Theological Famine

Theological Famine Relief and How You Can Join In the Cause
 

“The printed [and digital] page is a missionary that can go anywhere and do so at minimum cost. It enters closed lands and reaches all strata of society. It does not grow weary. It needs no furlough.  It lives longer than any missionary. It never gets ill. It penetrates through the mind to the heart and conscience.  It has and is producing results everywhere. It has often lain dormant yet retained its life and bloomed years later.” (Samuel Zwemer)

Imagine being a pastor or elder of a small church in Africa, Asia, or South America. You have not been to seminary. In fact, formal schooling will not likely ever be within reach. You have little access to theological training or books. Internet is very limited, and when you do get access, download speeds are often prohibitive. And yet, you are responsible for feeding and leading your local church. This is the situation for thousands of church leaders in many regions of the world.

 

Theological Famine

 

Famine relief usually refers to an organized effort to reduce starvation. Relief efforts are put into place when an undernourished people group is suffering from a lack of vital nutrition. Although The Gospel Coalition has been working hard since 2007 to resource the North American church–which now has a glut of Christian resources–we realize that much more needs to be done to serve the rest of the world. The statistics are staggering for the theological famine–or lack of theological resources–that the rest of the world endures. The relief work will require overcoming language and cultural barriers, false teaching, lack of education, poor infrastructure, and poverty.

 

Our Vision

 

As God directs and equips, The Gospel Coalition’s international mission is to see thousands of congregations in Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe receive solid biblical teaching from their leaders, because of new access to theological resources, both physical and digital, in helpful languages and formats.

 

We are working to connect a network and movement of partnering individuals and organizations who, in the midst of theological famine, are mobilizing to bring relief. By God’s grace, we see church-planters, pastors, teachers, and missionaries around the world becoming strengthened by the power of the Gospel, through donations of biblical resources, for the building up of the church worldwide.

 

Relief Projects

 

The focus of our work is in launching Relief Projects consisting of physical and digital resources in English, Spanish, Russian, French, and other languages. The scope of the need is larger than any single ministry can fill. We are looking for partners to help us cultivate relationships, develop and deliver resources, mobilize networks, and build support. We want to connect with donors, churches, translators, publishers, missions senders, and goers who sense a call to engage in Theological Famine Relief. You can help us to create and deploy these resources where they are most needed around the world. 

 

International Outreach was born under the ministry of Desiring God. During its first 6 years, the Lord enabled us to spread more than 360,000 resources through our partners to 113 countries. Join us in praying that He will enable us to reach even more through this relief effort in the coming years.

How You Can Partner With Us

• Stir up your heart for the global mission.
• Network with others for the sake of kingdom collaboration.
• Translate content into helpful languages to reach more regions of the world.
• Give to fund and launch Theological Famine Relief Projects.
• Distribute donated resources within your international field of ministry.
• Read Stories about past projects.
• Follow our Twitter missions channel at @TGC_IO.
• Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth partners and laborers.