Adult mission study Let Your Light So Shine Before the study: Check the church office for the promotion kit for the Mission Illinois Offering & Week of Prayer. Also visit missionillinois.org for additional study materials and videos. The 2016 MIO theme is So Shine, based on Matthew 5:16. Before the study begins, have an MIO table set up where people can stop and browse the 2016 materials if they haven t already: Prayer guide/bulletin insert Please pray every day this week. Watch videos at missionillinois.org. Newspaper study guide (if desired) missionillinois Offering & Week of Prayer September 11-18 Prayer Guide Matthew 5:16 Copies of the 2016 MIO stories from Wednesday Reaching Chicago Saturday Stronger churches A lmost 1,000 IBSA churches partner together to reach Illinois with the gospel. The Mission Illinois Offering the Illinois Baptist Offering envelopes supports this vital work. To learn more about missions in our state and watch videos from missionaries, church planters, and people just like you, visit Illinois map missionillinois.org Please pray for state missions every day this week. less than 10% of people are affiliated with Levi Hart Lindsay McDonald Sunday Church planters Many communities have no evangelical church to reach Illinois 8 million lost people. IBSA planted 23 new churches last year, and about 80 are in process. Pray for church planters, IBSA s Van Kicklighter, strategists Eddie Pullen and John Mattingly, and for more partners to help start new congregations. Sunday Offering Sunday Thursday IBSA conferences Watch Levi Hart from Breese in Planting churches in Metro East. Monday Student ministry Teens and college students are especially open to the gospel. Through events such as Youth Encounter and collegiate ministries, IBSA and Illinois churches share Christ. Pray for the salvation of young people, and for Mark Emerson and the IBSA Church Resources Team who facilitate this work. Tuesday Mission mobilization Each year, about 22,000 people from IBSA churches serve in missions, in their towns and around the world. For example, a team of seven women from Illinois went to South Asia in the spring to share the gospel. Pray for IBSA s Carmen Halsey and Dwayne Doyle and the teams they help to train. Watch Lindsay McDonald from Casey in Mobilizing volunteers video. Gather Testimonies: Once everyone has found their seats, ask someone in the group to read Matthew 5:16 aloud. Open up conversation by asking their views on the verse. What does it look like to let our light shine? What type of good works is Jesus talking about here? How does this verse encourage us to reach the lost in Illinois? Also Read: If time allows, consider the works mentioned in other verses: 1 Peter 2:12; John 15:8; 2 Corinthians 9:13. These are not works unto salvation, but rather they result from our salvation. Because we are saved, we want to serve Jesus. When other people see our service, they will come to the conclusion that we are glorifying God. Our desire is they will do the same: commit to faith in Christ, serve him with a godly witness, point others to salvation through God-honoring service and witness. 1 1,000 churches and new church plants just like yours Churches Together Advancing the Gospel.
Watch: Turn On the Light video (3:17) or read the video summary below, answering the corresponding discussion questions. Summary: Nate Adams, IBSA Executive Director: In Matthew 5:16 when Jesus says, let your light so shine, he is referring to the previous verse where he says it s silly to light a candle and put it under a bushel. Put it on a lamp stand. Let your light so shine that people will see it and turn to God! Mission Illinois helps us do just that. It is like-minded Baptist churches joining together to make the light of the gospel more visible throughout our state. Illinois is a beautiful place. But spiritually speaking, it is still very dark. At least 8 million people here don t claim to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. According to a recent report in the Chicago Tribune, there are now more Muslims in Illinois than Southern Baptists. In fact, Islam recently passed Mormonism as our state s fastest growing religion. Our lights of evangelism, missions, and church planting need to shine brighter here in Illinois. (Discuss: Does this statistic surprise you that non-christian religions are growing so rapidly? What evidence have we seen of that in our own community.) Let s dig deeper There are 4 topics below, each with it s own video. Use as many as time will allow. 2
TOPIC: Church planting in Illinois: Consider the following facts about church planting in Illinois, particularly in the metro East region of Illinois near St. Louis. With 2.7 million people and 79 neighborhoods, metro St. Louis is an American melting pot. Did you know... The 2.7 million residents of metropolitan St. Louis speak at least 110 different languages. The ethnic diversity breakdown in St. Louis: 73.9% Anglo 18.9% African American 2.9% Hispanic 2.9% Asian/Pacific Islander. Less than 18% of Metro St. Louis residents are affiliated with an evangelical church; over 50% of residents aren t affiliated with any religious group. In St. Louis, there is only one SBC church for every 7,866 people. 93 new St. Louis churches need to be planted in the next 5 years to meet the need there. 3
Video: Planting churches in Metro East Story: Levi Hart returned home to Breese. With his wife, this young pastor is planting a church there. (The print version of this story can be downloaded from missionillinois.org. Look under the tab 2016 Stories. ) Discuss: Why is it a brave move for Levi Hart to plant a church in his hometown? Many new churches have difficulty finding a place to meet, especially in inner cities and rural areas. What do you think of Levi s innovative idea for a meeting place? How will this location be a help or hindrance to his ministry? With many baptisms in the first months of its existence, this church is reporting success in sharing the gospel. What lessons do you think other churches can learn from their example? (Make a list.) 4
TOPIC: Mobilizing members for missions We often think of the mission field as being over there, but our mission fields start right here. Read Acts 1:8, and name the four mission fields Jesus names. What are their equivalents for an Illinois church? Jerusalem = our town Judea = our state Samaria = our nation Judea = other countries around the world Consider the following facts about missions and the need for the gospel in Illinois and worldwide. Did you know... There are 13 million people in Illinois. North American Mission Board studies show that on average, three-fourths of the people in the U.S. are not believers in Jesus Christ. In Illinois, that means more than 8 million people are lost. There are about 1,000 Southern Baptist churches in Illinois. On an average Sunday, approximately 78,000 people are in worship attendance at IBSA churches. In 2015, about 22,000 people from IBSA churches were mobilized for missions in one or more of their mission fields. Chicago is our largest mission field in Illinois. More than 200 people groups are represented and many languages are spoken there. In SBC churches, 20 different languages are spoken each Sunday. With 2 million people from outside the U.S. living in Illinois today, the world is coming to our doorstep. The world population is 7 billion people. At least 5 billion of them do not know Jesus. 5
Video: Mobilizing volunteers worldwide Story: Lindsay McDonald is a pastor s wife living in Casey, Illinois. She was one in a seven-member team of women from Illinois that traveled to South Asia to share Christ with oppressed and enslaved women in a mostly Muslim country. (The print version of this story can be downloaded from missionillinois.org. Look under the tab 2016 Stories. ) Discuss: Do you think Lindsay and the women who went with her are brave? If so, in what ways? If you were to take an international mission trip, what would be the obstacles you would have to overcome? IBSA churches sent approximately 22,000 people on mission last year, in their communities and worldwide. That s a remarkable number. And gifts through the Mission Illinois Offering helped to train those teams. But to have greater impact in the world, more people and teams are needed. How can our church help send more people to the field? We often talk about our mission fields. Note the s on fields. Using Acts 1:8 as our model, what are our mission fields, starting with those closest to where we live? Does our church have a good understanding of its mission fields, and its responsibility in each of them? When Lindsay McDonald returned home, she was excited about continuing her mission service worldwide and across the street. How can she encourage her church to join her? One more application: There are 2 million internationals living in Illinois. How has the population of our community changed in the past decade? Is there a people group our church could reach out to? Discuss as a group some steps that can be taken to better equip us to reach these growing religious demographics. For example, consider offering an apologetics class at our church, to help people learn how to defend biblical truths and answer tough questions non-believers have. 6
TOPIC: Students reaching across the state Consider the following facts about students. Did you know... Many statewide ministries are funded in large part by MIO giving, including evangelism, collegiate ministries, and compassion ministries such as the Christian Activities Center. Only 15 of the 430 Illinois colleges, community colleges, and trade schools have a Baptist collegiate ministry on campus. IBSA s two camps, Lake Sallateeska and Streator Camp, hosted over 300 kids at IBSA events alone! Your MIO giving helps keep these camps running. More than 3,000 students participated in IBSA missions and evangelism events. Because of MIO giving, people in 300 churches last year were trained and equipped in personal evangelism. In 2015, more than 22,000 missions volunteers took the good news of Jesus Christ into communities across the state and around the world. Video: Students on mission in Chicago Story: Lily Ohl and students from her church spent a week working with church planters in Chicago. They discussed their faith with total strangers and loved it! (A related print version of this story can be downloaded from missionillinois.org. Look under the tab 2016 Stories. ) 7
Discuss: How would you describe Lily Ohl and the young people who go to Chicago each summer to work with church planters? What can we learn from their example about sharing Christ in our own communities? Why is it important to encourage young people to go on mission trips? (Discuss the formation of a Christian world view.) Does anyone in the group remember their first mission trip and the effect it had on them personally? Is reaching those who are lost a priority in our church? How can our church become a more outwardly focused, missional congregation? When it comes to evangelism, do you stray away from telling others about Jesus? Pinpoint the reasons why, and then ask God to give you boldness in future witnessing opportunities. TOPIC: Reaching unreached people and people groups in Illinois Consider the following facts about our mission field, especially our large population centers. An estimated 8.2 million people in Illinois don t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Did you know... Chicago and the surrounding counties and suburbs comprise almost 9 million people of Illinois 13 million population. Currently there are 256 Southern Baptist churches in the Chicagoland area. That s one for every 34,348 Metro Chicago residents. 42% of Chicago residents are unaffiliated with any religious body, and only 9.1% are affiliated with an evangelical church. Many counties in our state don t have a single evangelical church. Most of them are in Northwest Illinois, and 9 counties have no SBC church. In fact, Northwest Illinois is one of the most unchurched areas in the entire country with 42% of the Quad Cities population reporting no faith or church affiliation. 8
There are now more Muslims in Illinois than Southern Baptists; Islam has become the fastest growing religion in our state. But because of MIO giving, 23 new Baptist churches were started last year in some of Illinois most spiritually needy communities. According to an SBC study, new church plants are more effective than existing churches in drawing in people who aren t connected with a church. Video: Reaching the unreached in Illinois Story: Kenyatta Smith wants to reach people who need a second chance. A former gang member, Smith was saved and called to Christian ministry. He started Another Chance Church on the South side of Chicago. Now he is reaching out to another group of people in another neighborhood. (A related print version of this story can be downloaded from missionillinois.org. Look under the tab 2016 Stories. ) Discuss: With 13 million people in Illinois, and at least 75% of those lost, there is spiritual need all around us. There are technical definitions for unreached and unengaged people, but basically they are people who do not know Jesus. We might think that in America, everyone has heard of Jesus and had opportunity to receive him as savior, but they haven t. What are some reasons people in Illinois may not have heard the gospel? How can we develop both vision and concern for people who need Jesus, in the way that Pastor Smith has? Pastor Smith is planting a second congregation to reach unreached people. New churches are especially effective in reaching new people. Why? Has a new church been planted in our association recently? Who did they seek to reach? What is our role in church planting? (If you do not know your role, pray that God would reveal it to you. It takes every Illinois Baptist working together to make sure there is a gospel-teaching church within easy reach of every Illinois resident.) 9
Concluding thoughts and prayers: Nate Adams cited Matthew 5:16 in his introduction to the Mission Illinois Offering & Week of Prayer this year. Let s read it again. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven. As we pray, let s ask ourselves honestly, Have I been letting my light so shine for all to see? Or have I been hiding the light of Christ under a bushel? How can our church be a stronger, more effective light in our community? Using the printed MIO Prayer Guide or the Daily Devotions in the Illinois Baptist newspaper or online, pray for Spiritual awakening in Illinois; a revival in the churches and salvation of 8 million or more lost people in our state For stronger churches; Illinois Baptists are a minority and many of our churches are small; but God can strengthen and use us Church planters who are starting new churches where they are needed, to reach people who have not heard the gospel More church planters to join God s kingdom work in Illinois Mission volunteers from all our churches who go across town, across the state, or around the world to share Christ For our students to hear the calling to mission service For the missionaries and staff of the Illinois Baptist State Association who serve to strengthen churches, help start new churches, and mobilize Baptists in Illinois for missions For faithful missions giving by IBSA churches through the Mission Illinois Offering. For additional materials for study and prayer, visit missionillinois.org. 10