The need for more workers in a world with billions who have never met a follower of Jesus is clear. Strategic opportunities to meet this need are present both within the U.S. as well as abroad. One Challenge yearns to mobilize to the mission force the workers God is calling. It would thrill us to see acceleration in global ministry through our efforts and those of our fellow partners in every nation in the world.

OC’s Need for More Personnel

Many One Challenge field teams are significantly understaffed. The average age of our ministry personnel is over 50. Many field leaders and workers are in their ministry prime. God is at work in America raising up a new generation of leaders and workers. We are committed to see these new workers prepared to take the ministry handoff. The question is: Is God prompting you to be part of this movement?

God’s Perspective versus a Human Perspective

“If there is one key to mobilizing people for kingdom impact, this verse from 1 Samuel is it,” says One Challenge mobilizer, Jeff Boesel. “Samuel was looking for a new king and was impressed by Jesse’s older sons, but God knew that the one to lead his people was the youngest, David, who didn’t have the impressive credentials of his older brothers. In a very real sense, I, and my mobilization team, act as today’s Samuel looking for the next person of impact for the kingdom.”

Mobilizers employ a number of strategies and techniques to find and facilitate the next generation of mission workers. They go to conferences, frequent schools, write an enormous number of emails, make numerous phone calls and chat with person upon person interested in making a difference for the kingdom. There is no shortage of passion within God’s family and, from the outward appearance, many … even most, could find a fit in a cross-cultural setting. Indeed, in our global culture, crossing cultures really only requires going out your front door! It is a different thing, though, to leave your home country to live and work in a different country for longer periods of time. People God has gifted to do this are of special interest to us.

Some may indeed be gifted for cross-cultural life and work, but diminish or dismiss their potential for kingdom impact, being taken in by outward appearances, just like Samuel. There needs to be a shift in perspective from looking to discerning and from visiting to praying. “I don’t mean to say that we shouldn’t ‘look’ or ‘visit.’ Those things are an integral part of the process,” says Jeff. “Our priority, however, is to seek God’s direction to whom he has designed to impact other cultures in effective ways. We can’t see past the outward appearance, but we serve a God who does.”

Jeff goes on to say, “We often times feel overwhelmed by the opportunities that present themselves every time we open our email or answer the phone, and to be truthful, we are. God, though, is not. As we turn our eyes toward him we find rest, peace, strength and wisdom. It is critical that our words are his words; that our thoughts are his thoughts and that our actions reflect his desires. Our hope is to always find ourselves ‘in him.’”

OC’s Perspective for 2015

One Challenge interviewed and accepted five people last month and has already accepted several others in the past six months. God is on the move in the hearts of his people to become engaged for the kingdom in their “Jerusalem,” “Judea,” “Samaria,” and even to the farthest reaches of the earth. Over the past three years One Challenge has accepted 29 new applicants and deployed 32 appointees to their places of service. On average, the time from appointment to deployment is one to three years. That’s a pretty big range, because each case is unique and God’s timing is unknown to us at the outset. Our goal is to move people through the pipeline to the place God has called them, even if it means connecting them with a different agency more aligned with their passions.

Your Perspective

How can you be involved right now, from right where you are? Ask God how he wants you to be involved in his Great Commission objective and then courageously obey.

• Pray Luke 10:2, that God would provide more harvesters for the harvest.
• Pray for people yet to be impacted by a living knowledge of Jesus.
• Keep your eyes open for those around you who may be God’s next “David” for missions.
• Consider financially supporting kingdom growth efforts in some way.
• Ask God if he intends for you to be one of those going.

Know that we are praying for you!