The CROSS Conference, set to launch in little more than 48 hours from now, is poised to be a watershed event in American missions history.
I'm not the only one that thinks so. What makes it different than so many other "student conferences"?
It is something of a watershed event for Propempo, as well. By God's grace, we've been given an opportunity to impact the conference with teaching and resources which emphasize the role of the local church in sending out these new missionary candidates. The Lord gave us opportunity and means to write and publish a book (HERE to THERE: Getting From CROSS to Your Mission Field, find it on Amazon.com and CROSS.Propempo.com websites) which, Lord willing, will be given to every CROSS participant. Again, Lord willing, we're planning to take a team of six for the Propempo International exhibit booth. Our goal is to have at least 200 students sign up to have Propempo help their church send them out. We plan to leave early Dec. 26th for the Louisville KY conference site, returning late Dec. 31st.
If God would be pleased to answer our prayers and help us stretch to attain our goals, we will see:
I'm not the only one that thinks so. What makes it different than so many other "student conferences"?
- It's not sponsored by or focused on one ministry.
- It's not simply a mega-gathering for unfettered contemporary praise and worship.
- It's not a generic call to be more committed to Christ in general or to a live of service or to a staff role in some campus organization.
- It's not even a general call to become missions aware or use your talents and profession for Christ anyhow, anywhere.
- It is more narrowly focused on a strongly biblical, conservative doctrinal understanding of the sufficiency of Scripture, the power and exclusivity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the essential nature of cross-cultural missions to fulfill God's purposes.
- It aims specifically to reduce the number of unreached people groups in the world, overcoming every barrier with faith, perseverance, and sacrifice for the glory of Christ.
- It also attempts to forge the irreplacable connection between the local churches of these young adult candidates and the pioneering ministry to those UPGs. The local church is both the originating source and the desired end result of biblical, indigenous, reproducing Gospel ministry among those UPGs.
It is something of a watershed event for Propempo, as well. By God's grace, we've been given an opportunity to impact the conference with teaching and resources which emphasize the role of the local church in sending out these new missionary candidates. The Lord gave us opportunity and means to write and publish a book (HERE to THERE: Getting From CROSS to Your Mission Field, find it on Amazon.com and CROSS.Propempo.com websites) which, Lord willing, will be given to every CROSS participant. Again, Lord willing, we're planning to take a team of six for the Propempo International exhibit booth. Our goal is to have at least 200 students sign up to have Propempo help their church send them out. We plan to leave early Dec. 26th for the Louisville KY conference site, returning late Dec. 31st.
If God would be pleased to answer our prayers and help us stretch to attain our goals, we will see:
- thouaands of students commit to a lifetime of reaching the UPGs of the world for Christ;
- those students that aren't "Go-ers" to commit to a lifetime of being generous "Send-ers";
- hundreds of churches helped by Propempo to properly train and support these new workers; and
- and hundreds of UPGs, in due time, removed from the list because of CROSS 2013.