78:4, 7)

The Bible says it so it’s no surprise that missions leaders have identified reaching, discipling, and listening to youth as priority needs for the Great Commission today. The number of adolescents and youth in the world today is at an all-time high at 1.8 billion. Of these, 90% live in developing countries. In my host country half the population are under 25, in Africa that figure is 60%. Who is better positioned to reach the next generation than the next generation?

So what time is it?

It’s a time of open doors, broken cisterns, and for the next generation to step out. It’s a time of opportunity for the people of God, yoked to Jesus and moving in step with his Spirit, to move forward in places like Somalia, Southern Iraq, Qatar and the Caucasus. Let’s pray that a new generation of frontier gospel workers will receive the baton and make unprecedented advances to see the earth “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

Jude – a recently appointed Frontiers team leader