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• written by Bob Mayfield »
• from Baptist Messenger of Oklahoma »

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Every summer, adventurous men and women tackle one of the world's greatest adventures-climbing Mount Everest. At 29,029 feet, this mountain in the Himalayas is a daunting challenge. Many people know that Sir Edmund Hillary was the first person to successfully ascend Everest's peak, but what we sometimes forget is that Sir Hillary did not climb Everest alone-it took a team of people to accomplish what had been considered an impossible task.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus gives His followers His last instructions before ascending into Heaven. His words " . . . be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to ends of the Earth." For His commission to be accomplished, it is going to take a team. It is going to take partners. Climbing Mount Everest pales compared to the task of global evangelization. But Christ has assured us that it will be done, and the power of Holy Spirit is leading and empowering us in this task.

Reaching the entire world with the Gospel is bigger than any one person, any single class, or any individual church can do alone. It requires partnership and teamwork. And who are our partners in what has to be the greatest challenge in world history? For starters, your Sunday School class! Yes, your Sunday School class is a group of people who can (and should) partner together to bring the Gospel to friends and neighbors. Your local church is another partnership you have in sharing the Gospel with your community through worship, Vacation Bible School, youth camp, local church ministries and mission trips. Locally, your church is part of a local association that impacts your community through church planting, equipping and evangelism ministries. Your church's gifts to the Cooperative Program enable you to partner with more than 40,000 other churches to share Christ through missions and evangelism, Bible distribution, Bible translating and church planting.

PowerUP Your World is a new resource to involve your entire Sunday School into being missional Christians. Through this 8-week process, every class will personally plan its own mission project. Many church members who had never before been involved in missions will become missionaries to their community. An army of Sunday School classes will look beyond the four walls of their classroom and see their community through the eyes of a missionary for the very first time.

Each morning as church members read God's Word, pray and meditate in their Mission Journal, they will start the day with much the same realization that Sir Edmund Hillary and his team must have had as they climbed Everest-"Today, we are one day closer to the top!" Now that is the way to live your life! Today, we are one day closer to sharing the Gospel with every nation, every people group, every tribe and every person on planet Earth.

One Day!

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