All Nations In Queens?

Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:19

YOU’VE HEARD SERMONS PREACHED, Sunday school lessons taught, and Bible studies focused on the great commission, that passage at the end of the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus commissions His followers to take the Good News around the world.

Hasn’t that been done? Wouldn’t you think that after more than two millennia, the church has at least come close to fulfilling that command from Jesus? Think again. According to statistics from the Joshua Project, there’s a lot more work to be done. There’s still a wide-open field ready for some who follow Jesus to sow seeds and others to harvest, sharing the gospel around the world.

Nathan Creitz is a church planter for the Southern Baptist Convention who moved to Queens, New York, in December 2011 to plant a church. Creitz says, “The word for ‘nation’ is better understood as an ethnic people group. Though we may not all go to all peoples, we are all responsible to bring the gospel to all unreached people. . . . One fifth of the people in our neighborhood are from unreached people groups.”

Creitz challenges each man to do his part in fulfilling Jesus’ command, but not necessarily by packing up and moving to the other side of the world. We can look for the nations represented in our own hometowns, even in our own neighborhoods. Your town may not have the ethnic diversity of Queens, but somebody from somewhere lives there. Reach out. In today’s transient culture, there’s no excuse for not being personally involved in the great commission.

BOTTOM LINE

What nationalities are represented in your hometown? What are you doing to take the gospel to these nations in your own backyard?

Moment of Strength: Matthew 28:18-20