The 6426 Project :: BobMayfield.com

Jul

Tom Elliff on the 6426 Project

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (0)

We are challenging every Sunday School class and small group in Oklahoma to adopt one of the 6,426 unreached people groups around the world. These people groups make up more than 2 billion people who have not heard the good news of the Gospel.

Recently, Tom Elliff – president of the International Mission Board, sent us this video encouraging all of our classes to adopt an unreached people group.

Tom Elliff, president of the International Mission Board, shares this encouragement to Oklahoma churches and Sunday School classes that are adopting the 6,426 unreached people groups.

Go here for more information about the 6426 Project.

Click here to register and adopt an unreached people

Categories : 6426 Ideas, SS/small groups, The 6426 Project, Video

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May

Adopting an Unreached People Group

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (1)

What did your group pray for on Sunday? If your group is like most others, that prayer list includes prayer for; personal health, safe travel, the health of loved ones, family issues, and maybe even prayer for our country and its leaders.

But your group’s prayer time could be so much more! There are 6,426 unreached people groups that your group could adopt and pray for! Below is a video of my brief 6426 Project presentation at the Missional Ministry Conference.

Prefacing my remarks is a brief, but moving video from the International Mission Board.

Categories : SS/small groups, The 6426 Project, Video

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Feb

Prayer in Worship for Unreached Peoples

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (0)

Sunday was my last day as the interim education minister at Northwest Baptist in Oklahoma City. One of our LifeGroup (Sunday School) emphases over the past 6 months has been to adopt an unreached people group. Thirty-one (31) of our groups have adopted an unreached people group.

Sunday was also a special annual mission emphasis at Northwest, called the Global Impact Conference. As part of the conference, and just before our guest speaker Dr. Gordon Fort spoke, we took seven minutes to pray for the 31 people groups our church has adopted.

Northwest has been a pilot church for the 6426 Project. One of the things that I have learned while at Northwest is that every 4-6 weeks, you need to do something to elevate the emphasis of prayer to your small groups who have adopted an unreached people group. It’s biblical too! Halfway through building the wall around Jerusalem (28 days), Nehemiah had a rally to refocus the people on their priorities!

We had a fellowship in the gym after the morning worship service. I was stopped by so many people who recommitted themselves and their LifeGroup to continue to pray for their unreached people group.

Pastors, educators, Sunday School directors and teachers: your small groups or Sunday School need a cause. They need a bigger vision than just meeting on Sunday or whenever. They need and want to be part of a Gospel centered movement!

If your group has not adopted an unreached people group, you can register here and a people group will be sent to you within a few days.

If your group has adopted an unreached people group, I want to encourage you to keep your commitment and pray for your group every week during small group, and daily in your prayers.

Resources, such as:

Bookmarks,
Posters,
Bulletin inserts,

are available here on the right side bar. You can download the resource and print it yourself, or complete the request form and receive them from my office.

Categories : 6426 Ideas, Missions, The 6426 Project

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Jan

IMB Resource for Unreached People Groups

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (0)

Our partners in the 6426 Project, the International Mission Board (IMB), have developed an interactive tool to help you gather information about your adopted people group. To view this interactive website, go here.

When you registered for your people group, you received both the name of your adopted group, and also a number. You can enter the number of your adopted people in the space at the bottom of the screen on the website and it will take you directly to the information IMB has about your group.

My office at the BGCO has been flooded with requests from Sunday School classes and small groups registering to adopt an unreached people group for one year. We are thrilled with the response from Oklahoma Baptists to impact the lives of people all over the world who have yet to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If your Sunday School class has not yet adopted an unreached people group, you can register to adopt one right now by going here.

Categories : 6426 Ideas, Missions, The 6426 Project

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Jan

6426 Project Guest Post

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (0)

Our article today is written by Reed Lynn, Director of Missions for the Pittsburg Baptist Association. This article originally appeared in the association’s newsletter and as soon as I read I thought, “I couldn’t have said it better myself!” For those of us who serve in our state conventions, we know how vital it is to work in partnership with our DOM’s and the valuable contribution that they make to advance the Kingdom. Thanks Reed for all you do and for giving me permission to reprint your article!

_______________

I am excited about an opportunity all of us can take advantage of. I am referring to The 6426 Project. What is it all about? Mission strategists have identified 6,426 unreached people groups in the world. These groups constitute more than 2 billion people who have yet to hear the gospel. Jesus told us to take the gospel to every person. Shame on us; it hasn’t happened yet.

Jesus said that the gospel would be preached to all peoples before the end. John saw a multitude before the throne in Revelation 5 made up of people from every people group. How do they get there? They accept Christ in response to the gospel presentation. This is a gap we desperately need to bridge.

This is a daunting task, and how can we get started? The 6426 Project is both brilliant and simple. When you hear it, you’ll say “Why didn’t I think of that?” The first step in any undertaking for God must always be prayer. The 6426 Project challenges every class in Oklahoma to adopt an unreached people group to pray for. Prayer prepares the “soil” to hear the gospel. Prayer results in laborers hearing God’s call to the harvest. Prayer causes God’s people to give sacrificially to finance the harvest. All of these things are necessary and only God can accomplish them.

Oklahoma Baptists are partnering with the International Mission Board to supply names and locations of all 6,426 people groups. Pastors, challenge your Sunday School teachers to lead their class to adopt an unreached people group for prayer. Teachers, lead your class to be part of this great effort for souls, and tell your pastor that your class wants an unreached people group that you can pray for each Sunday.

Each class needs someone, the teacher if possible, who has an email address. Classes are encouraged to get on the internet or go to the library and research their people group. Your church should have already received a packet of 50 bookmarks, which is about the size of the average number of people in an Oklahoma Baptist church. More bookmarks are available by calling 405-942-3000, ext 4656, or at sundayschool@bgco.org. Worship guides and posters with suggestions on how to pray for your people group are available.

You need to register your class online at www.bobmayfield.com/6426project. You can also register by email at sundayschool@bgco.org or by phone at 405-942-3000, ext. 4656.

Every Sunday School class in Pittsburg Association can be part of this effort. This is something all of us can do. If we can’t pray for lost people across the world let’s be honest and say that we don’t believe in the Great Commission anymore. Let’s adopt a people group and do it for Jesus and for souls.

___________________

To adopt an unreached people group through the 6426 Project, go here.

Categories : Missions, The 6426 Project

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Dec

A Challenge for Oklahoma

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (0)

The following is an editorial I wrote for the Baptist Messenger this week about The 6426 Project.
___________________________

Imagine a way where 300,000 saints could impact eternity on every single continent, in every single country on earth. Imagine bringing the Gospel to over 2 billion people who are living in places that have yet to be penetrated by the good news of Jesus Christ. Picture 20,000 Sunday School classes united in prayer for these unreached groups of people every Sunday! Now, imagine this happening, not years into the future, but right now!

In 2011, Oklahoma Baptists are daring to go where no one has ever trod before. For the first time that we are aware of, a concerted, full-court press is being launched to pray evangelistically for all of the world’s 6,426 unreached people groups in a thorough, organized manner that will impact lostness on every continent on the planet!

Our Sunday School and small groups ministries, working alongside the International Mission Board (IMB), have developed The 6426 Project. The goal of this project is to have Sunday School classes and small groups across Oklahoma adopt an unreached people group. Over the course of a year, the class will not only pray for their group on Sunday, but also research their group so that they can pray more accurately and effectively for the needs of their adopted people. The IMB has even said that classes can send their research to them so that they can better prepare future missionaries for the field.

This is a great challenge for our convention, but it is a challenge that I believe that we are ready to take. The question is: how can we pull off such an ambitious undertaking? Not by creating another organization, but by engaging each church at its most basic level – its Sunday School or small group structure. As we move forward into the 21^st century, it is imperative that we get more people involved in mission. Most churches already have an organization in which almost all of their members belong, a Sunday School class. Most classes I know would love to be integrally involved in helping the church carry out its mission to its community and world.

We need to reconsider the practicality of how we are carrying out the Great Commission. The phrase “all nations” in the Great Commission really means “all people groups”. The Great Commission does not say, “Sunday School classes make disciples at home while missionaries make disciples of people who are overseas.” The commission is clear: make disciples of all peoples. Therefore, we are all missionaries. In essence, we are shortchanging our people with a shortsighted interpretation of the Great Commission. Most classes that I know would love for their church to value them enough to put them on the frontlines of the church’s mission.

Oklahoma Baptists, we can do this! We are simply asking 6,426 classes or groups from all over Oklahoma to adopt a people group for one year. Church size and location does not matter. The size or age of your group does not matter. What does matter is the willingness and commitment of each class to pray for their group and learn enough about them to pray specifically. We need to do this, not because it will make our classes stronger and grow up disciples in our groups. We need to do this because it is the right thing to do. We need to do this because biblically, we are part of God’s mission to bring the Gospel to every lost soul on the planet. All of us, because we are all missionaries of the Gospel of Christ.

We have the names and locations of all 6,426 people groups on file in the Sunday School office at the BGCO. To participate and request a people group, contact the Sunday School office at 405-942-3800 ext. 4656, or email us at sundayschool@bgco.org. Pastors and teachers can contact us to request a group. The information we need is the name of the class teacher, pastor’s name, church name, and teacher’s email address. People groups will not be duplicated, so if your class requests a group, that people group will not be assigned to another class. The BGCO can also be contacted for resources such as bookmarks, posters, bulletin inserts, and suggestions of how your class can pray for their adopted people group.

Categories : BGCO, Missional, The 6426 Project

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Dec

10 Ideas to Give to Lottie Moon

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (1)

My friend (and former professor) Dr. Chuck Lawless has been tweeting ideas about how to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. This offering is a vital part of our Southern Baptist mission to bring the Gospel to every corner of the earth. I often find people who want to know how much they should give. My glib response is, “all you can”. Dr. Lawless is much more creative than I am. Listed below are his 10 giving suggestions:

1. Give to God’s mission the equivalent of $$ spent for Christmas presents. Spend on what matters.

2. Give 25¢, 50¢, 75¢, or $1.00 per unreached people group (@ 6,426 groups). Billions need to hear.

3. Give the amount needed to cover one week’s costs to send a missionary — @ $845.00. They sacrifice much for the Great Commission.

4. Give Lottie Moon Christmas gifts in honor of someone you love. Most of us need little else; the world needs the gospel.

5. Give $25, $50, $100 for every year you’ve been a Christian. You’ll still never match what God gave for us.

6. Let the Word motivate you to give. We really have no other option. (Listen to Thanksgiving Without Giving Is Only A Word from 11/21/2010)

7. Give in honor of the one who shared Christ with you. Give because you have been one of the privileged ones to hear.

8. Remember your largest gift given to ANY need — then add 10% to that amount. Give more to LM than ever.

9. Give 10% of your church’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal. If 9 others join you, you’ve met the goal. If more than 9 join you, PTL!!

10.Give 1 penny 4 every new believer baptized thru IMB work last year (@500,000). The return will be worth it.

You can give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering through your local church.

Categories : Missions, The 6426 Project

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Dec

Lottie Moon – Reaching 6426 People Groups

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (0)

My denomination (Southern Baptist) is in the middle of its annual Lottie Moon Christmas offering for international missions. About half of our annual investment in missions comes out of this annual offering, so suffice it to say it is very important to our effort to impact lostness worldwide.

This past year the SBC has had an involved and prolonged debate over missions and mission giving. In my opinion, no matter which side of the argument you agree with, we probably agree that it takes money to send missionaries and resources to unreached people groups around the planet and our annual offering to the IMB’s Lottie Moon Christmas offering is vital to our global mission effort.

I want to encourage everyone to support the vision to reach the 6,426 unreached people groups across the world by giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering through your local church.

Categories : Missions, The 6426 Project

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Dec

6426 Project and Lottie Moon

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (1)

This week I am running a five day series of posts to encourage my Southern Baptist brothers and sisters to give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. This offering represents about half (50%) of all funding our denomination puts into world missions and evangelism.

In my opinion, my generation has not done a good job of “passing the torch” to the following generations about Lottie Moon and this incredibly powerful way to support missions. By the way, 100% of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goes to the field. No administrative costs are deducted from the offering.

This year (2011), we are asking Oklahoma Sunday Schools and small groups to adopt one of the 6,426 unreached people groups for one year. We are coordinating this effort to involve every Oklahoma small group in missions through the International Mission Board’s theme to share the Gospel with all 6,426 unreached people groups. Yes, we want to give money to support worldwide missions, but we also want to get involved personally. If your class or group would like to adopt one of these groups, you can register online here.

I hope you check by each day this week and invite some of your friends to view the blog this week too. I know that many of my page views are from Sunday School teachers and/or directors. My suspicion is that many of the people participating in our groups know very little about Lottie Moon. If our folks did know about this tremendous opportunity to help spread the Gospel around the world, then surely we would give more than $10 per member to Lottie! (15 million Southern Baptists give about $150 million/year to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering).

Categories : Missions, The 6426 Project

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Dec

Missional Sunday School – Cause

By Bob Mayfield · Comments (4)

I sense a growing movement of unrest in Sunday School today. It is not just with leaders in the movement, it is a sense of unrest that finds its roots in the people who belong to Sunday School classes or groups all over our country. Simply stated, there has got to be more to Sunday School than sitting in a class for the rest of my life!

There is! Your Sunday School group is meant to be more than a holding tank for the saints. Your group is actually how your church is organized to carry out its mission to make disciples of all people groups all over the world. I hope that is a big enough challenge for you!

Simply put, your Sunday School or small group is how your church is supposed to be organized to fulfill the Great Commission. You do this, not by having designer coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts in your groupmeeting every week, but by organizing your group to reach out into your community and your world with the Gospel of Christ.

Did you really think that sitting in a huddle once a week in Bible study was your group’s ultimate reality? Your group’s cause (and ultimately your personal cause) is to be the hands and feet of Jesus in your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, and around the planet.

I am winding up an interim as the education minister at Northwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. We have challenged our LifeGroups (Sunday School groups) to go beyond the Sunday morning huddle. We are asking each LifeGroup to do the following five things:

Minister to everyone in the group every week (proactive rather than reactionary ministry)
Adopt an unreached people group (the 6426 Project)
Adopt a homeroom at a nearby middle school
Start a new group
Lead at least one person to Christ this year

While the first challenge is focused on ourselves (ministering to each other), the remaining four all address reaching out to other who are unchurched. Three of these challenges require the group to organize itself for mission in the neighborhood and beyond.

We call it “missional Sunday School”. Missional Sunday School is more than just organizing your groups to do missions, although that is part of it. First, missional Sunday School is about a strategy to impact lostness across the street and across the world through the church’s small group structure. Second, missional Sunday School is about turning members into missionaries. Ultimately, we want to impact lostness with the Gospe, but we also want to impact church members with the Gospel as well. I believe that this latter challenge is missing in many of our church’s small group strategies. The Gospel is not just the diving boa

Categories : 5 C's of Missional Community, SS/small groups, The 6426 Project

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