November 01, 1989 by

Did you miss the EFMA Executive Retreat this year? Not to worry. MF staff writer Ron Shaw took notes for you! The following is an overview of the emphases of the conference. Also study through the two-part “Seeing the Big Picture” segments in this and the October MF’s Mission Executive Section for the text of a presentation at the retreat.

The term “retreat” usually means a relaxed atmosphere of fellowship with other executives, plus some helpful speeches and workshops on doing the job better. At September’s retreat for the executives of the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association (EFMA) at Colorado Springs, the tempo stepped up. These mission statesmen resolutely called for world evangelization by 2000.

The Challenges

Kickoff speaker Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ challenged the group with his energetic optimism: “I believe we can fulfill the Great Commission in this generation!” His personal motivations were:

• Our Lord gave us the Commission;
• people around the world are lost without the Gospel;
• we are in a unique era of openness to the Gospel--more are hearing, more are receiving, more are being trained to share than ever before;
• we have more tools to do the job, including radio and film. Bright insisted that besides faith and obedience, the task demands that we work together in harmony and love. (See interview page 12.)

The second plenary address was by Ralph Winter. We present the second half of his paper in this issue (pp. 26-29).

Devotional speaker John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, urged conference participants toward a more zealous personal walk: “Burn for God's glory,” he said. “Risk for God's glory; He will vindicate all those who do. And last for God's glory.”

Networking for Cooperation

Brant Gustafson of TransWorld Radio outlined the exuberant cooperation of the "Big Four" of Christian broadcasting. TWR, HCJB of Ecuador, Far Eastern Broadcasting and ELWA of Monrovia, Africa are working together under the banner “The World by 2000.”

The four have not merged but simply joined efforts to build transmitters and components, do research on languages and coordinate coverage of other mission agency breakthroughs. Gustafson reported that one constituent wrote a cryptic note that is encouraging but also almost embarrassing: “Thank God you are cooperating with other Christian agencies!” The World By 2000 project, said Gustafson, represents many other mission cooperative efforts.

Internationalization

“The non-Western world is exploding in missionary-sending five times faster than the West!” announced Larry Keyes of Overseas Crusades. To take greatest advantage of this, he advocated two levels of Third World cooperation :

1. Partnership agreements between agencies, one Western, one non-Western, while remaining separate in organization.
2. Incorporating non-Western personnel into the Western agency.

Keyes felt that an agency with Third-World representation has greater credibility overseas, and that the days of mono-cultural agencies are numbered. To avoid paternalism, internationalization of a Western-based agency could involve:

• a board comprising internationals;
• multi-cultural evaluation procedures;
• funding from multi-national sources;
• inter-cultural identity including location of headquarters.

Revival & Holiness

David Hesselgrave, missions professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in his address on “Overcoming Hindrances to World Evanglization,” called attention to the lack of evangelistic zeal and holy living on the part of believers: “Our call for intercession on behalf of world evangelization should be accompanied—even preceded—by the call for revival in our churches!”

Wesley Duewel of OMS International led a workshop on prayer and several sessions in which representatives of mission agencies prayed for specific requests from the fields of other mission agencies!

EFMA Leadership

Paul McKaughan, soon to be Wade Coggins’ successor as EFMA executive director, gave the closing challenge: “European leaders are not excited about AD2000. They think it is North American publicity. They feel that many of our agencies are run by old guys who have loused up the job and now are making a push to redeem themselves.”

McKaughan challenged each agency to examine their AD2000 plans: “One agency cannot do it all; therefore we must not say, ‘You help me with my goals!’” Instead one’s vision must be worked out in context with others; one must contribute rather than control.

Europeans feel many of our agencies are run by old guys who have loused up the job and now are making an AD2000 push to redeem themselves!

”Peter Drucker says that true cost is determined only by the lost opportunities,” McKaughan said. “When the year 2000 comes, we will all have spent a certain amount of money and of time—whether or not we cooperate with the AD2000 goal. Our true profit and loss will be measured by what opportunities we missed as much as by which ones we took. The AD2000 goal presents a choice opportunity; we may miss it—by ‘business as usual’!”

As the retreat ended, one participant observed, “The mission industry must give a trumpet call to the churches to get behind us as we rise to the challenge of AD2000!”