October 01, 1989 by Ralph D. Winter

Dear friends, People think I am strange because I remember so many numbers. Yet I meet people who can quote baseball statistics until my head swims. (I notice that my wife never forgets the phone numbers of our children, even overseas.)

I would like to believe that thousands of readers of Mission Frontiers would get as familiar with the key players in the mission scene as many an American is knowledgeable about the world of sports or finance.

Here’s a test: First the *IFMA, then the *SFM, and then the *EFMA. What a flurry of key conferences in September—like an ocean wave sweeping over us. No time to go home between them. But do you recognize these acronyms? See below for the meaning of this alphabet soup. To many readers of Mission Frontiers the explanations are not necessary! But to prepare you for the excitement on the following pages I have given a bit of explanation down below for those who may need it.

They only gave me one page this time, sorry!

We  will be covering the EFMA meeting next time÷too many conferences for one issue!

But it is possible to report that at both the IFMA and the EFMA executive retreats the countdown to the year 2000 was a major concern. Last year it was the IFMA main theme. This year it was the EFMA main theme. And, though we mainly treat the IFMA this time, the paper I gave at the EFMA is in part presented on pages 12-16.

Present at all three conferences were both Thomas Wang and Luis Bush, the two Third-World leaders who have risen to such prominence in the last two years in terms of the concern for reaching the world by the year 2000. Thomas Wang and Luis Bush were both asked to address the IFMA meeting, and Wang's AD2000 office was given official backing by the Executive Committee of IFMA.

A special side meeting at the EFMA was presided over by John Kyle, who is a member of the executive body of the AD2000 Movement office (which arose from the Singapore meeting last January÷the Global Consultation on World Evangelization by AD2000 and Beyond.) Don't be confused by the other Office derived from the GCOWE meeting, the Global Service Office run by Jay Gary, author of the book on this issue's back cover, The Countdown Has Begun: The Story of the Global Consultation on AD2000.

Note that Thomas Wang's office produced the book we recommended two issues back, Countdown to AD2000: The Official Compendium of the GCOWE. It contains more material, including the 30-page Kaleidoscopic Global Plan, while Jay Gary's book on the conference contains an excellent behind-the-scenes account from which we excerpt in this issue.

Burning the Mortgage?

Many are hoping we will be able to complete all of the payments on our campus soon. We got in enough cash and pledges by January of last year. Many say that we have already received a higher percentage of pledges than is usual. Already 90% of the pledges have come in! But we still need to pay $136,334. Pledges are still coming in, although slowly. We are planning a tentative mortgage-burning ceremony on January 19th!

A Bite-Sized Education:

IFMA means Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association of North America. No denominational missions belong to this. Oldest association of mission agencies, founded in 1917. Represents the "Faith Mission" tradition.

SFM, now the ISFM, means International Society for Frontier Missiology, a counterpart of the ASM (American Society of Missiology) which deals mostly with mission activity where churches have already been established. The ISFM focus is exclusively on the un-reached peoples.

EFMA means Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, (note the "s" on missions) a department of the NAE (National Association of Evangelicals), founded in 1945, includes both interdenominational and denominational missions, but does not include Canada.

Both the IFMA and the EFMA have about 100 member missions, together include well over 20,000 missionaries, and are trusted with hundreds of millions of dollars. Some large missions do not belong officially, like Wycliffe and the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, but are nevertheless involved in the meetings and activities.