Sustainable closure

Earlier posts discussed whether the task could be finished or not, and argued we would not know it is ‘wholly’ finished until Christ returns. Individual segments, on the other hand, could potentially be finished. We call this “closure.” Some have argued closure for the whole world could be reached—this is “completing the Great Commission.” And while I agree with them in theory, I don’t think it will actually be done until The End is reached.

An example of this has been highlighted in “Surmounting the Insurmountable: Wikipedia is nearing completion, in a sense” (Rebecca Rosen, The Atlantic). Rosen notes that, “while it may seem impossible for an encyclopedia of everything to ever near completion, at least for the major articles on topics like big wars, important historical figures, central scientific concepts, the English-language Wikipedia’s pretty well filled out.” There’s always some work: niche articles, tidying up of existing articles, etc.–but “the bulk of the work… has already been done.”



Rosen quotes historian Richard Jensen who says that after 100,000 articles, the pool of good material shrinks; after 1 million articles, ingenuity must be taxed to find something new. Wikipedia, by comparison, reached the 4 million article mark in the summer of 2012.



We might say the Great Commission, in the same way, could be “impossible to complete” in its entirety—at least until Jesus is back, as we’ve described already—but we could reach a point where “the bulk of the work is done.” There are other examples besides Wikipedia: You can eradicate polio and take on the eradication of malaria.



We sometimes think of the missionary task among a people group as being something that will go on forever–but there is a “reasonable completion point” wrapped up in the very definition of “unreached.”

Unfortunately, part of our problem is that we often mix definitions up. We have come to equate “unreached” with “unevangelized.” We say those who are “unreached” have no access to Christ, Christianity or the Gospel. They have not heard the good news. And while it is true that “not hearing the Gospel” is a symptom of “unreached,” the reality is that to be “reached” has a wholly different definition, and that definition is a reasonable completion point.

To say a group is reached is not to say everyone has heard the Gospel, or everyone is a Christian. To say a group is reached is to say the apostolic cross-cultural missionary task is largely complete. There is an indigenous church which can do the job.



This is not to say that missionaries wouldn’t be helpful. In many cases they might be. For example, the local church might say they need Bible translators, or JESUS Film teams, or satellite broadcasts. But it is not the same.



An example in point is what happened in China. There were missionaries in China prior to the Communist Revolution. After the Revolution, the missionaries were kicked out. Many were sure the Chinese church had died. Then, when years later contact was made again, we discovered something very different - the church had grown, and was growing, exponentially.



Is China “reached”? It’s a little hard to say, since the definition doesn’t contain a precise mathematical mark. But I would argue China is an illustration of a “Wikipedia-style closure.” If the Han Chinese are not “reached” they are pretty near so. That’s not to say non-Chinese can’t be helpful–but if we were all kicked out today, I’m pretty sure the Chinese church would continue to grow.



This is important because “closure” can also be taken to mean “every individual has had a chance to hear the Gospel.” And I don’t think it’s possible to reach a point in time where everyone has heard without a multi-generational approach. In other words: crusades and mass evangelism are great as one-time events, but you’ll never use them to reach “closure” (the completion of the task). The reason is simple: new babies are being born every minute. The one-time event that occurs today misses the child born today, who will not be able to understand the Gospel until he/she matures.

Therefore, in order for everyone to hear, what you effectively need is the church planted everywhere, sustainably, as a witness to the present generation and the future generations.

You need not just proclamation but discipleship: disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

If disciple-making organic networks (=churches, ekklesia) are present throughout all peoples, in all languages, in all cultures, which are capable of proclaiming the Gospel to everyone within the culture and to make disciples of those who choose to follow Christ, then the Great Commission will have been completed (at least in my definition—perhaps not in God’s).

It’s not a one-time event. It’s an every-day event. Every day, closure has to be re-achieved in the lives of new people.

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