Global Vision Update 2021

2021 Global Vision Update

The New Sending Force

↗ Yangon, Myanmar

Though Myanmar is 88% Buddhist, it is home to 2.5 million Christians.

Many churches in Myanmar exist in the shadow of Buddhist temples.

Who better to send missionaries to reach them?

Photo altered for security reasons

Gaining a vision for the new sending force Letter from the Executive Director

↑ Dave and Zhiyuan speak to a crowd during a trip into a minority people group area.

Some names changed for security purposes

From 1997 to 2010, my wife Michelle and I served in East Asia. We remember those years fondly and have deep friendships there still to this day. We were blessed to raise our children in another culture where they could experience the world through the eyes of those different from themselves. We originally thought we would be planting new churches in this vast nation, but soon realized that it was much more valuable to equip national pastors to be the church planters.

Our ministry flourished as we began to show them how strategic their roles could be in reaching unreached people groups — those

who have no access to the gospel.

One man, Zhiyuan, led a local network of churches. He had never thought much about the unreached people surrounding the large city he lived in, but as our friendship grew, Zhiyuan began to wonder if the men and women in his churches could make a difference in those communities. Zhiyuan’s churches began leading trips out into the surrounding provinces. Through their faith, God blessed their efforts as they began to build relationships with the locals.

Then an amazing thing happened. Zhiyuan’s church network caught the vision for missions and

began to train and send missionary after missionary to these unreached villages. Local Asian missionaries witnessed the first significant gospel presence in those communities!

This is the heartbeat of the Center for Mission Mobilization — to see churches worldwide, who live on the doorstep of the least reached people on the planet, take personal ownership of mission sending and join God in reaching every tribe, language, people, and nation with the gospel.

We invite you to take a moment and read with us how you are shaping a new era of mission sending. We are now actively mobilizing churches within 24 countries and have a clear line of sight toward our total goal of 50.

By his grace, our mobilization teams and Global Partners are thriving. Although the challenges

of serving overseas are real, God has shown his faithfulness through the favor and rapport that he has built throughout the communities where we serve.

We’re blessed to share a snapshot of the lives that are being transformed through your prayers and support. Through your faith and generosity, there are baptisms taking place among communities where there was no previous mission effort — all led by indigenous missionaries!

Thank you for all the ways you support our staff families and our ministry. God is doing great things through us all.

Dave Rofkahr Executive Director

↖ Michelle and their daughter Rachel make friends with residents of the community. ↑ Members of Zhiyuan’s church network train to go as missionaries.

There are too few missionaries The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Matthew 9:37

to reach the remaining nations with the gospel.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

Psalm 96:3

We mobilize the most strategic churches worldwide The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

2 Timothy 2:2

to send more missionaries to the unreached.

And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?

Romans 10:14–15

Today, 3 billion people have no access to the gospel

These unreached people groups have no significant community of native believers and no sustainable means of church planting, evangelism, or discipleship. If left only to the Western world to reach them through traditional missionary work, they may never have the opportunity to say “yes” to Christ.

Hindu

Tribal

Muslim

Unreligious

Buddhist

To reach the 3 billion, missionaries are needed

from the whole church

Current Christians Latin America

Current Missionaries

The West

The West

Africa

.

L.A

a ia

ic

r Af

As

Asia

80%

80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

Data from Joshua Project and Operation World

20%

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached people, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

It’s time to expand our vision of where the church sends missionaries from.

You’re helping mobilize the top 50 countries with the greatest mission sending potential These countries have a minimum of 1 million Christians, they have the means to fund their own missionaries, and they have access geographically or culturally to the unreached. By God’s grace, we send mobilization teams to these countries to help churches establish indigenous mission movements.

Our data is collected from The Joshua Project. Some cities’ locations are not accurate for security purposes.

CMM Team

Large numbers of Christians Both Christians & unreached

CMM Global Partner

The CMM’s 50 countries

Large numbers of unreached

Please pray for our staff teams and global partners who sacrifice so much to help make the name of Jesus famous among the nations.

Together we’re shaping

a new era in mission sending Traditional Model

The CMM’s Model

Addition

Multiplication

Recruiting individual missionaries

Mobilizing new sending churches

Financial dependency

Financial sustainability

Western funding

National financial support

Inaccessible

Accessible

Western missionaries often face political and immigration restrictions

National missionaries can more easily enter nations hostile to the West

Limited mission force

Expanded mission force

Primarily sending missionaries from the West

Sending from Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well

Distant & foreign mission field

Close & familiar mission field

Different culture and language, and high cost to send

Similar culture and language, and lower cost to send

The world is the mission field

The world is the mission force

Limited vision

God-sized vision

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Mark 10:27

Our mobilization process propels missionaries from local churches to the unreached

Discover

Develop

Deploy

Biblical basis for missions

Training and disciple-making

Practical steps to the field

We guide churches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America into a biblical understanding of their role in God’s mission, opening their eyes to their proximity to the unreached.

We provide training and discipleship to develop believers for their role in God’s global mission, whether it be praying, sending, welcoming, mobilizing, or going.

Through partnering with indigenous mission agencies, we connect believers with opportunities to deploy as full-time mission workers. We also provide training in support raising, the number one barrier to mission sending.

32,276

2,402

2021 Impact

57,188

People exposed to God’s global mission

People developed in small groups, trainings, and one-on-one relationships

New missionaries deployed by our staff and partners

Myanmar

Mission Sending

Mission mobilization in Myanmar leads to baptisms Mobilizing Burmese churches

Six families celebrated, even though they faced persecution and may have been asked to leave their village. They do not have housing awaiting them, nor are they safe as they leave the celebration, but ultimately they recognize that their reward is much greater than that cost.

These twenty-two believers from unreached people groups in Myanmar were aware of the threat of exile from their Buddhist villages, yet many insisted on publicly displaying their new belief through the act of baptism after accepting Christ. Our team received a video of several of these new believers being baptized and sharing their testimonies. This is just one example of the growing indigenous mission effort in Myanmar, where local churches are mobilizing, funding, and sending missionaries to their near-neighbors.

A growing movement in the Evangelical Baptist Convention Several years ago, our Southeast Asia team brought mobilization training, resources, and strategies to 70 church leaders from the Evangelical Baptist Convention (a denomination of Chin Burmese) in Myanmar. This led to the mobilization and training of 280 leaders, and, by ← Local church in Myanmar during worship

Myanmar (Burma) Quick Facts: • Christians: 2,500,000

God’s grace, 24 indigenous missionaries were sent to unreached people groups. There were 30 people saved and five churches planted in different cities!

50 missionaries to 13 unreached people groups Since then, the EBC has sent over 50 missionaries and is actively evangelizing and planting churches among 13 unreached people groups within the country. This is precisely the movement the CMM seeks to catalyze.

In fact, the EBC mission director has since told us that the focus of their denomination’s efforts has shifted to be even more intentional about reaching unreached people groups through our partnership.

This past year, however, Myanmar suffered a military coup over a contentious election, its people losing freedoms that were hard won. The population suffered violence, strict curfews, loss of control over their media, and a continual environment of fear. The ethnic minorities are struggling with the added stress of facing joblessness and lack of resources.

• Dominant religion: 88% Buddhist • Current indigenous missionaries: 0.004% • Mission potential: Access to 328,763,000 people unreached with the gospel

↑ Yangon, Myanmar: The CMM is mobilizing churches within the Evangelical Baptist Convention.

The birth of a mission-sending movement But with great trials, there are great praises! Our team has found a full-time mobilizer and pastor in Myanmar that can effectively minister cross-denominationally. At the same time we joyfully anticipate news of even more salvations and baptisms from the unreached. In just a few short years our team has witnessed the birth of a mission-sending movement, allowing people to hear the gospel for the very first time.

Our journey and partnership with Burmese ministry leaders continues as we help mobilize their churches to send and equip their missionaries. Many of these Burmese missionaries were once Buddhist themselves.

They were born and raised in Myanmar and know the cultural hurdles that locals struggle with when encountering Christ for the first time. They understand how to minister to new believers whose families disown them for their new faith in Christ. They are the new sending force.

↑ Local churches are being mobilized and now funding/ sending missionaries to nearneighbor unreached peoples.

↑ The first baptisms within an unreached people group from indigenous mission effort!

Faces obscured and stock photos used for security purposes

Kenya

Summer Project

COVID shutdowns actually helped our Summer Project Restrictions pushed us into deeper partnerships with local churches

This year, we nearly canceled our fiveweek summer training project in Nairobi, as many other ministries had, but our students and leaders felt led by the Lord to push forward. The group of 26 college students from Texas A&M, University of Arkansas, and University of Colorado were there to mobilize Kenyan Christian college students — ​engaging them in conversations about global missions, leading missional Bible studies, and guiding them to evangelize cross-culturally amongst Hindus and Muslims in their city. But college campuses in Nairobi were closed due to COVID-19. So Taylor, our field team leader in Nairobi, connected with his network of local churches to see if the team could use their facilities and meet with their students.

How six students multiplied into 100 Nigel, a pastor at CITAM Parklands church in Nairobi, helped organized an initial meeting with a group of his student leaders. The team was a little discouraged and embarrassed at first — ​our American students and staff outnumbered the Kenyans five to one. But they split up in groups and began prayer walking in the streets, ← S ummer Project participants outside Nairobi, Kenya

← Kenyan students pray with one of our summer team members during an Xplore study

evangelizing in the local market, visiting Kenyan homes, and guiding students through our small group mission study, Xplore.

Within days, that small beginning with a few student leaders began to grow as our team co-led Xplore studies with our Kenyan friends. Over 15 Xplore studies took place within that month with 100 Kenyan students mobilized! As students learned about God’s mission, our team used the “Live it Out” sections of Xplore as an opportunity to challenge Kenyans in new ways. Our team took these Nairobi natives into neighborhoods they traditionally avoided because the people there were so different. They helped them meet and introduce themselves to Kenyan Hindus and they visited Hindu temples together.

Our team saw God use these experiences to soften the hearts of these Kenyan students to a people group from a different culture.

of mobilizing believers to take the gospel to those who have never heard is found in every book from Genesis to Revelation.

This led the pastor to ask his church members to go through the Xplore study and he order over 1,000 copies.

As we mobilize churches cross-culturally, we have found that pastors rarely want to be the impetus for new initiatives within their church, as they have so much on their plate and are trying to engage the church in so many ways. But when members of the church begin to take initiative and are pursuing outreach and missions, we’ve seen pastors throw fuel on the fire to make it bigger and more widespread. This is a key way our teams around the world gain permission, momentum, influence, and partnership with pastors and churches around the globe.

Pouring fuel on the fire

Momentum in four Nairobi churches

Upon seeing a student movement of cross-cultural evangelism, prayer, and Bible study break out within his church, Pastor Nigel told the team, “You’ve awakened my mobilization spirit, and I want to mobilize bigger and farther.” He opened up his pulpit to Joe, one of our young Summer Project leaders. Joe’s message to the congregation showed that God’s mission

While the Summer Project had an uncertain start, it ended with four robust partnerships with strategic churches that our Nairobi team continue to work with. Many of our Kenyan student leaders are now exploring staff opportunities with the CMM to mobilize more Kenyan churches to send missionaries to the unreached peoples in Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and beyond.

“You’ve awakened my mobilization spirit, and I want to mobilize bigger and farther.”

— Nigel, Kenyan pastor

Ethiopia

Church Planting

The gospel bridges war-torn tribes Mobilizing Ethiopian churches Missionary (Hunda) Sending church

Church planted

Tribal warfare has been the reality in Ethiopia for centuries, and it is still in the news today as ethnic conflict, bombings, and shootings are occurring on a weekly basis. But the gospel of Jesus Christ can build bridges of peace.

Hunda is an Ethiopian missionary, mobilized and trained by the CMM’s Ethiopian ministry partner, Horn of Africa Mission. We’ve worked alongside them for a decade providing mobilization resources and training, and they’ve recently established a missionary training center to train new church planters from Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan who are taking the gospel to places no American could go these days. Their vision is to reach all the remaining unreached people groups in Ethiopia, and continue the work throughout the region and beyond. They recently

sent Hunda to a remote village to plant a church in an area affected by tribal warfare.

This is the CMM’s mobilization strategy from beginning to end — mobilizing churches in strategic places in the world to raise up and send out missionaries like Hunda. These missionaries are equipped, supported, and sent to be ambassadors of Christ endeavoring to see the gospel take root in new areas. And by God’s grace, new believers are discipled and churches are planted like the one Hunda planted in the picture above.

Through Hunda’s ministry, today two Ethiopian tribes who previously were at war with each other are at peace, doing business together, and are even worshiping with each other. Praise God that what diplomacy cannot do, the gospel can!

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k n a h ou T

Y for your partnership in

advancing the gospel to the unreached.

We’re grateful for you! Your continued support of our staff is helping mobilize churches worldwide.

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Did you know?

We’re actively translating our resources and trainings into 15 languages.

Every $7,000 given helps mobilize a mission sending church.

Learn more at mobilization.org/give

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