The Finish Line Podcast Ed Michaelson, Founder of the 500k, on Radical Generosity Empowering the Indigenous Church (Ep. 119)
Ed Michaelson, founder of The 500k, was raised in the UK by parents who regaled him with adventurous tales of missionaries for his bedtime stories. As he grew in his relationship with Jesus, he became inspired to become a physician to serve on the mission field. But after a trip to India, Ed realized that his greatest capacity to move the gospel was to empower native missionaries who were already reaching the unreached in that region.
Ed founded the 500k as a pipeline to connect givers in the West with rapidly expanding indigenous church planting movements in India seeking to reach the remaining 500,000 villages that have never heard the name of Jesus. Now with thirteen Bible training centers, over 1,000 missionaries, evangelism training for new Believers, and collaboration with other ministries, this goal is closer than ever to becoming a reality.
Major Topic Include:
- Story of how 500K was born
- The necessity and effectiveness of indigenous missionaries
- The balance between earning to live and earning to give
- Stories from the mission field
- Training new Believers to share the gospel
- Collaborating with other ministries to further the gospel in India
- Keys to effective giving in the mission space
- An exciting look at what can be achieved in fulfilling the Great Commission in the next few years
- The adventure of giving to the point of total dependence on God
- “The thought that people aren’t being sent to unreached villages because of a lack of money is crazy to me because that’s a resource that we do have. And it’s really encouraging because that’s a problem I can easily help with.”
- “Forty percent of all the world’s unreached people are in India.”
- “There is no treasure that compares to knowing Jesus Christ as Lord”
- “If you don’t want Jesus, that’s your choice, but everyone should have that choice.”
- “It puts the things that we call sacrifices into perspective when we see people putting their health, their lives, on the line to share the gospel.”
- “Everyday can be like Christmas when we’re depending on the Lord.”
- 500k
- Joshua Project (see our interview with Director, Dan Scribner)
- Mission India
- The Finishing Fund (see our interview with founder Doug Cobb)
- The Timothy Initiative (see our interview with CEO, Jared Nelms)
- The Finish Line Community Facebook Group
- The Finish Line Community LinkedIn Group
Psalm 34:8 | Taste and See
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
1 Peter 1:18-19 | Redeemed by the Blood
Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Matthew 18:6 | Guarding God’s Little Ones
But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Luke 12:33 | Eternal Treasure
Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
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