The Greater Significance of SAT-7

[I ask] …that they may become per­fect­ly one, so that the world may know that you sent me (John 17:23b)

In the PAK7 team, we often speak of the “John 17 mod­el” of doing Chris­t­ian work, but what does that real­ly mean? And what is the sig­nif­i­cance of it?

The John 17 mod­el refers to Jesus’ prayer for his Church, in which he asks the Father that she may be one so that the world will know that the Father sent the Son. In Jesus’ mind, this uni­ty is an essen­tial con­di­tion for the effec­tive wit­ness of his Church.

It is incon­ceiv­able that God the Father will not grant God the Son’s request to ful­fill their great redemp­tive plan for this world. Not only will God the Father answer this inspired prayer, He has already begun to do so. In 1995, God used Dr. Ter­ence Ascott to bring togeth­er Protes­tant, Catholic, Ortho­dox and Renew­al branch­es of Christ’s Church to pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for the Church in the Mid­dle East and North Africa to wit­ness to Jesus Christ. When we see the devel­op­ment of SAT-7 in the larg­er con­text of God’s great redemp­tive plan being worked out in his­to­ry, we real­ize that SAT-7 has sig­nif­i­cance beyond that of media min­istry in the Mid­dle East. An awak­ened Church which can demon­strate the gospel of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion she pro­claims is what Jesus envi­sions.