On October 3, the second Antioch Summit was held at St.John’s-St.Margaret’s Church (Anglican) where pastors, missions elders and leaders came together in a time of vision-casting, learning and initiative-launching.

Early on in Day 1, much focus was given to reintroducing the Antioch 21 team and reaffirming its goals amidst a context of urgent Gospel need. Indeed, the Leaders’ Track zeroed in on supporting local churches to be missions-sending churches.

Presenting the Antioch 21 Core Team and Board, which comprise of leaders and members from different churches, denominations and organisations, was Strategic Coordinator Rev Ng Zhi-Wen who explained that such diversity in the team is intentional and important because Antioch 21 serves the whole Church for the Decade of Missions.

Rev Ng also affirmed the shared goal to build vibrant communities of Christ followers, especially among the least reached peoples and places, summed up in the Summit’s vision: “Many streams, one direction.”

Speaking at his segment, Pastor Jeff Chong, Chairman of LoveSingapore, added that there remains one wall to be broken – the wall between the churches and missions organisations in Singapore.

He emphasised that in order to bless the nations, local churches have to work with missions organisations.

“I encourage all missions organisations to serve and empower the local churches to be both missional and missions-ready,” he urged. “Work to enable them to send out their own missionaries and missions teams.”

Are youths losing interest in missions?

Young people also popped up as a key topic several times at different parts of Day 1’s programme.

Many church leaders expressed their concern that less than a quarter of missions workers came from those below the age of 40, based on preliminary findings shared by the Singapore Centre for Global Missions.

Against this concerning backdrop, encouraging mission initiatives and ideas were nonetheless being shared throughout Day 1’s programmes and discussions.

Church leaders shared about how they created structures to support their missionaries in foreign countries holistically.

They also discussed how to care for their missionaries in practical ways such as by providing periodical check-ins and counselling services, looking out for their families in Singapore, and even crafting plans for longstanding missionaries to obtain housing when they return from overseas.

And while more information will follow on this topic – the A21 team were also glad to share that they are building a new initiative to support missionaries’ financial needs through their local churches.

Finally, the Q&A segment also saw many church leaders asking how churches can inspire and mobilise youths for missions, demonstrating a willingness to understand and tackle the challenges faced by youths, so as to lower the barrier to entry for missions for younger Christians.

The unfinished task will be finished

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9a)

Touching on the verse above, Pastor Benny Ho summed up the heart behind missions in his devotional sharing: “It’s not just the lostness of people or the brokenness of the world that drives missions. It is the vision of the finished task. The great multitude will come to pass.”

It is a vision from God that produces missional labour that is filled with hope, joy and the expectation that the unfinished task will be finished one day.

“Missions exists because worship doesn’t”

After the Leaders’ Track concluded came the Opening Night as the Main Conference began. But there weren’t teachings, statistics or workshops about missions – it was simply a night of worship unto God in the vein of Revelation 7:9.

Various representatives stood up to lead the congregation in intercession for the unreached in different regions. Standing in the gap for the nations, conference attendees worshipped together in 10 languages including Chinese, Telugu, Kazakh and Arabic.

The Opening Night made it clear that missions itself isn’t the end goal – the great multitude in Revelation 7 is. The goal is to see every people, every nation, every tribe and every tongue standing before the Lamb.

As John Piper sums it up, “Missions exist because worship doesn’t.”

Bringing the night to a close, Jason Chua from Burning Hearts put things into greater perspective.

He shared that Antioch is not just about Singapore as a nation and our performance in global missions – Antioch should be expressed in how each of us lives our lives as a Christ follower in Singapore.

“Antioch is about people who would live out their lives contrary to the culture and system of this age,” he said. “It is about people who would give their lives to God, so that He could use them for His purpose and His plan.”

Would we choose to live beyond our self-interests in response to the mandate of the Great Commission? Would we be people who loved not our lives even unto death (Revelation 12:11)?

May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!

If this article has spoken to you, why not take a first step by finding out more about missions through your local church?