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March-April 1994

DIRECTORY

The Editorial Comments of Ralph D. Winter

MF Behind the Scenes

Wycliffe Bible Translators

Scouting Out The Land

Urbana '93

AD2000 Update
Denominational Leaders Commit to Reach All Peoples by AD 2000 at Denominational Summit Dec. 9-11, 1993

Urbana '93

The Muslims have their day!

by David Bogosian

Urbana '93-one of the largest missions conferences ever held was sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in December of last year. Approximately 22,000 delegates and exhibitors attended InterVarsity's mission conference, held in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, for a week of intensive mission mobilization and education. (Dec. 27-Jan 1) InterVarsity is the American branch of IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students). The vibrant explosion of IFES in dozens of countries around the world is one indicator of the growing strength and unity of the World Christian Movement. With mission after mission reporting a decline in recruiting, Urbana 93 is a promising sign of the forces available to rekindle the blaze of missionary fervor seen in the post-WWII generation. But the question remains, will this large potential force be directed into effective, strategic service?

Strengths
An increased emphasis on the Muslim world reached a high point at Urbana 93. The Muslims finally got their turn! This created a sense of urgency long needed to stir students up with a challenging task. The Islamic world was presented as a neglected field, with places such as North Africa, where there is only one missionary for every one million people. As follow-up to the conference, students were asked to pray for thirty days for the Muslim world during the period of Ramadan. Eight seminars were held for the Muslim world in contrast with only one each for the Buddhist and Hindu world. In fact one survey of the unreached world, passed out to every delegate, failed to even mention the Buddhist block. The Muslim world was presented as the most formidable and urgent, leading to an unprecedented interest at the exhibits.

Each student was encouraged to make a commitment at the end of the conference through a Global Evangelism Decision Card. Students were asked to indicate if God was leading them to commit themselves to life involvement in global mission. A recent survey done by InterVarsity, indicated that 40% of the students who made such commitments were actively pursuing them.

The role of students in praying for the world was highlighted many times at the conference. Each day Operation World was sold with Urbana's "book of the day"-an array of mission reading at discount prices. Fifteen seminars were held on how to pray for the world. On the second day of the conference, a special Concert of Prayer was held focusing on intercession for the lost. Students were encouraged to start small groups as follow up to the conference, which would include fifty minutes of group prayer.

Weaknesses
There was a tremendous over- simplification of the remaining task at Urbana 93. In fact the concept of completing the Great Commission wasn't even communicated during general sessions. Instead, students were given glimpses of a world full of hurting children, poverty, growing cities and broken lives. This is a growing trend and Urbana was no exception. The reality that 11,000 nations don't have church movements was avoided in favor of a more holistic approach to the Great Commission. Inevitably, if the task is not clarified it will be portrayed as hopelessly impossible and a great opportunity for advance will be lost.

Though there was a huge presence of international students and Asians at Urbana, students were not given a picture of the triumph of Christianity around the world. Instead Christianity was portrayed as the slowest growing religious tradition, which is not the case! Evangelical Christianity, numbering over 500 million, has grown 100 fold in the past century- ten times the rate of any other religious group that size.

It seemed as though Urbana was three years behind in the latest mission developments. Several growing mobilization movements were practically ignored, notably the AD 2000 movement, the Adopt-A-People campaign, and the CoMission. This is unfortunate in that all of these consist not of themselves, but as a binding force of cooperation for the mission industry. Students were presented with the vast needs of the world without being given a clear picture of the resources available to the meet that challenge.

Prospects for the Future
At the present rate over 200,000 students will have attended Urbana conferences by the year 2000. This is no small accomplishment! But will history record Urbana as a powerful tool in the cause of world evangelization or as opportunities missed because the organizers failed to present a true and accurate picture of God's global purpose in reaching all peoples and what He was doing to accomplish this through major movements like Adopt-A-People and AD 2000. Only time will tell.

David Bogosian is a sophomore in the Intercultural Studies program at Biola University. He is also the son of Phil Bogosian, Chairman of the Mobilization Division at the US Center.

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