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Training
Africans to reach Africa with the good news of salvation
through Jesus Christ
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Pastors are trained
and supported as they bring the gospel to their home nations. |
Reaching Souls International was founded in 1986 with
the goal of training Africans to reach Africa for
Christ. Since then we have expanded the scope of
our ministry and the areas in which we work, but the
heart of the ministry has remained the same.
In a lost and dying nation, Christian pastors cry out to
be trained for a life time of effective and powerful
ministry.
Reaching Souls is answering this cry. Native
pastors walk, hitch-hike, peddle and paddle their way to
our Leadership Development Institutes in six African
nations and India. When they arrive they receive
intense and exciting training, a new Bible in their own
language, and a vibrant new ministry.
The Lord has blessed our humble beginnings and the
ministry of Reaching Souls has grown by leaps and bounds
over the last 20 years.
In that time we have seen 6,353,969 salvations, 9,059
pastors trained, and 3,708 new churches started.
The growth has been exponential.
Core Driving Force |
To
reach
Souls
for Christ.
Strategic Purpose |
Our strategic purpose, therefore, is to reach the maximum
number of people for Christ in the least amount of time
in the most efficient way.
Mission Statement | Proclaiming the Gospel to
emerging nations by loving, reaching, training,
equipping and multiplying the laborers.
Mission Statement Expanded
Proclaiming.
To announce officially and publicly; declare (American
Heritage Dictionary). “Officially” means we have
been authorized by the appropriate Authority. The
first word of Jesus’ Great Commission was not “preach”
but “go”. The prelude to proclamation is presence.
We cannot proclaim Christ from a distance, therefore the
Christian presence in the world is indispensable to
evangelism.
Gospel.
The Good News that because of what Christ has done, we
can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus.
God revealed His love to us by sending His Son Jesus
Christ to live a sin-less life as a human being, die on
the cross, and rise from the dead. Because Jesus
died for us, our sins can be forgiven. Because
Jesus conquered death, we can have eternal life.
To all who will turn (repent) in faith to Jesus Christ,
relying upon Him for their eternal salvation, God has
promised His gift of eternal life.
Emerging Nations.
It is more than just “missions”. It is about
answering God’s command to join Him where He is working!
Our time is short and our resources are scarce, it just
makes good stewardship sense to invest where God is
giving us the greatest eternal returns. We have
heard it said that God isn’t speaking more in third
world countries, but the people are listening more.
Loving.
Sometimes Christians regard evangelism and social
concern as mutually exclusive. We at Reaching
Souls believe both are necessary expressions of our love
for our neighbor, and of our obedience to Jesus Christ.
Because mankind is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26,
27), society’s casualties should be respected, served,
and loved (Lev. 19:18, Luke 6:35). Our ministry
includes both evangelistic and social action, but if a
choice has to be made, evangelism will be primary.
Souls are of paramount priority.
Reaching.
We are convinced that this is the time for God’s
children to pray earnestly for the salvation of the
unreached and to launch new efforts to achieve world
evangelization. Now in many parts of the world
there is an unprecedented receptivity to the Gospel.
We are troubled that so many have been neglected.
We are committed to Evangelism.
Training.
We are committed to indigenous principles by developing
national leaders through imaginative pioneering methods.
Our training is thorough and intense. Hands-on
participation in proven methods of evangelism and
discipleship training produces motivated personnel for
God’s use with or without our presence.
Equipping.
Foreign missionaries have sometimes stayed too long in
leadership roles in the national church, and in
consequence have impeded the development of the church’s
own leaders. We are making an urgency-driven
transition to change a mission situation to a church
situation by handing over leadership to the nationals.
We give the nationals the necessary tools and support to
reach their own people.
Multiplying.
It
is our goal, by all available means and at the earliest
time possible, that every person will have the
opportunity to hear, understand, and by God’s grace,
receive the Good News. Reaching souls for Christ
is our primary objective; training and mobilizing the
faithful has been the most effective and available means
to that end. We must multiply the laborers so that
all may hear the Good News.
*These definitions include ideas from the Lausanne
Committee for World Evangelization.
Statement
of Faith
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We believe the Bible to be the
inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of
God.
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We believe that there is one God, eternally existent
in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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We believe in the deity and humanity of Christ, in
His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His
miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through
His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His
ascension to the right hand of the Father, in His
present rule as Head of the Church and in His
personal return in power and glory.
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We believe that for the salvation of lost
and sinful men regeneration by the Holy Spirit is
absolutely essential.
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We believe in the present ministry of the Holy
Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled
to live a godly life.
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We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and
the lost, they that are saved unto the resurrection
of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection
of damnation.
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We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in
our Lord Jesus Christ, with equality across racial,
gender, and class differences.
Core Values and Guiding Principles |
We
want to value what God values. Consequently, we
humbly seek to be guided by the following eight core
values in our ministry and to constantly seek the wisdom
of God to improve our understanding and implementation
of these principles. Our values guide how we will
operate and behave; they guide our actions and
judgments. They are the standards that influence
us as we make choices among alternative courses of
action. Our values form the foundation for our
ministry and our commitment to these principles is
apparent at every level throughout Reaching Souls.
Consequently we aspire to the following values:
1. A commitment to Obey our Lord Jesus Christ and
His Word
This ministry belongs to God and we seek to do His will at all
times.
His Holy Scriptures are foundational to life and ministry.
2. A commitment for Souls
Reaching Souls doesn’t save anyone, but the
Lord works through this ministry to reach souls.
What we value, we pursue.
You cannot say that you value the lives of the lost and
perishing and do nothing about it. We value souls.
The quest for souls supersedes all other ventures.
For the sake of Souls is our battle cry – our chief
pursuit.
3.
A commitment to Prayer
Recognizing our dependence upon God, we acknowledge the need to be
earnest in prayer, not only regarding our work but also
that of our partners.
4. A commitment to Faithfulness
We seek to be faithful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. In
a world of much need, we seek to remain focused on our
calling. We seek to be in continuous fellowship
with Him.
5. A commitment to Integrity
We will conduct business according to the highest
ethical principles and ensure accuracy, validity and
reliability in all that we report. We are
committed to the consistent expression of these core
values and manifest those daily. We recognize that
how we conduct our ministry is just as important as what
we accomplish.
6.
A commitment to Excellence
We seek to maintain a high standard of excellence in our
work.
We seek to maintain the most rigorous standards for
organizational quality at every level – our people, our
methods, our development, our ministry.
7.
A commitment to Stewardship and Accountability
We
are accountable to our stakeholders and the Lord to be
trustworthy stewards of our resources. We will
invest every penny given for a maximum return. We
accept responsibility to operate in an honest and
transparent manner and act prudently in the use of
financial and volunteer resources.
Because of our desire to honor the Lord and be
accountable to our supporters, we will faithfully report
the results of His work.
8. A commitment to Effectiveness
We are committed to being results-oriented for
Kingdom’s work. We will use the principles of
multiplication to maximize our accomplishments. We
will choose world evangelism strategies that accelerate
closure of the gap between reached and unreached.
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