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Taking the Gospel to places with legal obstacles
"(The rulers, elders and teachers of the law) called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus." -- Acts 4:18
Creative access / Limited access / Closed countries
There are countries where it is not possible for an expatriate (or foreign) missionary to get a visa. There are countries where church activities are greatly restricted. There are some countries in the world where open evangelism by Christians is unlawful. Churches in areas where they have to meet in secret are sometimes referred to as Underground Churches. Some people have been tempted to think that these countries -- many of which have Islamic or communist governments -- are unreachable.
While fulfilling the Great Commission in those countries can be challenging, it is not impossible. Closed to missionaries does not mean closed to the gospel. That's where the use of the phrase "creative access" comes in. Because the Good News spreads most easily through relationships, there are opportunities for evangelism in even the most difficult of circumstances. Relationships in which the gospel can be shared can be developed by:
- Students from those countries who go to study in another country
- Christian business people whose job has taken them to those countries
- Teachers whose particular specialty is in demand in those countries
- Christian students who go to those countries to study
- Tourists who are able to develop contacts during brief trips to those countries
- Internet contacts
- Literature
- Christian workers imported from third-world countries to do menial jobs
- Christian radio and television broadcasting from nearby countries
Some years ago we talked about various places as "closed" countries. On the surface, it did look like those places were unreached by missionaries. Today's mission strategists use phrases like limited access, restricted access, or creative access areas since, as has been noted, no country is really closed. Even though a country may be on someone's list of "closed countries," the gospel can get in through a variety of ways.
It's hard to come up with a firm list or number of closed or creative access countries. One reason is that any listing of limited access countries by a mission board raises that mission board's visibility to the power structures of those particular countries. As a result, most mission boards working in such countries never talk about them by name or give out lists of what they consider to be creative access countries.
However, I have seen a figure of about 60 countries. These range from the largest country in the world to most of the countries where Islam is the majority religion.
 | What can you do to reach those still unreached? [ read more ] |
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
Copyright © 2002 - Last Updated: April 21, 2010 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/access.htm
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Article by Howard Culbertson. For more original content like this, visit: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert