The Finish Line Podcast Dan Scribner, Director of the Joshua Project, on Defining the Work that Remains for the Great Commission (Ep. 66)
Dan Scribner is Director of the Joshua Project, which he has helped lead since 1995. Dan began college with the typical American dream to have a good job, 2.3 kids, and a white picket fence. However, God got his attention through a campus ministry that began constantly praying for different unreached people groups. As his heart for unreached peoples grew, God began to redirect the rest of his life plans.
Dan and his wife joined Frontier Ventures early on and have been on staff now for 35 years. The Joshua Project, part of Frontier Ventures, was birthed out of the AD 2000 and Beyond movement. The purpose of the project is to create a detailed map of where the gospel is known and where it is yet to be heard.
Dan and his team have watched and mapped some incredible movements of God over the duration of the Joshua project and few people have as wide of a bird’s eye view of how the gospel has moved and how it is moving today. The Joshua Project provides integral information to many of the other ministries we have featured who are in the field working, and everything is accomplished through partnerships.
Dan had plenty to say on a variety of topics including:
- How missions have evolved over the last 30 years
- The barriers to the spread of the gospel today
- Factors accelerating reaching the remaining people groups
- How the Joshua Project maps the current work remaining
- How Dan defines the Great Commission
- How God is unifying the church towards one common goal around the world
Listen now to hear all he had to share!
QUOTES TO REMEMBER- “It’s not about a check list, not about a task… it’s the fact that the creator of the universe is not being worshiped by his creation in a way that is full and complete.”
- “Missions exist because worship does not”
- “Glory of God has to be at the center or else it turns into a task.”
- Frontier Ventures
- Joshua Project
- Commissioned, by Marv Newell
- Let the Nations be Glad, by John Piper
- Global Media Outreach (see our interview with CEO Jeff Gowler)
- The Timothy Initiative (see our interview with CEO, Jared Nelms)
- Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (see our interview with President Bekele Shanko)
- Jesus Film (see our interview with Executive Director Josh Newell)
- Finishing the Task (see our interview with FTT Global Church Planting Strategist Dan Hitzhusen)
- AD 2000 and Beyond
- Billion Soul Harvest
- Transform World
- Vision 59
- Empowered 21
- Unreached of the Day (app)
- The Finish Line Community Facebook Group
- The Finish Line Community LinkedIn Group
Matthew 28:19 | Make Disciples Of All Nations
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Matthew 24:14 | Gospel Proclaimed Throughout World, Then The End Will Come
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
1 Corinthians 12: 4,12 | Many Gifts But One Spirit, Many Members But One Body
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
Romans 11:11-12 | Salvation For Gentiles To Make Israel Jealous
11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.