A few days ago I finished a study on the Gospel of Mark and realized just how many times Mark notes that Jesus was surrounded by a crowd of people (18 different times from what I saw). Although many rejected Jesus during his three-year ministry, he always attracted crowds because of his teachings, miracles, and lifestyle. I think we can learn from this as we seek to communicate the Gospel to those of other faiths.

One of the most important things we can do is to point others, especially those in other religious traditions, to the life of Jesus. This would include not only encouraging them to read the Gospels, but also for us to fill our thoughts and words with Christ. As we live out a Christ-like life and point others to see the beauty of Christ in the Gospels, others will be drawn to Him.

This past summer I heard the testimony of a sister in Christ who left Hinduism after seeing Jesus’ moral superiority over the Hindu gods she had been worshiping. In a similar way, many Buddhists have been drawn to Christ because of his compassion and selflessness. Many Muslims have been drawn to Christ as they see his love and experience his forgiveness. Also, many animists have been drawn to Christ because of his power to cast out evil spirits and heal the sick. As during his three-year ministry, Jesus continues to draw people to himself.

For example, in China there are now between 50-89 million Christians and some estimate that by 2010 there will be 119.5 million Christians.  Moreover, in 1900 there were only 8.7 million Christians in Africa (8% of the pop.); however, in 2000 there were 346.5 million Christians in Africa (44% of the pop.).

May Christ continue to build up his Church by drawing all the nations to himself!

*Stats come from Disciples of all Nations by Lamin Sanneh.

Although the book is dated (1986) and only includes limited discussion of the underground house church movement and the amazing growth of Christianity in China since the 80s (some estimate over 100 million Christians in China), it is still a great work for those who are planning on working in China or among Chinese in the Diaspora.  The book is even a great resource for those who are not planning on working among the Chinese people.  Throughout the book Covell discusses the issue of contextualization, which all cross-cultural communicators of the gospel must deal with.  At times Covell does advocate too much contextualization for my theological liking, but he does raise some good points.  I would recommend this book to anyone planning on engaging in cross-cultural gospel communication.