The 25 Initiative was launched in 2024 out of a simple question. What legacy do we want to leave? Our leadership began praying and the vision was clear because it's right in scripture: "Go and make disciples of all nations..." Matthew 28:19. The 25 Initiative is a goal to send out 2,500 men and women to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. Our prayer is that these 2,500 people are made up of 250 men and women who are called to reach the unreached people groups of the world and 25 church planters and their teams, plus many more that will be sent all over our nation and around the globe.
“And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
GOD'S VISION FOR THE UNREACHED
God’s heart is that all of His people, people from every nation, every tribe, and every tongue, give Him the worship that He deserves. Revelations 7 tells us that this will come to pass, but there are still 3.2 billion people who are unreached! This means that they have no access to a Bible in their language, no church in their context, and they don’t have access to anyone who is a believer who could share the truth of Jesus with them.
YOUR ROLE
PRAY
We know that nothing of significance happens apart from prayer. Pray that God’s glory would be made known among the nations and that those that are unreached would be reached with the gospel! You can also set an alarm on your phone for 10:02 am each day to remind yourself to pray Luke 10:2: that God would continue to raise up the workers for the harvest.
GO
Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”, and we want to be in alignment with that. Not everyone is called to go overseas, but not everyone is called to stay.
WAYS TO GOGIVE
In Philippians 4, Paul thanks the church for sacrificially given to him to fund his ministry and give him means to live. Long-term goers need the financial support to not only live and support their families, but also to be able to fulfill the ministry that they are called to do. We can each play a part in this by pouring out radically because of God’s endless outpouring.
GIVEADVOCATE
Another good way to love and serve is to advocate and care for long-term goers that are on the field currently or are coming back from the field. Not only do global workers need prayer, they also love to hear from their friends and family back in the states. Another part of advocacy can be helping families that have been overseas as they come home on furlough by providing them with a place to stay, a car, or other necessities that they may have sold to move overseas.
JOIN ADVOCACY TEAMWELCOME
We also need individuals and families that are willing to welcome and befriend our friends from other nations and cultures that come to the United States. Whether they are international students or neighbors from another culture, building relationships with people from other cultures is such a pivotal way to create relationships and share the gospel.
GOER PIPELINE
The first step of becoming a goer is discovering how you can participate in God’s mission to to redeem every person, tribe, tongue, and nation. You can do that by signing up for our School of Discipleship classes.
Disciple Making Teams:
Disciple-Making Teams are missional communities that last for ten weeks. The group focus is on what it means to be with Jesus, be like Jesus, and do what Jesus did. We gather as a team once a week to worship, pray, read scripture, share the gospel, and go through different discipleship tools. This group will require a time commitment of eight hours per week.
The Nation’s Residency:
The Nation’s Residency is a 9-month long, missional community and training cohort for individuals and families that desire to be overseas. Our goal is to equip participants with a greater depth, understanding, and practice of spiritual disciplines as well as strategy for ministry overseas, knowledge, spiritual formation, greater effectiveness on a team, cross-cultural ministry experience, and more. We do this through weekly meetings, evangelism, dedicated times of prayer, retreats, and more.
At Waymaker.Church, we value giving relational and financial support to our global workers that are sent out. We believe that the investment of participating in a Disciple-Making Team, which is a prerequisite for the Nation’s Residency, and then going through the Nation’s Residency, will thoroughly prepare and equip families and individuals to be able to succeed in life overseas long-term. These programs will equip Jesus followers to become cross-cultural disciple makers, leaders, and church planters to be sent out within one to three years of completing the Nation’s Residency.