The Finish Line Podcast Dan Hitzhusen, Global Church Planting Strategist from Finishing the Task, on Reaching All Nations with the Gospel by 2033 (Ep. 40)
Dan Hitzhusen is the Global Church Planting Strategist for Finishing the Task. FTT was formed in 2000 to unify the global church and the many parachurch ministries towards the completion of the great commission of making disciples of all nations. In 2000, when FTT was formed, there were about 3,000 of the 12,000 people groups across the planet that remained completely unreached by the gospel. In 2018, that number was down to 1800. And in just the last few years, there are now fewer than 200 groups remaining to be reached.
Dan has worked in over 100 countries, leading multiple major ministries including serving as International VP of e3 Partners and President of Global Missions Fellowship. He has seen lame men walk and blind men regain their sight. And he has a deep passion for unifying the body of Christ around his final command to make disciples of all nations.
Dan laid out a spectacular birds-eye view for us of what God is doing in every corner of the world and what work remains. Even more exciting, he shared countless stories of how the gospel is moving forward at an unprecedented pace thanks to some major developments in recent years.
Dan also explained Finishing the Task’s targeted approach to bringing believers, bibles, and bodies of Christ to all 12,000 people groups by establishing initial believers in every single group, translating the Bible into every language in the world, and establishing a church for every 1,000 people across the planet.
And they want to do it by year 2033.
Listen now to hear Dan’s incredible insight into how God is moving and what work remains.
QUOTES TO REMEMBER- “To unite the body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission”
- “We began to see how to start churches that multiplied.”
- “The momentum right now, in terms of the body of Christ reaching people groups, is phenomenal, just in the last 4 or 5 years.”
- “Rick likes to describe the Great Commission with the 3 B’s: Believers, Bodies (of Christ), and Bibles.”
- “If this is such good news, why has it taken you so long to get it to our village?”
- “COVID has really opened a lot of doors for the gospel.”
- “People are around Jesus first, not their logos, not their organizations.”
- “The technology today gives us the capacity to reach everyone in the world.”
- “One of the biggest barriers right now is knowing where the church is and where the church isn’t.”
- “As you begin to give your treasure away, God tends to multiply it in phenomenal ways.”
- “There’s a lot of money tied up in foundations that isn’t out working now.”
- Finishing the Task
- Campus Crusade
- Josh McDowell
- E3 Partners
- Jesus Film (see our interview with Executive Director Josh Newell)
- The Finishing Fund (see our interview with founder Doug Cobb)
- Rick Warren, Executive Director of Finishing the Task and author of the Purpose Driven Life
- Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (see our interview with President Bekele Shanko)
- Wycliffe Bible Translators (see our interview with CEO John Chesnut)
- IllumiNations Bible Translation Alliance (see our interview with Todd Peterson or John Chesnut)
- The Go Movement
- The Lausanne Movement
- World Evangelical Alliance
- National Christian Foundation (see our interview with President Emeritus, David Wills)
- The Finish Line Community Facebook Group
- The Finish Line Community LinkedIn Group
Revelation 7:9 | Every Tribe, Tongue, and Nation
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
Matthew 28:19-20 | The Great Commission
19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 10:18-20 | You Will Be Brought Before Kings
18 And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
John 17:11 | Jesus’ Prayer for Unity
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
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