Getty Music: Facing A Task Unfinished
Facing a Task Unfinished – Keith & Kristyn Getty
Recorded LIVE at Sing! 2019
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The late 1920s was a time of deep darkness for Christians in China. Many believers were persecuted, tortured, and killed. Around half of the missionaries living there departed the country. Yet, though the outlook was bleak, a China Inland Mission worker in his mid-thirties named Frank Houghton was sure that the work must go on. He prayed that God would send 200 believers into the darkness to proclaim the light of Christ. In 1929, he put his pen to paper to write this rallying cry:
"Facing a task unfinished that drives us to our knees
A need that, undiminished, rebukes our slothful ease.
We, who rejoice to know Thee, renew before Thy throne,
The solemn pledge we owe Thee to go and make Thee known."
Houghton’s hymn is just as radical and relevant today as it was then. The task remains unfinished -- yet still we can fall to our knees in prayer to the God who holds history in his hand. As we do, we can look back and see how the Lord has been answering Houghton’s prayers since his hymn was first sung. Over the subsequent decades, millions of people have turned to Christ in China. There is no doubt: God has been and remains powerfully at work. Will we therefore go to all the world, with kingdom hope unfurled? May our generation embrace the glorious task, with this song in our hearts.