Into The Gap: Will You Go?

When I first connected with Musa* online, I was the first follower of Jesus he had ever met.  I initiated the first conversation about Jesus that he had ever had. I helped him read the first chapter of the Bible that he had ever read.  And I am probably the first true follower of Jesus who has ever committed to praying for his salvation.

Musa lives at the widest end of the gap.

By now it should be obvious that all Christians are born again into the Gap between God’s world-wide purpose and the fulfillment of it. But there’s more than one kind of response to that Gap.  Some are asleep, some are on retreat, and some are determined to stand in the Gap particularly at its widest end where billions await the opportunity to hear of Christ for the first time.
                                                                                                                                      -David Bryant

David Bryant’s book Into the Gap introduces two ideas: the world Christian and the gap.  With today’s article I want to explore the latter.

Every person in the world stands in the same sized gap between their brokenness and their salvation.  Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved and that remains the same whether we we are the son of a preacher in Colorado Springs or of an imam in Islamabad.

The distance between death and life, between darkness and light is the cross of Christ.

But there is another gap that Bryant explores; the gap in our ability to hear the good news of the cross of Christ. 

In my small  Midwestern city, there is never a time when a person is more than a quarter mile from a true follower of Jesus.  There is never a place that is more than a mile or two from the nearest church. Twenty four hours a day Christian radio programming runs on multiple stations. A drive down any main boulevard passes multiple billboards advertising churches or Christian schools.

The gospel is accessible.  The gap is quite narrow.

But travel into the 10/40 window and the picture changes.  The 10/40 window is the area of the earth between latitudes ten and forty degrees north of the equator.  It is home to the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Animists and Unreligious (China) peoples.  It is home to the majority of the world's nearly 7,000 unreached people groups - nearly 3 billion people - who have never heard the gospel.  A person living in the 10/40 window would be hard pressed to find a church within 100 miles of their home.  They would most likely live their entire life without ever encountering a follower of Jesus. They may never hear a Christian radio broadcast or pick up a Bible. The distance between a person who does not know Jesus and the opportunity to hear about Jesus is enormous.  

This is the widest end of the gap.

At Everywhere to Everywhere, our heart is to accelerate movement toward the widest end of the gap.  We work to equip and encourage everyone everywhere to proclaim the gospel and make disciples among the unreached locally, nationally and globally.

In the past, the only answer to the wide end of the gap was to send missionaries into it.  That is still an answer and the body of Christ throughout the world must send more. 3 billion lost in darkness demands it.

But the context of that gap has changed.  Technology has opened up new opportunities to connect with people there.  Globalization and world crisis have brought millions out of the 10/40 window and into gospel saturated countries.  We live in a new day of world missions and because of that we must be equipped to respond to new opportunities.

I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages - villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world.
                                                                                                                                     -Robert Moffat

The smoke of a thousand villages is drifting in through your window.  You only need follow it and you will find yourself in conversation with someone like my friend Musa, someone who has never known a follower of Jesus and never heard the gospel.  Someone whom you can befriend. Someone with whom you can begin to share the good news of Jesus and to pray for.

Your journey into the widest end of the gap has never been closer.  

Will you go?

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Helpful Resources

• Into the Gap by David Bryant (book)
• To Be A World Christian (article)
• Musa's Story (article)
• Everywhere to Everywhere Training Events
• Embassy (online outreach training)
• Short Term Missions Opportunities

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*For security reasons, names have been changed.