Section IID is about discerning God\u2019s will for evangelization of the world. It makes us aware of unreached and unengaged peoples and it brings up gospeling, social work and translation of the Bible. A genuine sensitive in the CTC is its alertness to the reality and challenges of oral cultures. It cares about the development of leaders, it points to the significance of cities, it does not neglect but concerns children, and it baptizes all of this in prayer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n IID. Discerning the will of Christ for world evangelization<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Unreached and unengaged peoples<\/strong><\/p>\n The heart of God longs that\u00a0all<\/em> people should have access to the knowledge of God\u2019s love and of his saving work through Jesus Christ. We recognize with grief and shame that there are thousands of people groups around the world for whom such access has not yet been made available through Christian witness. These are peoples who are\u00a0unreached<\/em>, in the sense that there are no known believers and no churches among them. Many of these peoples are also unengaged<\/em>, in the sense that we currently know of no churches or agencies that are even trying to share the gospel with them. Indeed, only a tiny percentage of the Church\u2019s resources (human and material) is being directed to the least-reached peoples. By definition these are peoples who will not invite us to come with the good news, since they know nothing about it. Yet their presence among us in our world 2,000 years after Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations, constitutes not only a rebuke to our disobedience, not only a form of spiritual injustice, but also a silent \u2018Macedonian Call\u2019.<\/p>\n Let us rise up as the Church worldwide to meet this challenge, and:<\/p>\n A)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Repent of our blindness to the continuing presence of so many unreached peoples in our world and our lack of urgency in sharing the gospel among them.<\/p>\n B)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Renew our commitment to go to those who have not yet heard the gospel, to engage deeply with their language and culture, to live the gospel among them with incarnational love and sacrificial service, to communicate the light and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ in word and deed, awakening them through the Holy Spirit\u2019s power to the surprising grace of God.<\/p>\n C)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aim to eradicate Bible poverty in the world, for the Bible remains indispensable for evangelism. To do this we must:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hasten the translation of the Bible into the languages of peoples who do not yet have any portion of God\u2019s Word in their mother tongue;<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make the message of the Bible widely available by oral means. (See also Oral cultures below.)<\/p>\n D)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aim to eradicate Bible ignorance in the Church, for the Bible remains indispensable for discipling believers into the likeness of Christ.<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We long to see a fresh conviction, gripping all God\u2019s Church, of the central necessity of Bible teaching for the Church\u2019s growth in ministry, unity and maturity.[79]<\/a> We rejoice in the gifting of all those whom Christ has given to the Church as pastor-teachers. We will make every effort to identify, encourage, train and support them in the preaching and teaching of God\u2019s Word. In doing so, however, we must reject the kind of clericalism that restricts the ministry of God\u2019s Word to a few paid professionals, or to formal preaching in church pulpits. Many men and women, who are clearly gifted in pastoring and teaching God\u2019s people, exercise their gifting informally or without official denominational structures, but with the manifest blessing of God\u2019s Spirit. They too need to be recognized, encouraged, and equipped to rightly handle the Word of God.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We must promote Bible literacy among the generation that now relates primarily to digital communication rather than books, by encouraging digital methods of studying the scriptures inductively with the depth of inquiry that at present requires paper, pens and pencils.<\/p>\n E)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Let us keep evangelism at the centre of the fully-integrated scope of all our mission, inasmuch as the gospel itself is the source, content and authority of all biblically-valid mission. All we do should be both an embodiment and a declaration of the love and grace of God and his saving work through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n 2. Oral cultures<\/strong><\/p>\n The majority of the world\u2019s population are oral communicators, who cannot or do not learn through literate means, and more than half of them are among the unreached as defined above. Among these, there are an estimated 350 million people without a single verse of Scripture in their language. In addition to the \u2018primary oral learners\u2019 there are many \u2018secondary oral learners\u2019, that is those who are technically literate but prefer now to communicate in an oral manner, with the rise of visual learning and the dominance of images in communication.<\/p>\n As we recognize and take action on issues of orality, let us:<\/p>\n A)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make greater use of oral methodologies in discipling programmes, even among literate believers.<\/p>\n B)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make available an oral format Story Bible in the heart languages of unreached and unengaged people groups as a matter of priority.<\/p>\n C)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Encourage mission agencies to develop oral strategies, including: the recording and distribution of oral Bible stories for evangelism, discipling and leadership training, along with appropriate orality training for pioneer evangelists and church-planters; these could use fruitful oral and visual communication methods for communicating the whole biblical story of salvation, including storytelling, dances, arts, poetry, chants and dramas.<\/p>\n D)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Encourage local churches in the Global South to engage with unreached people groups in their area through oral methods that are specific to their worldview.<\/p>\n E)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Encourage seminaries to provide curricula that will train pastors and missionaries in oral methodologies.<\/p>\n 3. Christ-centred leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n The rapid growth of the Church in so many places remains shallow and vulnerable, partly because of the lack of discipled leaders, and partly because so many use their positions for worldly power, arrogant status or personal enrichment. As a result, God\u2019s people suffer, Christ is dishonoured, and gospel mission is undermined. \u2018Leadership training\u2019 is the commonly-proposed priority solution. Indeed, leadership training programmes of all kinds have multiplied, but the problem remains, for two probable reasons.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/40\/2011\/05\/CTCommitment-300x169.jpg\" "\\"CTCommitment\\"")
<\/a> Here are the themes of the second section, the section that calls for commitment to these elements: truth, peace, living love, discerning God\u2019s will, humility\/integrity\/simplicity and partnering.<\/p>\n