David Sitton, President, To Every Tribe

Ekballo in Greek means to “forcibly expel”; “to thrust out violently”; “to fling.”� Ekballo is to “send out” (workers) in Matthew 9:38 and “drive out” (demons) in Matthew 10:1.� It is a spiritually violent and authoritative word.� When Jesus, prompted by our prayer, says, “Go!,” demons vacate and missionaries relocate.

Ekballo Vision

God’s name will be made known among the most neglected, hostile, hard-to-get-to ethnicities remaining without a credible gospel witness within their language and culture.[1]

These [CONTINUE READING...]]]>

A Glory-of-God-Centered

Theologically Reformed Missionary Movement

David Sitton, President, To Every Tribe

Ekballo in Greek means to “forcibly expel”; “to thrust out violently”; “to fling.”  Ekballo is to “send out” (workers) in Matthew 9:38 and “drive out” (demons) in Matthew 10:1.  It is a spiritually violent and authoritative word.  When Jesus, prompted by our prayer, says, “Go!,” demons vacate and missionaries relocate.

Ekballo Vision

God’s name will be made known among the most neglected, hostile, hard-to-get-to ethnicities remaining without a credible gospel witness within their language and culture.[1]

These people groups will be lovingly targeted through a strategic, God-centered, evangelistic, church planting initiative.

Ekballo Distinctives

Ekballo is unique in its combined commitment to:

• Biblical Theology — do mission from a theologically Reformed understanding of Scripture.

• Unreached Peoples — focus new mission efforts and finances on the remaining unreached/unengaged people groups of the world.[2]

• Church Planting — evangelize and establish self-led, self-sustaining, self-reproducing, evangelical churches.

Ekballo Goals

1. Call the church to repentance and re-focus upon the mission of engaging all remaining unreached people groups with a church planting effort.

2. Stimulate worship, prayer and fasting on behalf of specific unreached people groups.

3. Educate the Christian community about the people groups of the world who have no access to the evangelical gospel through:

• Unreached People Profiles that will inform the church of the remaining need;
• Promoting ethno-theological [3] training as a necessity for effective cross-cultural ministry;
• Developing partnerships among churches, organizations, and individuals for the purpose of learning from one another, praying together, and formulating strategies to adopt and engage these target peoples.

4. Ekballo Mission Conferences to identify potential missionaries and sending partners who will then be networked and resourced to more quickly get the gospel to unreached regions.

Inform  –  Pray  –  Adopt  –  Prepare  –  Give  –  Send  –  Go  –  Multiply  –  Finish the Mission

Ekballo (Immediate) Objectives

1. Develop an Ekballo Leadership Team who will commit themselves to the Ekballo vision.

2. Initiate a movement of prayer and fasting which is focused upon unreached peoples.

3. Host an annual Ekballo Mission Conference.

4. Develop a network of speakers and leaders who will provide teaching and practical training for veteran and aspiring missionaries, sending churches, and mission agencies.

5. Develop a media presence and website designed to promote the vision of Ekballo.

Ekballo Mission Conferences

Characteristics of Ekballo Mission Conferences:

• Annual
• Regional – strategically held in different regions of the country each year so that Ekballo is a movement larger than any single ministry or church, thus providing the body of Christ with a continuous mission emphasis throughout the various regions of North America.
• Tunnel-visioned intentionally upon the task of reaching unreached people groups.

Ekballo Mission Conferences will endeavor to serve the body of Christ with exhortation, up-to-date mission information, and practical mobilization through plenary teaching sessions, targeted break-out seminars, and conference-wide worship and concerts of prayer.

Mission Partnerships are essential for reaching the nations for Jesus.  The following groups of people represent the broad spectrum of participants we hope to serve through the Ekballo Initiative:

1. Radical Goers:

• Aspiring Missionaries — Ekballo leadership will prepare a Basic Things Seminar to answer the most common questions and practical concerns new missionaries typically encounter
• Veteran Missionaries — Ekballo will arrange  specific topical seminars on subjects such as ministry burnout, single women missionaries, spiritual warfare, financial issues, family and marriage issues, danger and persecution, resolving team conflict, mission strategy, etc. to purposefully encourage missionary families and/or individuals.

2. Radical Senders:   Ekballo will challenge non-going believers to give as sacrificially of their financial resources as going believers give of their lives.  Both sacrificial going and sending glorify God.

3. Radical Intercessors:  Ekballo will seek to foster a growing movement of intercessory prayer and fasting for the speedier advance of the gospel among the unreached.

4. Local Churches and Mission Agencies:  Ekballo will prepare practical seminars to equip local churches and sending agencies on how to better care for their missionaries and navigate the relationship between missionaries, local churches, and mission agencies.

NOTE:� To Every Tribe is looking for a full-time Director of Communications and/or Graphic Designer.� For more information, click HERE.

To Every Tribe did an awesome and weighty thing on January 14! � During our 2012 Open House, To Every Tribe adopted an unreached people group in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. � We� first came into contact with this� people group (named People Q for security reasons) during a 2011 scouting trip conducted by To Every Tribe missionaries. These same missionaries are now focusing on the People Q as the location for a church planting team.

David Sitton and AJ Gibson sign the "People Q" Adoption [CONTINUE READING...]]]> Guest Post by Chris Johnson

To Every Tribe did an awesome and weighty thing on January 14!  During our 2012 Open House, To Every Tribe adopted an unreached people group in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico.  We first came into contact with this people group (named People Q for security reasons) during a 2011 scouting trip conducted by To Every Tribe missionaries. These same missionaries are now focusing on the People Q as the location for a church planting team.

David Sitton and AJ Gibson sign the "People Q" Adoption Covenant

People Q is the second group To Every Tribe has adopted in Oaxaca.  A To Every Tribe church planting team now lives in a village of the first people group. That team is in the process of learning both Spanish and the Indian dialect of the people, as well as acquiring cultural understanding.

During the adoption ceremony, a formal letter of commitment was signed by the President of To Every Tribe, David Sitton, and our Mexico Field Director, AJ Gibson.  AJ began the ceremony with an explanation of the people group adoption process.   Missionary Chris Johnson then explained how To Every Tribe came to discover and begin to develop relationships with People Q.  The ceremony ended with a wonderful time of prayer for People Q, for a team to go and give their lives to bring them the Gospel, and, no matter what the cost, for a church to be planted in this region of spiritual darkness.

To Every Tribe will continue get to know the People Q better through medical clinics we are planning for the village.   We pray for the People Q regularly: for God to open their eyes and save them, and to build His church in that mountainous area.  The formation of a team to reach the People Q is already in process.  Please pray for a team of church planters to become well-formed and quickly deployed to the village, for the glory of God and the advance of the gospel of Christ into this unreached region.

To advance the gospel means that we are to go everywhere extending the Name and the Reign of Christ throughout all of the earth.� That’s the Mission.� God makes his own name great among all of the ethnicities of the earth1 and he does so through the geographical scattering of his [CONTINUE READING...]]]> The gospel task, essentially, is to take territory for the Kingdom of God.  However, we’re not after geographical conquest.  Rather, we target spiritual strongholds where Satan has exerted his control for centuries.  We are compelled to go after the hearts and souls of people for whom Christ died.

To advance the gospel means that we are to go everywhere extending the Name and the Reign of Christ throughout all of the earth.  That’s the Mission.  God makes his own name great among all of the ethnicities of the earth¹ and he does so through the geographical scattering of his people.²

The harvest of nations is an enormous task requiring thousands more of well mentored missionaries than are presently available.  What should be our response to this labor force deficit?

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Go!  I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.³

There is a Lord of the harvest.  I’m so grateful that the work of the gospel around the world is in the hands of One who is big enough, wise enough, and powerful enough to manage it.  The harvest of nations is the Lord’s work and he will do exactly what he wants to with it.

As Lord of the harvest Jesus will have a full crop of all the elect from all of the people groups of the world.⁴ Likewise, he will have a full contingency of harvesters who are necessary to gather them.  All of the goers, all of the martyrs, all of the intercessors and financial senders who are necessary – Jesus will have a full number of everyone and everything that he intends to use for the ingathering of a People for his name and glory.  Jesus is the Lord of the harvest.

There are workers in the harvest. This speaks to the opportunity we have of working with Christ.  Don’t ever forget the magnitude of this privilege.  We get to be missionaries for Jesus Christ!  It is indescribable grace that Jesus allows us to be partners in mission with him.  We get the joy of being front-line spokesmen for Jesus Christ in the far-flung places where his salvation is unknown!

The workers in the harvest are to do two things.  First, we are instructed to “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers.”  Send out in Greek is ekballo, which means to “thrust out violently”; to “forcibly expel”; to “fling out.”  It is a spiritually violent and authoritative word, used for example, to describe the driving out of demons.⁵ When Jesus commands demons to leave a person or place, they immediately relocate.  In the same way, as we pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers, we are asking Jesus to strategically and forcibly redeploy his people into his worldwide harvest.

Prayer is the biblical way, primarily, that missionaries are inwardly compelled to change locations and go somewhere with the gospel.⁶ We don’t try to twist anyone’s arm or talk anyone into anything.  We pray that the Lord of the harvest will ekballo a work force to accomplish his own work.  In a refreshing way, instead of trying to argue people into becoming missionaries, we go over their heads.  We ask the Lord to compel those whom he wants to carry his gospel seed bags and drive his harvesting combines.  The same authority that expels demons in Jesus’ name propels missionaries to joyfully “pack their coffins” en route for remote and hostile places where Jesus is not known.  When Jesus says, “go!” demons vacate and missionaries relocate.  We do the praying and Jesus does the flinging!

Secondly, disciples are told to pray for harvesters and… What is the first word of Luke 10:3? – “GO!”  Pray and go.  The sense of the text is that we should pray for laborers to go and then get busy being a part of the answer to our own prayers!  This is what the Church is called to do.   We are to pray and go.  Praying, going and sending glorifies God!

Important Question: If working with Christ in the gospel around the world is such a privilege, why is it necessary, so often, for the Lord to forcibly expel his laborers into the mission?  Why aren’t potential laborers lining up for this incredible opportunity?

The answer is in the next phrase.  Jesus forcefully reiterates the implications of going.  “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”⁷

Jesus sends lambs out among wolves!  Is there any doubt what the outcome of that will be?  Jesus is describing a slaughter.  As we go in his name, Jesus says, we’re going as the main course meal!  That’s what lambs are to wolves.  This is a primary reason people refuse to go.  Even believers are not usually eager to line up for a blood bath!

And so, the Lord ekballoes us.  He forcibly flings us out into the world by his grace.  He does it by transforming our hearts.  He makes himself so valuable to us, that suddenly, we begin to “break the jar and pour out all of the oil upon his feet.”⁸ Our fears and love for this world disintegrate and morph into a passion for his name and compassion for perishing people.  So much so, that nothing else matters anymore.  Jesus becomes our most treasured “pearl of great price” and we find ourselves doing strange things.  We begin to sell homes and land and property.  We begin to take our families, even our young children, into some of the most dangerous and difficult places in the world.  And we do it with joy, because Jesus and the gospel are worth it!

This is what Jesus did.⁹ He saw the people and was moved by compassion for them because they were distressed, harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.  Jesus came to earth as the Lamb of God to die.  That was the plan from the beginning.  The slaughter of Christ on the cross wasn’t an afterthought or an accident. The Lamb of God intentionally came to die for his sheep.¹⁰ After Jesus rose from the dead, he turned to his disciples and said, “As my Father sends me, so send I you.”¹¹

That’s how people become missionaries and how the world will be won for Christ.  That’s how it works.

We do not need a missionary calling.  If we are believers in Jesus Christ we are called to Christ!  If we are called to Christ we are simultaneously called to his mission.  And when we are called to his mission, we don’t “cut and run” when the going gets tough and treacherous.

I’m asking the Lord to ekballo (forcibly expel) every believer in Christ who reads these words.   Some will be ekballoed to actually go as missionary martyrs.  Some will be ekballoed into financial martyrdom, as believers in the early church did.¹² First century disciples were frequently compelled by the Spirit of God and by the joy of Christ in their hearts to give in ridiculous ways.  Some of them actually sold homes; some gave land, and many hundreds of thousands of others shed their blood and guts, in extraordinary ways, in order to see to it that the gospel would go to the ends of the earth.

This is the mission of God.  Missionary martyrs going, financial martyrs sending; and all of us praying and working together, for the gospel and the glory of God to be known and enjoyed by all peoples.

____________________

¹ Malachi 1:11

² Matthew 28:18

³ Luke 10:2-3

⁴ John 6:39; Revelation 5:9

⁵ Matthew 10:1

⁶ Persecution is one way that workers are outwardly compelled to change locations and go with the gospel. Acts 8:1-4

⁷ Luke 10:3

⁸ Mark 14:3-4

⁹ Matthew 9:35-37

¹⁰ John 10:15

¹¹ John 20:21

¹² Acts 2:45; Acts 4:32-36