Sitting at Table 71 at the RAI in Amsterdam, we were getting more agitated as the days progressed. We were being confronted with the unfinished Great Commission task of discipling all the nations.

Our table leader Steve Douglass stated that it was a reproach on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that 2,000 years later there are still whole unreached people groups (UPGs) in the world who have not yet heard the Good News. Looking around the table, he realized that most of us were doers, not willing to sit around theorizing while the task could be completed.

"Let's just do it" was adopted as our marching order. "No more UPGs" became our motto. I.E. Let's work together to see that every unreached people group is adopted with the goal of initiating church planting movements among them.

The Mission Strategists' Task Force

You may be asking, "Dan, what were you doing at Billy Graham's Amsterdam 2000 conference for preaching evangelists?" The answer is, I was invited by Dawn Ministries to serve on the Mission Strategists' task force with about 520 others from 122 nations of the world. What a privilege! The room was filled with the "who's who" of the mission world. I was with people I had never imagined I'd meet and being stretched in my thinking and commitment just by being around them.

Inspiring stories were told of dramatic transformations in several mission organizations. The International Mission Board had its missionaries stop asking, "What are we to do?" and start asking, "What needs to be done?" The Jesus Video of Campus Crusade group went from asking, "What language should we dub the video in next?" to acknowledging, "We are responsible for the Jesus video being in all the major languages of the earth right now!" The Foursquare Church had shifted in focus to become a missional organization during the first six months of Jared Roth's leadership. We were also told at what great cost behind the scenes these changes took place. What paradigm shifts should we be making? Are we willing to pay the price?

One of the "big words" for the mission strategists was "church planting movements." Southern Baptists seem to be leaders in this thought. Another "big word" was "partnerships." Phill Butler of Interdev was one of the leaders of our task force and implanted the vision for getting more done better through partnerships. And for us to whom the Great Commission is central, a final "big word" was "unreached, untargeted, unadopted peoples." Two hundred and fifty-three whole peoples of ten thousand to multiple millions of persons were still without the Gospel and a church planting movement. Until Amsterdam 2000, no one had even targeted these particular groups to reach them and start church planting movements among them.

Table 71 is born

On Friday, August 4th, those in the mission strategists' task force were invited to "adopt" unreached peoples. About 153 were adopted by people all over the room; the last 100 were adopted by a new partnership that formed at the table where I was sitting, Table 71. Leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ, Youth With A Mission, Dawn Ministries, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, World Teach/Walk Thru The Bible, Wycliffe and Dan Grether from Free Indeed Ministries International/Mission Spokane were at Table 71.

Earlier that day Bruce Wilkinson of World Teach/Walk Thru The Bible had shared his personal testimony with the Mission Strategists. The Lord had called him to a more complete obedience to the Great Commission by saying, "You must take personal responsibility for the completion of the Great Commission, the discipling of all the nations of the earth." When Bruce said, "Yes, Lord!" everything about his ministry changed, no longer growing incrementally, but exponentially. They are now entering a new nation every three weeks and training enough Bible teachers to teach throughout that nation. Bruce challenged us to answer the same call from the Lord. May our responses to the Lord bear the same quality and quantity of fruit in our lives that it has born in his!

Previously, I had a vision of Spokane impacting some of the rest of the world. The vision was indistinct and incomplete. I now have vision of Spokane impacting the rest of the world systematically---all the peoples and nations of the world. It is similar to what Bill Bright says, "Let's zero in… on the world!"

Please notice that I said "Spokane impacting… all the peoples." Every other person interacting at Table 71 led a major organization, which was already working around the world. They had personnel and finances to work with. I was the leader of Free Indeed Ministries and one leader on the fledgling Mission Spokane city reaching team, but we had neither the people nor the financial resources that the other organizations could bring to the Table.

I fretted all evening and until our last meeting on Saturday about whether Spokane should be at the Table. I finally admitted to Steve Douglass that all I had to bring to the Table was a city. And that bringing a city would not be easy. Quick-witted as he is, Steve welcomed the Church of Spokane at the Table because he knew that a city church could marshal many resources. Much later it became apparent to me that the three other cities that would be logical partners are Vancouver BC, Seattle WA and Portland OR.

If I thought it would be hard to bring the resources of one city to the task, I was unprepared for the challenge that Bruce Wilkinson handed me at a later Table 71 meeting. "Are you willing to bring three other cities to the task, Dan?" Believing that it couldn't be any more impossible to bring four cities online than one, I said, "Yes."

It was a privilege sitting at Table 71 during the fifteen hours we mission strategists met---and the extra time that Table 71 met. I would call it a "God-sized divine appointment." I learned a lot just watching Mark Anderson of YWAM's Impact World Tours, Steve Douglass of Campus Crusade and Bruce Wilkinson of World Teach. They each lead a mission organization with hundreds or thousands of missionaries dedicated to reaching this world for Christ. Mark is a man of passion who weeps for every city he flies over. Steve is a brilliant man, focused and forceful in leadership for the kingdom. Bruce is also a visionary with teaching skills adequate to helping the rest of us work out the visions the Lord has given us.

Have you ever noticed that people tend to "notch up" to the level of those around them? That is what happened to me at Table 71. It was "elevator up" time to a new level of leadership. I came away believing that Free Indeed Ministries and Mission Spokane are called to do greater things than I had ever imagined. Please pray for us that we will know how to proceed at the Lord's command. Should we continue to be a part of the partnership that began forming at Table 71 on behalf of Spokane? Will the Church of Spokane become more willing than ever to engage the unfinished task among all the peoples of the world?

Fast Forward to Spokane 2005

Yes, Dan Grether has continued to represent Mission Spokane and Free Indeed Ministries on the Table 71 mission partnership for the last frontier unreached peoples. More importantly, Yes, the Church of Spokane is more alive than ever in its growing focus on the "UPGs" that still need to be reached.

Lord, may we live out fully the Genesis 12:3 Abrahamic Covenant, "blessed to bless the nations."

Download this report as a MS Word file

See also: Finising the Task: Spokane's Investment in Unreached People Groups