Teach All Nations
Since the beginning of time, God in His infinite character and wisdom created humanity to naturally imitate eternal matters, such as multiplication, love and relationships. Today, every nation testifies to God’s unfailing faithfulness, being in themselves undeniable evidence that His promise to Abraham so many years ago is being fulfilled. “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” (1)
In an age where multiplication is part of every day life and millions are reached daily with the latest news-breaking stories, how can we be a part of the fulfillment of God’s promises?
Dean Sherman, has devoted years teaching internationally in Discipleship Training Schools within YWAM’s University of the Nations (U of N), and continuously wrestles with such issues, as U of N courses increase in number, school leaders are faced with the ongoing challenge of giving students high quality teachings, knowledge and God-given experiences.
“GENESIS could serve the U of N by having people who are real experts in their field brought into whatever classroom anywhere in the world. We could have the best quality teaching because we could get that person no matter what location they are in.”
“The school and students would be enhanced greatly because they would be able to hear a wider variety of speakers than the normal YWAM location would be able to bring in. In many cases you can only bring in teachers who are maybe from that one culture or of that one area because of the budgetary situations. However, in this way we can have a person who is studying in the first world; for instance, get a Pastor from Zambia, Bolivia or Bangladesh, who otherwise would never be able to hear or be exposed to that perspective.”
Based on Dean’s personal experiences sharing in numerous cross-cultural settings, he does not only imagine this global classroom working simply on an individual school level, but rather envisions it as a practical way sharing God’s truths. He encourages school leaders to think strategically about how they too can be a tool for even more growth and excellence.
“We can reach out and multiply through GENESIS, every school location that has a high enrollment and budget should put each week onto GENESIS so that they can share it with places in the world that do not have a high budget or lots of students, that way we can multiply to hundreds of places that are not viable to have a school on their own.”
Centuries later as God’s promise to Abraham continues to be played out, we are reminded that our challenge isn’t perhaps to multiply to the ends of the earth but rather to “Go and make disciples of all the nations… Teach(ing*) these new disciples to obey all the commands I (Jesus*) have given you.” (2)
(1) NIV – Genesis 26 v 4 (2) New Living Translation – Matt 28 v 19
(*) Italics added by Author
