Activity: Global Partners

http://people.carleton.edu/~cborn/omeka/Bethlehem_Baptist_Church/BBC_GlobalPartners.jpg

The cover of the 2012 Prayer Packet contains information on all of Bethlehem’s Global Partners. Green dots represent sites where Bethlehem sends missions. 

Bethlehem Baptist Church has a remarkably active missionary encompassed within the church's "Global Outreach Program" that sends members all over the world. The Global Partner’s program has, over time, included families and singles working in Middle Eastern and African countries such as South Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia, as well as Southeast Asia and beyond. The work of these missionaries can range from Bible translation to education to evangelism to church planting (creation of new churches) to leadership & development to radio broadcasting. As of 2024, the church holds a prayer event for its Global Partners, and "the advancement of the Gospel worldwide."1 

  1. "Global Outreach," Bethlehem Baptist, accessed July 9, 2024. https://bethlehem.church/global-outreach/#global-outreach-nurture-program↩

Bethlehem Baptist cites the Bible as the inspiration for its Global Partners program, saying that it calls for Christians to act as evangelists to unbelievers: 

“God is very aggressive in gathering a people for His Son. He calls his people to go make disciples, but He also goes before them. He has a people chosen before His messengers get there… It is an awesome thing that God looks down on all the peoples of the world and names a flock for himself, and then sends missionaries in the name of Christ, and then leads his chosen ones to the sound of the gospel, and then saves them. They could be saved no other way. Missions are essential… Jesus suffered and died so that the sheep could hear his voice and live… Pray that God would apply that mercy to you and that you would hear and live.” – John Piper2 

Yet Bethlehem says that Global Partners must stay humble and recognize that God—not the missionaries—is the driving force behind the conversion of unbelievers.

“The great missionary hope is that when the Gospel is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, God Himself does what man cannot do- He creates faith that saves… God’s call is irresistible in the sense that it can overcome all resistance. It is infallibly effective according to God’s purpose.” – John Piper3 

  1. John Piper,  Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die (Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 111. ↩

  2. John Piper, Desiring God (Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2011), 235. ↩

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A map of mosques in the Twin Cities seen at Bethlehem in 2012. The booklet is intended to help with "effective ministry." 

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"The Gospel for Muslims," which is an "encouragement to share Christ with confidence." 

Relationship with Muslims

At the time of this writing (2012) Bethlehem is particularly interested in converting Muslims. Many of Bethlehem’s Global Partners work in majority-Muslim countries. Several notes from Bethlehem’s Global Partner Prayer Booklet, as of 2012, are quoted below. 

“With the ever-increasing influence of Islam in Africa, and its insistence on an Arabic Qur’an, there is a continuing need for the Bible to be available to every people group in their heart language.” 

“Though Islam portrays itself as a unified whole, in fact, there is great diversity under this religious umbrella. Most have never read their holy book, the Qur’an, and life is lived upon many superstitions. Pray they would have a life-changing encounter with God’s word.”

“Pray for the eyes and hearts of Muslim individuals and families to be opened to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for breakthroughs here in the Twin Cities and across the Muslim world.”