David Jaeger, missionary to Liberia, has done as much as anybody to keep me thinking about Bethlehem and missions. In his most recent letter he described the Malinke, a people group in Guinea numbering 750,000 with five known Christians, no church and no missionaries working among them. In the typical Jaeger way, he closed his letter with these words, “How do you account for this?”

That is what I have been thinking about for two weeks.

How is it that after 2,000 years the church of Jesus Christ, standing under the perpetual command to make disciples of all nations, has not reached this people? Think of it! Two thousand years!!! Is it lack of money? Ha! Is it lack of transportation? Education?

No. I can only think of one answer. Disobedience.

Ah, yes, that's easy. But whose? I'm not there. You're not there. We all think that the Great Commission applies to someone else (at least the “going” part). But if, after 2,000 years a whole people group in Guinea is unevangelized, them someone must not have gone who should have gone.

Why didn't they (we?) go? One answer is that the churches have not created the milieu in which the general commission can become a specific and personal necessity. What kind of church will cause that to happen?

Whatever it is, I want to see it happen as we go to three Sunday morning services beginning this Sunday.  Let's pray for triple harvesters, not just triple services.

See you Sunday at 8:15, 9:45, 11:15,

Pastor John