KANSAS CITY, MO – My job is to raise awareness of Missions Box News readers to the many faith-based organizations that strive to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world.
Always, the message must be the same: that Jesus Christ has come to seek and to save the lost. That message alone should be the foundational, the central, and the overarching work of the ministry.
The vision and goal of All Nations International caught my attention because they are not the same as most FBOs. It is obvious to me that they want no misunderstanding about the crux of their work.
Vision and Goal
Vision: To see Jesus worshiped by all the peoples of the earth. This vision raises All Nations International’s sights above circumstances and upon the unchanging message of the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ.
Goal: To reach THE NEGLECTED globally — the least, the last, and the lost.
The Least are those people, whether one or many, who have been marginalized by cultures, customs, or circumstances.
The Last are those people, whether one or many, who have yet to hear and receive the Good News of Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice, death, burial, resurrection, and promised return.
The Lost are those people, whether one or many, who have had limited or no access to the Gospel, or to whom it has been misrepresented.
Clarifying and consistently maintaining their vision and goal has engendered “a resoluteness and passion” from the entire All Nations International global team, each of whom is committed to investing “every effort laying down our lives to go find the neglected.”
Strategy and Methodology
Simplicity and specificity are other hallmarks of All Nations International. Using my own words, ANI applies two important principles for success.
- “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” Define what your words mean, then do what you said your words mean. For instance, ANI has and shares clear definitions of words we take for common but may be pressed to accurately describe, such as “disciple, church, church-planting, and church-planting movement.” (See page 5 of this link.)
- “Keep it simple.” Most successful endeavors thrive on simplicity. “Simple is reproducible. When things can be reproduced simply and quickly, movements can begin.” This concept is rooted in the Scriptures that teach us that the Lord has chosen the simple to confound the wise.
All Nations reduces church planting to five essential elements.
- Pray. Pray until you weep over people.
- Meet. Meet people where they are.
- Make Disciples. Invest in other people’s lives and build meaningful relationships.
- Gather. Bring spiritually open people into groups where the activities ultimately focus on the words and stories of Jesus.
- Multiply. Train new believers to exercise their spiritual gifts to take responsibility for reproducing this cycle.
Hubs and Spokes
All Nations’ infrastructure is comprised of hub and spokes. The organization currently has hubs in Kansas City, Missouri; Cape Town, South Africa; Kampala, Uganda; and Hamburg, Germany. It is at these hubs that missionaries and local disciple-makers are trained, and it is from here that they are sent. “Catalytic churches” spring forth from the central hubs in a pattern of sustainable outreach to the neglected.
Thousands of churches have been birthed from these four hubs. All Nations currently has about 400 missionaries in the field alongside “several thousand” local church planters.
The All Nations’ approach appears to be working. In fact, the agency is already in the process of establishing 10 additional hubs over the next 10 years. Those hubs will be located in strategic regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.
The goal of All Nations International is not to build more hubs but to implement the proven plan that results in “people of every ethnicity are not only recipients of the Gospel but are also trained and mobilized regionally to be generous givers of the Gospel as well.”
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Source: All Nations International, Official Website