MF Behind the Scenes by Rick Wood, Managing Editor It has been a great ride, but where are we now?

The story of the last 20 years of mission efforts is a wonderful and remarkable tale of people and events that have changed the course of human history and the eternal destiny of millions.

In October 1980, 270 mission agency leaders from around the world gathered in Edinburgh, Scotland for the World Consultation on Frontier Missions, commonly known as Edinburgh '80. It was there that the vision of "A Church for Every People by the Year 2000" was first launched. Nine years later the AD2000 and Beyond Movement caught this vision and added the phrase, "and the Gospel for Every Person." These compelling watchwords captured the hearts and minds of a generation of Bible-believing Christians and spurred the development of today's frontier mission movement focused on reaching the unreached peoples.

In just the last 10 years the AD2000 Movement and their catalytic efforts at fostering ministry networks, national initiatives, and agency partnerships to reach unreached peoples have changed the landscape of missionary activity around the world. Mission agency leaders are working together as never before. The launch of Joshua Project 2000 in 1995 helped fuel renewed efforts at church planting among the larger unreached peoples with significant results. A chart of recent progress can be seen on pages 28-29.

With all of this activity over the last 20 years and the arrival of the year 2000, we thought this would be a good time to look at how far we have come in accomplishing the goals of the frontier mission movement and where we stand now in reaching the world for Christ. Luis Bush of the AD2000 Movement lays out his perspective starting on page 12.

We present in this issue some of the best statistics and analysis of what God has accomplished over the last several years in bringing the Gospel to every tribe and tongue. We hope that you enjoy this overview of the world starting on page 9. Be sure to take a look at our website at www.missionfrontiers.org for our new feature, The State of World Evangelization.

Church Planting Movements Part 2

We have received rave reviews on the Church Planting Movements booklet from the Southern Baptists that we featured in our last issue. In this issue we present two more case studies from this booklet as well as a chapter on frequently asked questions. This is the second and final part of our feature on this wonderful booklet by David Garrison. It presents the exciting results of years of research by Southern Baptist missionaries participating in church planting movements around the world. Read and be amazed at the wonderful things that God is doing through various church planting movements.

We encourage you to study this material carefully and share the insights you gain with others. There are valuable lessons to be learned from the Southern Baptist's experience that all concerned with world evangelization can benefit from. The section starts on page 34.

Have You Sent in Your Reply Card ?

The response to our last issue has thus far been encouraging but many more of our readers need to respond. Out of the 70,000 people on our U.S. mailing list who received the response card, 16,000 have sent back their cards. This response rate of over 22 percent is a good start, but we need every one of our readers to send in their response card.

We will continue to send you a response card until we hear from you so please take 30 seconds and send it back as soon as you get it.

Because of a mistake at our mailing service, some of you did not get a response card with the last issue so you are getting it with this one. If you got the response card with the last issue, please send that back to us as soon as possible. In the next issue we will be sending another response card to you if we have not heard from you by then.

When you send back your response card, please make sure that you check one of the boxes and that your mailing address is clearly readable on the face of the card.

We are Making Progress But...

The increased number of donations we have received has also been encouraging. We are very thankful to those who have sent in gifts. The map on the next page illustrates our progress, but there is still a long way to go in covering our costs. It is still a very small percentage of our readers who have sent in gifts to cover the costs. We need all of our readers, who are financially able, to send in a gift of $15 or more. If you value this publication and its worldwide ministry, then please send us your gift today.

Please take a moment now, find the reply envelope in this issue, make out your check for $15 or more to Mission Frontiers and drop it in the mail today. We need your help to mobilize the next generation of Christian leaders. We cannot do it without you. And remember, "Failure is not an option!"

For His Glory,

Rick Wood