80% of the world’s evangelical Christians live in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Over the last 50 years, God’s church has grown exponentially in these areas.

These regions have tremendous mission sending potential to help bring the gospel to unreached peoples, but they currently send only 20% of the world’s cross-cultural missionaries!

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Total Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges to UPGs

Regional Access to UPGs

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Custom Mobilization Potential

Number of Evangelicals

Cultural Bridges

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This infographic provides a visual score for seven data points ranked on a 0 to 100 scale. Faded icons show scores for other countries on the mobilization index. See below for actual scores and country-specific insights.

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LIMITED MISSION FORCE

DISTANT AND FOREIGN MISSION FIELD

THE WORLD IS THE MISSION FIELD

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The Lord has let me start ministries in 5 countries: the USA (California and Florida), Canada, Germany (2 cities), Spain, and now the Netherlands. I didn&rsquo;t plan on moving around that much. I&rsquo;ve also enjoyed coaching our team as they launch or grow from small ministries in other cities.&nbsp;
Don&rsquo;t get me wrong: I think there&rsquo;s a huge benefit in sticking around over time and seeing a legacy ministry grow and expand in one place over decades. However, I guess the Lord wired me so I would get bored after a few years (just being frank!). And I love cranking up new ministries!&nbsp;
But even if you don&rsquo;t move, we leaders all experience this reality: university student culture changes. Plus, there&rsquo;s an annual flow of freshmen arriving and seniors graduating. So we&rsquo;re constantly re-evaluating and sometimes re-launching our campus ministries.
In part, it&rsquo;s a huge mystery to me, how the Lord graciously brings around the &ldquo;right&rdquo; students&ndash;the low-hanging fruit&ndash;or how God guides me in a wise, timely choice. Sometimes it seems random. But the strategy is also woven around launching. Here are 10 tips and components that I&rsquo;ve repeated:

You will be asked! Have a one-page description to share with believers or pastors.

You can make up a name for the group quickly. If needed, tweak it later. About 2 years into my first city in Germany, we had no name. I wanted it to be organic and fit the culture and language. However, students had started calling it, &ldquo;Martha&rsquo;s group&rdquo; or the &ldquo;Monday group.&rdquo; It was time to nail down our name: Connexxion (fun story: we found the name during a snowstorm!). What logo to choose? Any logo. What&rsquo;s the best survey to use in this culture or city? Just copy someone&rsquo;s&mdash;and then get out there!

Look for the &ldquo;blessings.&rdquo;&nbsp;

There will be many setbacks and struggles. You&rsquo;re on the front lines. Keep a journal of God&rsquo;s faithfulness even in small things.

You&rsquo;ll need these to not go crazy, thinking you&rsquo;re spinning your wheels. And you&rsquo;ll need them so you can rejoice and look for trends! Ministry progress can seem fuzzy. Accurate statistics and doing reflection each month helps me &ldquo;pat myself on the back&rdquo; (in prayer!) when I get discouraged. When I feel like I&rsquo;ve been lazy or slow, our monthly report usually helps me realize: &ldquo;Oh wait, that&rsquo;s why you&rsquo;re so tired!&rdquo;

This is not the time to carry out a PhD-style research project. One couple I knew spent months just prayer-walking. YES&ndash; pray, research, explore while meeting students. As soon as you see an open door, start something! Ask tons of questions. Make mistakes while you try out stuff. If you&rsquo;re too slow, you lose steam. Also, you miss the freshness of &ldquo;Hey, I&rsquo;m new. Can you tell me about your city?&rdquo; You also can&rsquo;t start too soon to launch a small group or discovery group using the Bible.&nbsp;

Find out what other long-term Christian ministries are doing. In moving to the Netherlands, I talked with a student from Navigators and with the director of Campus Crusade, Maarten, on the phone. I ordered Dutch tracts from them. Then I took the train to Rotterdam to learn how they did campus surveys and attended retreats from both ministries. Students informed me about everything from which location to hold our small groups to what types of fun events would work and what topics are attractive for a Bible study. I&rsquo;m concerned when I see leaders make up brand new discipleship materials when they&rsquo;re in the launch phase. Avoid time at your desk!

Use the training phases of model, assist, watch, and leave (M-A-W-L). Get new friends from church or students involved at every stage. Teach them and do it together. Use various reproducible and transferable concepts, illustrations, and materials. Copy and paste! Have an exit plan to work yourself out of a job from the get-go.

Keep sending out texts and email prayer updates. It will encourage you, too, when they respond and rejoice in your little victories.

Don&rsquo;t hide in your flat or in a city caf&eacute;. May I add? Where you live can be very strategic. I say, Look for an apartment near where students live, study, or play. Or near good transportation nodes. In my capital city of Amsterdam, students live all over. But my apartment is central and near some big metro stations.

Last but not least&ndash; don&rsquo;t get stuck at IKEA

First, plant your field, then build your house. Don&rsquo;t spend too long setting up your &ldquo;nest.&rdquo; Yes, open the boxes and hang pictures, but do that as you go. Proverbs 24:27 says, &ldquo;Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.&rdquo;

In my present season of ministry, I find myself once again in a re-start phase (sigh!). I&rsquo;ve relished these verses: &ldquo;It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from&nbsp;saving by many or by few.&rdquo; And his armor-bearer said to him, &ldquo;Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish.&rdquo; (1 Samuel 14:6-7). The Lord has had me pray and believe him for just four key students, two young men and two young ladies who will be &ldquo;leaders who are learners.&rdquo; We believe in multiplication. Using the tips above has set up our group for growth!

Random Meets Strategy: 10 Take-Aways From Launching (and Re-Launching) Campus Ministries in 5 Countries

Martha Moore

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