Where Are We Now?

This piece builds on a model developed by Ralph Winter1. It looks at the three eras of mission he described and then updates that model to represent the current reality of the world.

Virtually from the beginning, the church has wrestled with what task or tasks are the most urgent and therefore deserve the greatest number of workers and financial support. This situation remains.

First Era””Coastlands 

The first era of modern mission focused on the coastlands. A map of the Christian population in 1800 reveals that the majority of Christians were in Europe, the East Coast of the United States, the Mediterranean, India, South Africa, and a few other isolated places basically along sea trade routes.

William Carey”s call to the church was to go to the coastlands of every continent, plant churches, establish schools and hospitals, translate the Scripture into the local languages, become involved in the social issues and structures that oppressed and exploited people, and however possible obey the church”s mandate to be salt and light in a community. Today we refer to this as holistic mission or “kingdom missiology.”2

Second Era””Inland Regions

The second era focused on the inland regions. Some believed the task was complete toward the end of the first era because the church existed on every continent. Hudson Taylor helped spotlight for the church the vast inland regions untouched by the gospel; these regions would remain untouched so long as the church continued to do only first era-style mission.

Taylor, like Carey, introduced new missiological concepts, such as basing mission decision making in the field, closer to the work; allowing women as full partners in mission; adopting the lifestyle and dress of those the missionaries were trying to reach; and preaching and teaching in the language of the targeted people.

Third Era””Unreached Peoples

The third era focused on social and cultural differences. Winter introduced the idea of hidden peoples, homogeneous units (HUP), and what eventually became known as unreached peoples that defined this era. During his work in Guatemala, Cameron Townsend noticed that while many people could speak Spanish, they discussed important matters of life in their mother tongue or heart language. Donald McGavran, working in India, noticed the various strata of society. He was especially interested in the caste system that tended to be exclusionary. He sought ways to build bridges of God across these socio/linguistic barriers. The result became the HUP that greatly influenced unreached peoples theory.

We should note that transitions between eras are rarely easy. While some advocated for the newer ways of reaching the world for Christ, others fought to hang on to the old ways and a world that no longer existed (or would soon be much different). The result was a predictable tension. Rather than seeing the transition as an opportunity to include the best from all previous experiences and an opportunity to include the best missiological lessons learned and form a new way of doing mission, they fought to hold on to the old ways long after they had ceased to be effective. I hope we have learned from this history, because we are in one of the major transitions right now.

As we move into the fourth era, we must rethink the task at hand. The central question is, where are the frontiers today? Increasingly they are located in the urban cities, particularly in the Global South.

Fourth Era””Urban Ministry

This brings us to the fourth era, urban ministry. Today more than 50 percent of the world”s population lives in urban areas, often in very poor, unsanitary conditions. There have been several attempts to identify where the greatest need is located. Recent studies show we can effectively combine strategies from multiple eras in this fourth era of mission. We must do so.

The urban cities of our world present a unique opportunity. We must look at our world in a new way. For example, for 20 years we have been transitioning from an unreached peoples strategy to an urban strategy. This transition continues to have its share of tension. The unreached peoples strategy worked fairly well in rural and tribal settings. So the challenge is to find those parts of the unreached peoples strategy that will work well in the urban context, as well as identifying and implementing new strategies.

We need to realize that urban peoples form identity in a variety of ways, and not just along linguistic or tribal lines. We should also recognize that representatives of a majority of the remaining unreached peoples are located in the urban cities of the Global South. A shift in strategies must reflect this modern reality in our world.

We also need to redefine mission. For more than 200 years, mission has been misunderstood as the sending of missionaries from the West to the Majority World and, as a result, the West has assumed control and power. Most recent studies have shown the traditional mission fields of the world are also a sending base today. Today”s reality could be described as “from everywhere to everywhere.”

The New Paradigm 

The issue of “hanging on” to the old for too long has been evident in every transition, and it is true in this one. We must adjust our training, mission budget, short-term mission trips, and so forth, to meet this great urban need. If we fail to do so, we will betray the more than 3 billion unreached people in the cities of our world who cannot hear the gospel in a way that allows them to understand or accept it. We must become aware of strategies that are unique to each city and to each group within each city.

There are no cookie-cutter strategies here, but boots-on-the-ground analysis. This fourth era may well be described as the “era of incarnational ministry,” where servant leaders live among the people and demonstrate the kingdom of God in their midst.

Theological Concerns

Understanding where we are at present is the first step in becoming aware of what has been done, what is being done, and what remains to be done. The second step is to understand the theological foundations upon which all strategies are based.

One example will illustrate. A “theology of closure” is present in some mission strategists” thinking, especially third era strategists. (Space does not allow me to develop this fully.) Many believe the defining verse in mission strategy is Matthew 24:14: “And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come” (New Revised Standard Version). This verse, we should note, is given as one of the signs of Jesus” return””there are others also, but after a lengthy list, Jesus gives this positive sign.

Those who advocate a closure theology use this verse as a prerequisite for the second coming of Christ; the implication is that somehow, through our efforts, we can “trigger” the second coming of Christ. This is presumptive arrogance at best. This theology says, “All we have to do is have Christians in every identifiable people group on earth.” Massive databases are being coordinated to make sure we haven”t left anyone out.

We should be very careful with this interpretation. Certainly every “people” will be given the opportunity to hear the gospel, and be represented in the throne room of Heaven. But this verse does not say they are all alive at the very same time. We also must realize that our databases look at current reality only, and do not reflect if peoples were reached at any prior time in history.

Here are four brief examples.

North Africa“”During the first six centuries of the church”s expansion, North Africa was among the most evangelized areas. Yet later North Africa became mostly Islamic. Several reasons have been suggested. One of the most popular is that when the Islamic people came, the Romans and the Carthaginians had options, so they went back home in large numbers. The indigenous peoples, the Berbers, did not have the same options, so they stayed and became Islamic. In 600 years of missionary activity in North Africa, the church had not translated Scripture into the Berber language””and it didn”t until 1980! The church was not truly indigenous.

Islam settled in quickly among the Berber peoples of North Africa. But are there Berbers in Heaven? Very likely so””even though many of our databases show otherwise.

Arabia“”At one point the three strongest peoples in the Arabian Peninsula were mostly Christian. Yet the church and the Scriptures remained in Latin for six centuries! So were there any Christians among these peoples during this period in history? The answer must be yes. But Islam took over within a short period of time. Today most peoples of Arabia are listed as unreached.

Persia“”The Persian church was strong prior to the fourth century. Constantine”s Edict of Tolerance in 313 may have helped ease the persecution in the Western church, but it created severe persecution in the Eastern church that now saw Christians as spies of Rome. Evidently there were enough Christians in Persia to create a level of concern that helped lead to persecution.

Today Persia is a region where many unreached peoples are located. But history shows there were a great number of Christians among these peoples, even if you just consider the list of martyrs.

China“”We know the gospel reached China by AD 635. It may have died out around 900, but then was re-established under Mongol rule. For example, the most powerful of the Mongol rulers, including Kublai Kahn, had Christian wives. Here is the question: to what extent was China evangelized during the different periods of history? We don”t precisely know the answer, but we know there were Christians, maybe in large numbers, in China at various times in history. Yet many peoples in China are listed today as unreached.

The Throne Room of Heaven

Those who advocate a theology of closure tie the previously cited Matthew 24:14 with Revelation 7:9: “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (NRSV). Both verses offer a glimpse into the future. One is a sign, and the other is a picture at the very end, when all things are made new, shalom.

John is explicit in his description in Revelation. There are representatives from every tribe, nation, language, and people group on earth represented. All these representatives are united in worship to the Lamb, who alone is worthy of their worship and worthy of opening the scroll.

This is our goal in world evangelization: to see that the lost are found; that people are discipled and brought into worshipping, serving communities of believers; and that ministry in their midst leads to meeting all of human needs””all that Jesus came to do and teach, not just our favorites. The result is a spectacular worship service in the throne room of Heaven.

Exercising Care

One point is obvious: the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all nations, and then the end will come. Can we alter the timetable through our efforts? Care needs to be applied when answering this question. We dare not let our enthusiasm get ahead of sound biblical theology in an attempt to count down the remaining unreached people groups on a tote board; they may already have representatives in the throne room of Heaven.

This calls the church to a holistic ministry””kingdom missiology””including the
intimacy of evangelism, cross-cultural church planting, discipleship, Bible translation, social justice, and caring for creation. To leave out any of these ministries means we are no longer involved in holistic or kingdom missiology. All aspects of the church”s ministry, and therefore the biblical mandate, to the world must be included in order to truly claim we are holistic in our mission efforts.

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1Ralph D. Winter was the founder and director of the U.S. Center for World Mission, a mission think tank that was largely responsible for the further development of McGavran”s Homogeneous Unit Principle that greatly influenced the Unreached Peoples concept.

2For a more complete treatment of “kingdom missiology,” see the “Introduction: Navigating the Waters in the River of God,” by Stephen E. Burris and Kendi Howells Douglas, in River of God: An Introduction to World Mission (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2012).

Stephen E. Burris serves as research missiologist with Christian Missionary Fellowship, International (cmfi.org) in Indianapolis, Indiana.