Synod Emphasis


Setting Our Faces Like Flint By Rev. Samuel W. Cotten


Introduction – Rom 15:20-21 The Apostle Paul has a holy ambi-


tion: I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foun- dation. Notice: apostolic ambition has an address, a location – where Christ has not been named. By the power of the Holy Spirit, these apostolic words push us onward, always beyond.


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et us carefully consider our Synod emphasis for this month – Jesus in International Mis-


sions: Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have nev- er heard will understand (Rom. 15:21, quoting Isa. 52:15). At Synod this year, we were given


the results of a World Witness Synod survey on missions. This survey af-  - tion to go to the least reached, to plant churches, and to prepare pastors. If this is our apostolic ambition, how can we accomplish this? Or, possibly an even better question, where can we accomplish this?


The Deep Well of Apostolic Ambition The idea that ambition has an “ad-


dress” did not begin with Paul. Paul followed in Jesus’ footsteps here. Let’s explore this by considering two texts side by side: First Text: In Isa 50:7, the Servant of the Lord says:


But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have , and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vin- dicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Second Text: In Luke 9:51-53, Jesus,


the true Servant, uses this same “set- ting the face” language: When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jeru- salem. And he sent messengers ahead of


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him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.





   described just a few pages later, in Isa. 53, the famous “Suffering Servant” passage.


  the suffering described just a few pages later, on the cross in Jerusalem.


 Isa. 53) as the rationale of his apostolic ministry. Let me put it this way -- Paul puts himself (and you and me) inside the Servant’s own story. Clearly – Paul reads union with Christ back into the Old Testament in such a way that the mission of the Servant is the living fountain of his own apostolic mission. That means Paul’s ambition and the Servant’s ambition are not two ambitions. In the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to every believer, Jesus Christ’s own ambition becomes ours. - tion be in us, as it was in Jesus and Paul.


Evaluating our Where As God answers that prayer, what does the world look like through his eyes?


Today, the church is looking more and more like it did in the beginning, origi- nating as it did as an Eastern and African phenomenon. The shaping of the Nicene Creed (AD 381) was accomplished primarily by Africans and Asians. Europe became the center of global Christianity only after AD 1000. Christianity in our times has moved back towards its birthplaces. Today, nearly 70% of Glob- al Christians live in the Global South. Africa has the most Christians by number; Latin America has the most by percentage. The Global South has outnumbered the Global North since 1981. Yet, Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion.


Consider: • Of the 8.2 billion people in the world, 27% have no gospel access. • 71.7% of all unreached peoples are still frontier. • This represents 1.9 billion people, one fourth of humanity.


As we look through the eyes of Jesus for addresses who have never named his Name, we see two kinds of answers and two kinds of opportunities:


Opportunity 1: The Un and Least Reached 


largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church-planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance (Lausanne 1982).” One caveat: PG is a modern missiological term and should not be anachro- - not measure the end of the mission. We’ll know the mission is over when the Eastern sky splits and the trumpet sounds.  2% evangelical and less than 5% Christian. It refers to any PG where there are


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