Though Crossroads Christian Church has been praying and researching the possibility of adopting an unreached people group for the past two years, God had been working behind the scenes preparing our church from even before this church was planted in Vacaville. Seeing God's hand in leading us to adopt has made this an exciting spiritual journey. We are hoping it will help us not only to mature in following God's leading but also to make a significant impact in reaching a precious people group for whom Jesus died.
Crossroads is a growing, eleven-year-old church that has a
great outward focus on the unchurched in our city as well as on
planting other churches in northern California, our "Jerusalem
and Judea" of Acts 1:8
A few years ago, we on the missions team began looking for ways to strengthen and expand the missions vision of our congregation beyond our Jerusalem and Judea. Jim Gullet was the first missionary that our church supported. While ministering in Brazil, he began to mobilize some Brazilian Christians to go to a Muslim nation in Africa. This was exciting as it matched what God was emphasizing to us--focusing on the least reached of the world, the unreached people of the "10/40 Window."
In June of 1995, our missions team leader, who is the
brother of our missionary, did some internet research on unreached
people groups. He printed out a monthly prayer guide from the
Joshua Project, which asked us to pray for the different people
groups by name. On the 19-21 days of the prayer calendar, the
"Yous" were listed among the Turkic peoples.
The Yous seemed to stand out at the time, since one of our missions
team members had a friendship with a You couple who were doing
post-graduate work at a nearby university.
While our missions team prayed for God's direction about which
people group to adopt, we sensed that we needed to build a foundation
for adoption that would help everyone to see the rationale for
adoption.
We began educating ourselves through an Advancing Churches
in Missions Commitment seminar, together with resources from the
U.S. Center for World Mission, books, etc. Also realizing we needed
to lay a foundation of understanding among others in our congregation
about unreached people groups, we shared articles in elders meetings
and with staff about what adopting a people group meant and the
biblical rationale for doing this. The emphasis was on the fact
that though "all may be equally lost, not all are equally
needy."
Along with our missions team, elders, and staff, we also sought
to make this as broad-based as possible. We offered the Vision
for the Nations video series as a Sunday school class and
evening study, and advertised a local Perspectives course.
We purchased the World View Video Library from the USCWM and began
a missions table at our church. We also obtained a bulk subscription
to Missions Frontiers to distribute to church leaders in
Crossroads.
We have attempted to mobilize prayer for the lost through a
"Missions Prayer Minute" once a month each Sunday using
the Church Around the World and Frontier Scan from USCWM. Pray
Through the Window Campaigns, the 30-Day Prayer for the Muslim
World during Ramadan, and the 30-Day Prayer for the Hindu World
have also been helpful. A small group formed to pray for the Yous.
During this time, we started to see God's Providential hand in leading us to adopt the Yous. A friend of the You family tried to get in touch with a field worker who could provide advice on how to minister to a You. He failed in his attempts and gave up the search until he went to a large Promise Keepers event at the Oakland Coliseum.
While walking along the ministry tent in the parking lot of
the Coliseum, he was surprised to overhear someone say the name
of the region in East Youland. He stopped and waited for the conversation
to end and then asked the gentleman about it. He "just happened"
to be the father of the field worker with whom he had been attempting
to get in touch! It is impossible to calculate the odds of meeting
someone among 50,000 people who you didn't know would be there,
weren't looking for, and didn't even know what he looked like.
God has a way of getting our attention!
During that conversation, he discovered that the field worker
was in the high school youth group of the church where our pastor
and associate pastor were ministering in Napa, California! We
were excited that it wasn't just one person on the missions team
that was having these providential circumstances, but that God
was setting up our pastoral staff who would be key in the whole
process.
Then again, our pastor received a newsletter from another missionary who attended his church when he was pastoring for a short time in Idaho over ten years ago. This man stated in his newsletter that he would be going to a city in East Youland that year and was dedicating the next thirty years of his life to reach the Yous!
We saw that as we began seeking a people-specific focus instead of only concentrating on the missionaries, God blessed this direction by resurrecting old relationships and creating new ones as we partnered with those seeking to reach the Yous.
We pray that we may see God use this adoption process to instruct our congregation about the unreached of our generation and discover how much joy there is in following Jesus to the ends of the earth to reach them. It will affect all of us, as we realize through this adoption that each individual and family needs to be willing to seek and obey God's will about what part they are to play in this adoption, even to the point of going if our Commanding Officer tells them to. (II Tim. 2:4, Mk. 10:29) God will call many of us to short-term involvement and longer. Thus the Lordship of Christ will be essential if we are to do this.
During this whole process of pursuing adoption, God marvelously planted the vision in Crossroads to make it a goal for us to "train and send five cross-cultural workers by the year 2005." Thus winning, training, and sending these workers will have new meaning as we strategically aim for the unreached such as the Yous.
We desire this process to continue to help our church grow in intercession, blossom in having compassion for the needs of others, and increase biblical and historical thinking regarding God's heart for the nations. At this time in the history of our church, mobilization and partnering with others will be our first priorities. May Crossroads bring great joy to Jesus as we obey Him in being filled with his Spirit to be his witnesses in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and ends of the earth!
Here is the Adoption Certificate that people signed during our ceremony:
Adoption CertificateBelieving Father God has adopted us into His Kingdom, and Jesus has purchased people from every tribe, language, people, and nation by His precious blood shed on the cross (Rev. 5:9), and Christ has commanded us to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) making disciples of all nations (Mt. 28:18-20), and the people of our culture have ready access to the gospel and there are still millions of people in the world with no such access, and God has led Crossroads to do our part in helping a specific unreached people group worship his Son, Jesus (Acts 16:6-10, Ps. 67),
We hereby adopt the YousPledging ourselves from this day forward to pray regularly for the establishment of an indigenous, reproducing church among them, and to continue to do so until our prayers are answered.
In addition, we proclaim ourselves willing to be led by God into further involvement in the task of reaching the Yous in any or all of the following ways:
- Working to raise consciousness of their need within our congregation
- Giving of our time, treasure, and talent, to work among them
- Sending people to work among them, both short-term and long-term
- Partnering with others who have these same adoption goals
Join with others worldwide in participating in the International Day of Prayer and Fasting for the Yous on the first Friday of each month.
By signing this, I covenant to diligently seek God's will for my life, family, and church in regard to this adoption of the Yous, and to solemnly undertake to fulfill all these stated responsibilities and others inherent in this act of adoption as they are revealed to us by God.
Crossroads Christian Church
Missions Contact Person:
Troy Clark
(707) 449-0931
E-mail: spider@integrity.com