Anglican Frontier Missions Presents:
Fulfilling the Great Commission Anglicanly:
A Four-Session Introductory Study on Global Missions

What is Missions? Session 1

Session 1:   What is Missions?
Session 2:   Frontier People Groups
Session 3:   What Anglicans Bring to the (Missions) Table
Session 4:   Participating in Frontier Missions

Watch: Dr. Royer’s Video, Session One 

Key Concepts from the Video 

• People group- Derived from the New Testament Greek word “ἔθνη” (ethnē) and often translated into English as “nation,” a people group is large group of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common identity and affinity because of their shared religion, ethnicity, language, history, caste, or combinations of these factors. Put simply, a people group is an ethnolinguistic group of people (e.g., Moroccan Arabs, Seminole Native Americans, Swedes) that considers us “us,” and everyone else, “them.” There are over 190 modern geopolitical nations in the world, but about 17,000 distinct people groups. (source: https://joshuaproject.net/)
• Unreached people group (UPG)- a people group in which less than 2% of the population is evangelical Christian. UPGs have insufficient numbers of Christians to effectively evangelize and disciple the unbelievers living among them. There are about 7,000 unreached people groups (UPGs) in the world. (source: https://joshuaproject.net/).
• Mission- What does “mission” actually mean? Anglican missionary and scholar Bishop Stephen Neill once stated, “If everything is mission then nothing is mission” (p. 81). Neill was concerned that the expanding range of meanings associated with the term ‘mission’ was diluting its meaning and impact.

Read: “When Everything is Missions,” by Kevin Deyoung (Note: missio dei is a term derived from Latin meaning “The Mission of God”)

Discuss “When Everything is Missions,”

1. What is the main point of this article?
2. What are your thoughts about the article? Do you agree or disagree with the authors? Why?
3. Does your church give money to missions?  
4. If so, how does your church disburse funds? How much of your church’s funding goes to UPGs (people groups with less than 2% Christian adherents) or missionaries working among UPGs?
5. What kind of activities does your mission committee (or vestry) fund, and what do you and your church consider to be missions? 

Tuck this discussion into your back pocket; we’ll revisit it later

Read: 

The origin of the word “mission” is the Latin word missio which means “to send.” Traditionally, “missions” has meant sending Christians across a geographical and/or cultural boundary to live among unreached people groups (UPGs) with the express purpose of sharing the gospel, making disciples, and planting churches.  

Historically, the global Protestant missionary movement of the 19th and 20th centuries made disciples and planted churches as well as ministered to the practical and physical needs of UPGs. Missionaries built schools, started orphanages, and fought against societal injustices, thereby demonstrating the reality of the Kingdom of God among the UPGs to whom they had been called. But even though they engaged in ministries of mercy and justice, missions was still primarily understood as crossing a geographic and cultural boundary to make disciples and plant churches.  

In America today, we have broadened the traditional use of the term “missions” to include all manner of godly and Scripturally-encouraged ministry. Yet, we see that ‘missio’ means to ‘send,’ and that doing ‘missions’ has historically meant that someone (the missionary) has had to uproot from his or her culture and geographical location and go to UPGs to share and live the gospel. 

In Revelation 7:9, John sees “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…wearing white robes and…holding palm branches in their hands.” This eventuality is a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram in Gen. 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” This universal blessing of Abram’s seed is picked up and developed throughout the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms and the Prophets, and culminates in glory. Heaven will be the largest multiethnic, multi-linguistic, and multicultural gathering in the history of humanity, a reversal of the Tower of Babel, as individuals from each of the world’s 17,445 people groups will be worshiping the Lamb of God.

Fill in the chart below. Then check your guesses with the information the video presents. (The answer key is at the end of the session, so don’t worry if you miss some of the data!)

Complete: Fill in the Questionnaire below with your Best Educated Guesses

Watch the video: Reaching the Unreached 

Discuss these questions

1. Write and discuss your reactions to this lesson. 
2. How (if at all) was your understanding of missions challenged, or how did it change? 
3. Review the terms “people group” and “unreached people group” (UPG.) Why does the distinction matter? 
4. For over 2000 years, Christians have been crossing cultures to share the Gospel. Why do you think UPGs still exist in the world?
5. Earlier in this session you were asked to consider these questions: “What kind of activities does your church’s mission committee or vestry fund,” and “What does your church consider to be missions?” Having completed the first session of the study, how are you feeling about your answers? What do you now consider to be missions? What can you be praying about for yourself and your church? 

Answer Key for The Task Remaining video:

To Prepare for Session 2: 

1. Read “Introduction” (pp. 1-12) by The Rev. Chris Royer, PhD, in AFM’s Silver Anniversary book, Shadows from Light Unapproachable. 
2. Read Acts 1:8 Sequentialism
3. Set aside a few minutes a day to pray for one of the 31 largest unreached people groups in the world, called frontier people groups. We suggest you focus on the Turks who are included in Lesson Two, but if the Lord leads your group to one of the other 30 frontier people groups, go for it!  As you pray over the next session, notice the reaction of your own heart. Come to your next group gathering prepared to share about your daily time of prayer for a frontier people group. 

Going Deeper: Supplementary Material for Session 1

BIBLE STUDY

• Read Gen. 10:1, 5, 20, 31-32; Gen 11:1-9

Who is scattered, who does the scattering, and what is the rationale for the scattering? What are repetitive words and phrases you notice?

• Read Matthew 28:18-20

Now who is scattered and who does the scattering? What is the rationale for the scattering? What are repetitive words and phrases you notice?

• Read Acts 2:1-13

On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came upon the apostles and they began speaking, in languages they did not know.  Devout men ‘from every nation under heaven’ were present at that time. What are some things Luke is trying to emphasize through this passage?

1. Read Rev. 7:4-11. 

We know that the symbolism of the sealed 144,000 from the tribes of Israel is significant because it represents the completeness of the tribes of Israel (Old Testament saints). Who else is present in this scene?