The father of the modern Olympic Games was Pierre de Courbertin, a French aristocrat who became very interested in physical education. He believed organized sports in French schools could create moral and social strength. He was enamored with the ancient Greek view of sports, and he championed the idea of reviving the Olympics, which had ended in the fourth century. Courbertin’s dream became a reality with the first Olympics of the modern era, held in Athens in 1896.

It was Courbertin who chose the official Olympic motto: “Citius, Altius, Fortius,” a phrase he borrowed from a friend of his, a Dominican priest named Henri Didon. The words are Latin for: “Faster, Higher, Stronger.”

Over a hundred years later, the International Olympic Committee changed the motto by adding one word: “Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter.”

Faster! Higher! Stronger! Together!

The additional term was intended to highlight the unifying power of athletics and sports in a world divided by nationalism, fragmentation, and war. Those words also serve as an appropriate motto for those of us involved in the propagation of the Gospel.

FASTER: The Urgency to Reach the World

How do we need to reach the world for Christ? We need to do it faster! The time to reach the world is now before the Lord’s return. The task is urgent. Statisticians tell us that more than sixty million people die on earth each year. In the next hour, nearly seven thousand people will enter eternity. How many of them were able to hear the Gospel?

We used to think of unreached people groups as remote tribes needing the Gospel. And they still need the Good News. But in post-Christian America and Europe, many people are totally unfamiliar with the story of the Bible. The West is becoming a Gospel mission field.

Each of us—like a participant in a solo sport—has a race to run in the work of the Kingdom. Learning to initiate Gospel conversations is a vital skill for believers.

Steve Foster is a Georgia evangelistic worker who teaches others how to start Gospel discussions with their friends. Recently Steve held a training session in a particular church that was undergoing renovations. A group of construction workers took a lunch break, and Foster wanted to demonstrate the fact that opportunities to witness for Christ are often right under our noses. He grabbed a handful of brochures and approached the lunch table. He told them he had been in the church teaching others to share the best news in the world. And he said, “It would be wrong for me to teach others and walk past [you] and not share Jesus.” Steve took a moment to tell them how much Jesus loved us and all that He did in dying for our sins. Giving them each a brochure, he asked them to read the simple material and “never forget that a stranger stopped and told them about the love of Jesus.”1

It was as simple as that, but Steve followed up by praying that his brief witness would become part of the process in some or all of those men finding Christ. When the Holy Spirit prompts us to start a Gospel conversation, we can be sure He will use it with people whom we may never see again. That’s why the Bible tells us to make the most of every opportunity (Ephesians 5:16, NIV).

HIGHER: The Mindset to Reach the World

As we reach out to the world, we need to keep our mind on the ultimate goal for ourselves and for them—heaven. Sometimes we’re accused of being so heavenly minded we’re of no earthly good. But I want to suggest if we aren’t heavenly minded, we’ll be of limited earthly good. Colossians 3:1 says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.”

The apostle Paul thought of the eternal value of those he won to Christ. On one occasion he was writing to friends in the city of Thessalonica whom he had won to Christ. He told them, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19)

Oh, the joy of spotting someone in heaven whom you won to Christ on earth. Perhaps you weren’t even the person who sat beside them when they prayed to receive Jesus as Savior, but you were one of those who contributed a word of witness along the way. Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Few people receive Christ the first time they hear about Him. It takes repeated touches with the Gospel. I believe when we get to heaven, we’ll somehow know those through the ages who brought the message of Jesus to us and helped lead us to Him. And others will realize that we had a part in helping them arrive in heaven too.

Take a moment and imagine going up to someone in heaven who had a part in your conversion and telling them, “Thank you!” And think of someone else tracking you down and saying the same!

STRONGER: The Power to Reach the World

We also need to be stronger in these last days. If we are grounded in the Word of God and anchored in prayer, the Lord will give us strength from beyond ourselves. He’ll supply the power behind our witness. A light bulb is of no value unless connected to a power source. We’re lights in the world, but we have no light of our own. It’s derived from the power of Jesus and channeled to us through the Holy Spirit. He said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me” (Acts 1:8).

In other words, it’s never what we do for Christ but what He does through us.

The British preacher Ian Thomas said, “God calls you to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and by your consent He goes through you into all the world and preaches the gospel to every creature. This is what saves us from the futility of self-effort.”²

When we embrace FASTER by understanding the urgency, when we embrace HIGHER by looking toward heaven and eternity, and when we embrace STRONGER by relying on the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we’re ready to turn the world upside down for Christ as the apostles did (Acts 17:6).

TOGETHER: The Community to Reach the World

But just like the International Olympic Committee, we need to add the word TOGETHER. The Lord sent His disciples two by two, and Paul always had a group of partners around him. Sometimes we have solo events, but by and large evangelism is a team effort.

It starts with our local church. Sometimes the simplest and easiest invitation is asking someone to join you for a special event at church. Dominic Steele is a pastor in Australia who came to Christ after a colleague invited him to church. Steele was a radio journalist at the time, and another journalist, Russell Powell, who also worked in the newsroom, invited him to church. “The first week he invited me, I didn’t go,” recalls Steele. “The second week, I didn’t go. The third week, I didn’t go.” But then he went, and Powell was waiting for him outside the building. After the service, Powell and his wife invited Steele for lunch at their house.³

This was the beginning of the process that led Dominic Steele to the Lord. It didn’t happen overnight, but it might never have happened at all except for a pleasant and persistent invitation.

You can do that too! Invite someone to church!

Beyond that, why not partner with teaching ministries like Turning Point? In this issue of our magazine I want to show you how God is using us all over the world, but it’s a team effort.

I’ve devoted my life to reaching America and the world, but I never dreamed we’d have the open doors and exciting results we’re seeing now. God is moving on this planet. The winds of the Holy Spirit are blowing.

How I want to reach this world faster, higher, stronger, and together—with you!

Sources:

¹ Steve Foster, “Witnessing Opportunities Are Here, There, Everywhere,” The Christian Index, March 4, 2021.

² Major Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2006), 107.

³ Dominic Steele, “Podcast Episode 035: Lessons From a Pastor’s Heart With Dominic Steele,” Centre for Christian Living, November 22, 2019.