To Every Creature Ministries

A ministry of Maranatha Baptist Church, Bethany, OK

Tim Urling, Missionary, Director

Time is short! The Lord will return soon! Night cometh when no man can work! The harvest is ending and there are still millions who haven’t heard!  I intend to do all I can to reach Mexicans with the gospel!  Will you help?  We must do something.  Where do you fit into the picture?

Mexico is a mission field that is very ripe unto harvest.  Most Mexicans are very open to the gospel, they realize the Catholic Church has failed them, and they are tired of rituals, and religions.  They need to be reached with the Gospel of Christ, but what is the best way to carry out the Great Commission in Mexico?  It must be done, and it must be done now!  The Mexican people are increasingly falling for the cults and charismatic sects.  As independent Baptists we have not done and are not doing enough to reach these precious souls. 

Insanity has been described as doing the same thing we have always done, and expecting different results.

Nowhere is this more apparent to me than in the area of missions. Most missionaries go to an area, struggle with the culture, struggle with the language, struggle with their finances, struggle reaching people, and most never return for the second term.   Most will go to a area, rent a building, buy chairs, pay all the bills, buy materials and songbooks and even those that do succeed most have small congregations of less than 100.  Most never turn their works over to nationals, and who can blame them, they have invested thousands of hours and multiplied thousands of dollars to get to that point and we have heard the stories of nationals selling the furnishings, sound systems and buildings and leaving town.  If we are going to reach Mexico with the Gospel, we must do something radically different – or expect the same unacceptable results

In the pages that follow I would like to share my Vision, Goals and Strategies for the next 10 years.  These are the result of prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit, and my own personal experiences in Mexico.   What can you do to help us reach these goals?  Ask the Lord how you can be involved!

Sincerely,

Tim Urling

Missionary

Where there is no vision the people perish!

    I can't think of a better verse to describe what has been taking place in Mexico among our Missionaries than the above passage. 

    There are souls perishing all around the world at an alarming rate. According to the statistician, 2.3 souls go out into eternity every second!  

Most of these are condemned to a devils hell!! 

But why?       Does God want this?  

Has God failed to provide the resources that we need?  

    Sadly, in many cases, it is Lack of our Vision that condemns the majority of these souls.  Here is part of the Vision God has given us for Northwestern Mexico.

 1.  First we must understand the lack of vision

    Traditionally missionaries have been plagued with a lack of Vision.  A missionary goes, not with the view of a nation or of a state, but a town or a subdivision.  Most do not go by invitation or to some receptive seed families, but cold-turkey to a very localized area. 

    The missionary furnishes a place to meet, provides the seating, is responsible for musical instruments, leads the singing, teaches the Sunday School, does the preaching, and probably hauls everyone to services and back to their home afterwards – a glorified bus route.  At the end of 10 years it is not unusual to be setting somewhere pastoring less than 100 people.  The congregation is totally dependant upon the missionary (not the Lord).  The church looks and feels like an  American Church, which is quite out of place in a foreign culture.

    The average missionary has an outreach of some 5,000 souls during his entire ministry. Considering the world population, we would need at least one million more missionaries with this average rate of evangelism.  This is not humanly possible. 

  God has given us a vision very different from this traditional approach. 

 "To Every Creature" - Mark 16:15 

1. We must identify the people 

Northwestern Mexico is one of the least evangelized areas in the entire country of Mexico. These states represent over 15 million souls. There are 4,648 localities with 100 - 4,999 inhabitants. Experience has shown that 90% + of these localities have NEVER had a true gospel witness. 

Approximately two-thirds of the inhabitants in these states are under the age of 29 with a median age of 21. Of course, we know that the young are the most open to the Gospel.  There are thousands of abused and abandoned children living on the streets.

We believe these statistics, combined with the fact that these states have had so little - true and complete evangelistic influence, show a great need, and offer us a great opportunity.

2. We must understand the need

   Romans 10:2 - 3  "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." 

    More than 90% of Mexicans hold to a Pagan - Christian religious system passed on through the traditions of their forefathers. The mix of traditional Indian religions and Roman Catholicism has resulted in a confusing state of bondage for the average Mexican.

3. We must have a plan:

A. Sowing the seed 

    I believe that God has led us to sow the seed "which is the Word of God", in every ranch, pueblo, neighborhood and the city of these states. We have a ten year goal to distribute a minimum of one million tracts.

  We will distribute tracts and other gospel literature with an invitation to the recipient to participate in a correspondence course, or receive more information. We will do this by utilizing "every door" campaigns, open air meetings, gospel films and distribution at public events and any place where crowds gather, and by advertisement in regional publications.

We hope to involve American churches to help in this area. Short term mission trips greatly aid in this labor intensive phase of the strategy.  American churches will also be excited about the Great Commission Workshops we will hold in the local churches.  Americans will be directly involved in the great commission by helping us assemble materials, send care packages and letters to pastors and missionaries.  These workshops will also be like a pep rally for missions and soulwinning.

The students from the Church Planting Institute, and the missionaries working with us will take every opportunity for personal evangelism, open air preaching, and children's evangelism during this phase. 

B. Correspondence School

This is the binding agent for reaching "every creature" in these states. We have an initial goal of having 10,000 active participants in this school.  Those reached from the literature distribution and open air meetings in phase one, are the key to finding those to participate in this phase. From these learners come the converts of whom the churches will be established. 

The correspondence school will also help us to identify the most receptive areas to start new churches.  Students from the Institute will help grade and distribute the courses and well as help in the printing and publishing of the materials.

C. Training Leaders  

With the correspondence courses bringing leaders to the forefront, advanced training will be provided for those that desire to train for the ministry. We currently have a one year intensive practical Bible Institute in Juarez. There have already been over 10 graduates, with several starting churches and mission works.  We have also learned from our graduates the most effective means to train new leaders, and get them into the field establishing new works.  This will be the Basis for the Mexican Church Planters Institute.

We also have the availability of a complete Bible Institute on video tape. One exciting aspect of this is that the videos make this type of training highly portable and easily duplicable. 

One goal is to start a Spanish Language School, where on top of teaching Spanish to new missionaries, we can also teach ministry philosophies that work.  The graduates from the Language school can possibly team up with the graduates from the Church Planting institute and begin more churches together as a team.

D. Establishing Churches

The establishing of churches ALWAYS follows the training of leaders. Our goal is not to pastor churches, but to utilize those nationals trained for the ministry to be the pastors from the first day of services.

We believe our labor and advice can be a great benefit to the graduates.  American funds will only be used on a limited and discretionary basis.  We have found that using American money can breeds an atmosphere of dependency. God did not design His church to be dependent upon American funds, but rather to be dependent upon the Him.

E. Major Campaigns  

With churches established and the correspondence school in motion it will be possible to hold major evangelistic campaigns knowing full well that the follow up of decisions, will be carried out. There are many opportunities throughout the year for conducting major evangelistic and literature distribution campaigns.

4. We must keep the end goal in mind 

The end result of all New Testament Mission work should be the establishing of congregations that adhere to three principals: Self Governing, Self Financing, Self Reproducing.  In other words, when they can with out interference of help from the outside, continue evangelizing, discipling, and reproducing other churches with the same doctrines, missionary burden, and scriptural practices.

    Will you bind together in prayer with us for this Vision to become a reality?  Only the power of the Holy Spirit can bring any plan to fruition.

Excepth the Lord build the house they labor in vain that Build it! Psalms 127:1

We have laid out some big goals and visions, but with God’s help we plan to accomplish them.  We will need lots of help - how can you be involved!