Awakening One Hundred Sleeping Firemen

This edition of EMQ is devoted to the critical topic of mission mobilization, and for good reason. It is said that if one generation of believers fails to wholeheartedly engage in missions, the link to the next will be broken, and eventually the entire movement could collapse. However, the reality is more pressing than a missed generation. With the accelerated speed of changing interest in our information-laden world, if we miss just two to three years of rallying new workers, we could lose not just a generation, but the entire future of engagement in God’s global mission.

Thus, there is a pressing need for both the refinement of mission mobilization thinking, and for more mobilizers. Twenty years ago Dr. Ralph Winter (see Greg Parson’s article) sounded the clarion call for more mobilizers when he said,

Mission mobilization activity is more crucial than field missionary activity. Wouldn’t it be better to awaken one hundred sleeping firemen than to hopelessly throw your own little bucket of water on a huge fire yourself?1

That is the kind of thinking required to understand the broader mission picture. It also sheds light on our current predicament—a global shortage of workers to finish the task. Could it be that we need to aggressively enter “The Fourth (and Final?) Era of the Modern Mission Movement?”

But just what is mission mobilization? Several articles in this edition describe it, but how do we define it precisely? It is hard to improve on the definition posited by Larry Reesor eighteen years ago. He said that mobilization is,

Teaching believers in a local church to understand God’s global plan, motivating them to a loving response to God’s word, and providing opportunities for them to use their gifts, abilities and resources individually and corporately to accomplish His global plan.2

He also said, “Missions must be your church’s personality, not just a program. Missions must be the mission of the church!”3

For this edition we enlisted some of the best current thinkers on mobilization. You will find fresh thoughts and cutting-edge proposals. It is our hope that you will act on what you read and, as a combined result, we will see more than just one hundred sleeping firemen awakened. 

Marvin J. Newell, DMiss
Editorial Director

Notes

1. Larry Reesor, “A Fresh Perspective on Mobilizing the Church,” Mission Frontiers 22, no. 1, (January–February 2000): http://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/a-fresh-perspective-on-mobilizing-the-church.

2. Reesor, “A Fresh Perspective.”

3. Reesor, “A Fresh Perspective.”