From Everywhere to Everywhere - Global Missions at My Front Door

Minister Mark TianXiang Zhou

---

Some people ask: What is missions?

Missions can be a goal — for example, the concept of the 10/40 Window raised at the 1989 Lausanne Conference, referring to the 5.2 billion people living in that region, 70% of whom have never heard the gospel. Missions can also be a role model — such as Hudson Taylor, who at the age of 21 left his hometown in England and served in China for 51 years, devoting his whole life to China and the gospel.

But more importantly, missions is a cross-generational, cross-geographical calling. Jesus said in Matthew 28:18–20:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…”

This passage clearly tells us: missions is a calling for every Christian, entrusted by the risen Christ before His ascension — not only a calling for a few “professional missionaries.” For a long time, when the church mentioned “missions,” what came to mind were distant countries, unfamiliar languages, and missionaries crossing the oceans. We pray for them, support them, and see them as examples. Yet today, “the nations” have already come to us.

Missions today is undergoing deep transformation. It is no longer just from West to East, nor merely a highly specialized ministry. It is becoming more local and more connected. In 1960, about 1 in 20 people in the U.S. was foreign-born. Today, about one in five people in the U.S. speaks a language other than English at home. In our cities, neighborhoods, and campuses, people from India, Latin America, and many Muslim-majority countries live, study, and work alongside us. The mission fields we once could not reach — now they are at our doorstep.

However, more opportunity does not automatically result in more action. We may pass by immigrant neighbors, international students, or colleagues from other nations every day, yet never truly get to know them — much less share life and faith with them. Missions is also a revolution of influence — Christ calls us, as witnesses of His resurrection, to bring the gospel to those we are able to influence.

Today’s missions is like the continual upgrading of the internet age: shifting from centralized to networked, from one-way broadcasting to interactive communication, from fixed locations to everywhere access. The history of the internet mirrors the transformation of missions — from professional to widespread participation, from distant lands to nearby relationships, from geographic limitation to “anywhere.”

“From Everywhere to Everywhere” calls us to move from merely seeing to acting. Missions does not always mean traveling far away — it begins where we already have influence: my home, my school, my workplace, my circles of friends. It may look like an invitation, companionship, a shared meal, a relationship, a timely testimony, or ongoing prayer. Truly, the world is right beside us.

When we open our homes and our hearts, and love others with the love of Christ — getting to know them and entering their world — the gospel is no longer only “spoken,” but “lived out.” Just as Christ became flesh and entered our world, today He calls us to enter the worlds of others.

As we again use this same theme for the 2026 Missions Conference, it is not because we lack new slogans, but because we are still learning to obey this calling. May God grant us spiritual eyes to see the harvest fields around us;

give us humble hearts to love those who are different from us;

and give us courage to bring the gospel wherever we are able to influence.

Because truly — the world is at our doorstep.