In looking back over the enormous changes in recent decades, we must ask, has the church missed the dramatic revolution in the consequences the United States and Canada portend as a properly understood mission field? A mission field is defined as an area for Christian outreach and evangelism in a cross-cultural

setting. Missions means living with new social practices and patterns. Evangelism is sharing the gospel within a person’s own culture. Missions thus becomes evangelism with a plus.

To help us grasp the realities of the United States and Canada mission field, review a few facts:

• The unchurched population in the United States is the largest mission field in the English-speaking world and the fifth largest globally (Eddie Gibbs, School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary).

• In 1950, 50% of the population in America attended church; today, 20% (Clegg, Thomas and Warren Bird, Lost in America).

• In North America, other religions are growing converts while Christianity is losing them (Long, North America: Decline and Fall of World Religions).

• In Canada, church participation is down sharply since the late 1940’s . . . personal religious commitment has declined (Bibby, University of Lethbridge).

As global Christians, we must respond to the missional golden text of the New Testament Church:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The church is not to be selective but must be inclusive to be a witness to all nations. In Christ’s church there are no international borders.

What can we do to respond to the United States and Canada mission field:

• Be overwhelmingly Christian

• Gain a better understanding of other religions

• Mobilize prayer, people, and financial resources to meet the emerging challenges and opportunities

• Be a Great Commission Christian in our communities

• Be open to faith-based conversations/relationships that will foster a contagious, life-transforming, faith-filled relationship with Jesus Christ

Within the next 24 hours, several thousand people in this mission field will die without knowing Jesus Christ. What will you do to give eternal hope to someone today? Will you find the mission field in your community and participate with God in His Great Commission plan for the United States and Canada? If we fail, lost people lose.

“You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore, spend and be spent in this work”

(John Wesley).

by Nina G. Gunter