Francis Chan: Don’t waste your life; help complete the Great Commission
By Mark Ellis, Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
LAKE FOREST, CALIFORNIA (ANS -- January 7, 2016)
-- Noted author and preacher Francis Chan urged believers not to waste
their lives on fruitless pursuits, but to join with him and others
focused on planting churches among the remaining unreached people groups
of the world.
“We
have to mobilize to get the Gospel to these people,” Chan declared at
the Finishing the Task conference December 8th at Saddleback Church in
Lake Forest, California.
“But
the other thing we’re accomplishing is helping people not to waste
their lives. They are doing something you know God wants. You know it
has eternal significance,” he told a group of mission-minded leaders at
the conference.
Chan
said following the command of Jesus given in Matthew 28 is the ultimate
antidote to a purposeless existence. “How many people wander through
life wondering if they wasted it?” he asked.
“But this is not a waste; it’s straight out of Scripture.”
Chan
also spoke at the same conference in 2015. “Last year this conference
impacted me in a big way. I went home and told my staff I’m not taking
another speaking engagement this year unless it has to do with reaching
unreached people groups,” he noted.
Two
months ago Chan visited an unreached group in Africa for the first
time. “We took two flights and a helicopter and we were in the middle of
nowhere,” he recounted.
“A
young missionary was there speaking their language perfectly. I heard
him explaining to people who had never in history heard about Jesus.
I’ve been in ministry 30 years and I’ve never witnessed something like
that. It was so beautiful.”
Chan
wished he had engaged in missions work earlier. “I was jealous that I
didn’t have the courage at his age to do something like this,” he noted.
“There
are days I wonder if what I’m doing is worth it. But standing with a
tribe who never heard of Jesus and there is no guessing. It’s the
coolest thing. There is no doubt in my mind he is not wasting his life.”
Photo
captions: 1) Francis Chan preaching. 2) Chan and his wife minister in
East Africa on their 20th anniversary. 3) Mark Ellis.
About the writer: Mark Ellis is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net), and also founder of www.GodReports.com, a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from around the world.
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