Harvest Mission
International, Inc.
International, Inc.
Equipping you for the mission field
in your own backyard
in your own backyard
©
Discover YOUR place in God’s mission!SM
Our Mission: To equip and mobilize God’s people
to spread the Gospel across all cultures.
Harvest Mission International, Inc. PO Box 5430, Ft. Wayne, IN 46895
Tel: 260-
Rev. Dr. Larry Merino, Executive Director
© 2006 Harvest Mission International, Inc.
FOREWORD
Thirty-two years ago an LCMS pastor named Oscar Feucht published a gem of a book entitled Everyone a Minister. In it, he vigorously proclaimed the Biblical teaching of the priesthood of all believers, stating that “this priesthood is the connecting link between the dying Christ and dying men.” Because God chooses to work through human beings and because His Word refers to human bearers of the Gospel message as God’s fellow workers, it is up to every generation to reappropriate and live out this truth anew. Because God uses us, we must equip and train one another for the work of service that He gives us. The collection of essays in this book, Everyone a Missionary, takes up the ringing call of Everyone a Minister for American Christians in the early 21st century.
Scripture highlights the importance of God’s salvation reaching all ethnic groups from Genesis 12:3 to Matthew 28:19 through to the very end (Revelation 7:9; 22:2).
Thirty-
Scripture highlights the importance of God’s salvation reaching all ethnic groups from Genesis 12:3 to Matthew 28:19 through to the very end (Revelation 7:9; 22:2).
In our times, Scriptural teaching about salvation for the nations (ethne or peoples) and the social setting in which we live have converged because wherever we go the reality of the challenge of making disciples of all ethnic groups stares us full in the face. We have the commission from God’s revelation and the challenge and the opportunity all around us. The task faced by the early church in the book of Acts as they reached across ethnic lines to Samaritan and Gentile and that encountered by St. Paul as he developed his mission theology in his epistles is much the same task as that confronting Christians in 21st century America and our increasingly globalized world.
This book, Everyone a Missionary, is a wonderful tool to encourage and equip the royal priests of our churches for the most exciting work of all, that of being participants in God’s mission. May God in our times give to us a renewal of holy zeal for that task. As Pastor Merino reminds us in one of the articles, “The Local Congregation is the Hope of the World,” there is nothing more significant for the future of the world’s peoples than the light of the Gospel shining in the lives of God’s redeemed people. The people of God are the new Mount Zion who bring God’s message and love to the peoples of the world who are all around us.
This book, Everyone a Missionary, is a wonderful tool to encourage and equip the royal priests of our churches for the most exciting work of all, that of being participants in God’s mission. May God in our times give to us a renewal of holy zeal for that task. As Pastor Merino reminds us in one of the articles, “The Local Congregation is the Hope of the World,” there is nothing more significant for the future of the world’s peoples than the light of the Gospel shining in the lives of God’s redeemed people. The people of God are the new Mount Zion who bring God’s message and love to the peoples of the world who are all around us.
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To order, contact HMI at info@harvest-mission.org or 260-471-5129.