April 01, 1985 by Ralph D. Winter

A Synopsis

A. Underlying Convictions

1. We believe that those who are blessed by God are automatically obligated to be a blessing to all the peoples of the world. Gen. 12:1 3.
2. We believe that 'to be a blessing means to spread the news of the saving pcwc and sanctifying Lordship of Jesus Christ.
3. We believe that the best way to do this is to plant the church within each and every one of the world's peoples.
4. We believe that this unique, "pioneer; church planting activity is the most fundamental goal of missions. We are encouraged by the fact that a broad concensus of mission scholars and leaders is in agreement with this conviction.
5. We believe there are ample evangelical resources in the world community (i.e. 147 congregations per group lobe reached!) to make a serious attempt to plant the church within every people by the year 2,000, and that such a goal for the year 2,000 is therefore a reasonable goal to work and pray for.
6. We believe this task is thus more readily within our grasp than ever in history, and that the very end of history may therefore be near.
7. We believe this task is not marginal or secondary, but the primary and preeminent task of the Church for all of those who are children of Abraham by faith, those who are already enjoying the blessing of God in the redemption that is in Christ.
8. This means believers from all nations and peoples everywhere in the world, everywhere there is already a well established Christian movement, can be expected to be involved. (This does by no means rule out the participation of Western believers in this task.)
9. We believe, finally, that the question of the wholehearted pursuit of the duties involved in this task is the acid test of faith for any Christian group, and that the very wellbeing of a blessed nation is dependent upon the sharing of that blessing in a serious, obedient, effective, comprehensive way.

B. Practical Conclusions

1. We are convinced that if this is to happen, profound mission renewal will have to take place on a grand scale   in all evangelical communities around the world. We have concluded that what is necessary for us in the USA must be somewhat of the proportions of a widespread movement, not just the project of any one organization. Stop and listen! It is already happening! To be a movement, the people say, "Were doing what others are doing," (even though there may be many small divergences in materials between the two groups).
2. To generate a true movement, we believe that no single event or campaign will be sufficient, but that a new all year, year after year pattern is necessary.
3. While we believe it is neither necessary nor desirable for initiatives in its build up to be centralized, nevertheless, for such a movement to come into being, a "concert" of decentralized efforts will be much more powerful than would be a great number of totally independent and dissimilar efforts.
4. We are sure that the primary basis of such a movement must be the local congregation. We do feel it will be helpful if local congregations can be encouraged and assisted by an external Network. Such a Network could be a denomination, an already existing renewal movement within a denomination, or some one of many respected parachurch ministries with which a given congregation is in close touch. We will assume that each Network will be, nationally, on the order of 100 congregations.
5. We conclude that a movement is most likely to occur if there can be a consortium of such entities working separately, but consciously and supportively in parallel, without the mixing of constituencies.
6. We must concentrate on raising up hope, vision and dedication, and clarification of purpose. To do this, we must recruit people for the task and also funds to support the cause. We regard the local congregation as the normal and the best channel for all giving and going elicited in this movement.
7. At the same time, we see three types of essential structures in cooperation: a) local congregations, b) attending "networks" upon which they normally rely for coordination and updating, and c) certain Neutral Crucial functions which are performed by neutral agencies serving everyone, assisting the autonomous networks to be able efficiently to do their job. (In Appendix D is a suggested list of ten such spheres of need. For practical reasons, these crucial, little understood entities must both be non profit and also avoid competing for funds from the sources of income of the various networks,
8. In order more decisively to assure the existence and vitality of these "Neutral Crucial' support activities, it is planned that the Consortium (of networks)    that is. the central office of the Mission 2000 movement  will receive via the networks $15.50 of the modest, onetime¬only registration fee of $17.50 given by each individual at the grass roots who enrolls with the campaign. It is well to note that these funds going to the Consortium are the oniy funds which will go outside of the structure and budgeted giving of the local congregation. They are less than 12% of the total    88% goes to the local congregation. (See Appendix B, Measurable Expectations of Response.)
9. We do not believe it is realistic for Mission 2000 to be the dominant concern of a local congregation all year. We do believe, however, that a home visitation effort two months of each year is practical for the Cooperating Congregation, in addition to a regular, once amonth meeting of a 'Mission Fellowship" group during the ten intervening months.

C. Long Range Goals

1. In close relation to the UNDERLYING CONVICTIONS we have already stated above, we believe that the coming of Christ was not only the central event of history but that the character of His ministry demonstrates to us the essential meaning of His command "As My Father has sent me even so send I you". Specifically: He came and lived among us, teaching us by word and deed, in general respecting the cultural tradition of the people (except where its practices proved to be religiously phony or morally and ethically reprehensible) and confronting the nation with the ultimate authority of the Kingdom of God. He gathered repentant and believing followers, taught them, worked with them, sent them out to their own people, and eventually to other nations. This is essentially what a pioneer missionary does.
2. We believe that the goal of His final commission (Matt. 28:18), for any given people group, is thus most easily and reliably measured by the example of what He Himself in this respect did. We agree with the broad spectrum of mission leaders brought together by the Lausanne Committee at Chicago '82 when they defined this long range, goal of Christ's Great Commission as the "reaching of unreached people groups.".
3. This then defines the high priority: we must go to all remaining unreached peoples, some 17,000, and establish in their midst, in cooperation with the leading and power of the Holy Spirit, a people movement that is "a viable, indigenous, evangelizing church movement." This, we believe, is what Jesus did for the Jewish nation. It was and is the Biblical definition of 'being a blessing."

D. Intermediate Objectives

1. We recognize that the reaching of an impeached people" is the most important measurable goal, and that this should be achieved by the year 2000.
2. In order to do that, we assume that the last unreached group must be "engaged" by a mission task force no later than 1995.
3. We recognize that intermediate objectives must include renewed congregations, committed individuals who stay home to keep the cause alive, and missionaries who go to do the work at the front line," whether the people group they attempt to reach is found at home or abroad, or both.
4. The following table shows that to enter as many as 2,000 new groups per year beginning in 1988, certain intermediate objectives must be met. These are eminently feasible, assuming that a movement can be launched and that churches in other countries help.

E. The Yearly Cycle

1. The yearly cycle of the Mission 2000 movement consists of two major monthly meetings during a two month annual campaign period, plus a monthly meeting in each of the remaining ten months of the year, making a total of 12 monthly meetings of a new local "Mission Fellowship," which is a new structure to most present congregations. (Earlier in this century it was common in local congregations for there to be women's, men's and young people's Missionary Societies". Recently, the renowned missiologist, Donald A. McClavran, in his article, "A Giant Step in Christian Mission" (International Journal of Frontier Missions, July 1984) has called for the restoration of these local mission societies. Since the phrase "mission societies" is nowadays used to refer to sending agencies, we have suggested the phrase "Mission Fellowships".
2. This Mission Fellowship meeting is distinctly different from, and is in addition to the meetings of a congregational "Mission Committee," which makes financial, personnel and policy decisions. The Mission Fellowship, by contrast, will become the focus, the popular expression, and the carrier vehicle of mission VISION in the local church. Such a meeting can be started in any congregation whenever it is deemed feasible.
3. Many materials are already available for the enhancement and enrichment of this meeting. Among others, a monthly audio visual in three forms is planned: 1) as a set of slides with sound accompanyment, 2) as a video tape in various formats, and 3) as a 16 man film version for use in large gatherings. Each network will likely want to provide a monthly bulletin as well.  
4. It is not expected that every member of a local congregation will be involved in the Mission Fellowship. Attendance at the Fellowship meetings will be especially promoted annually during the two month campaign period and throughout the year on a less intensive basis by the Mission Renewal Teams. (Sec F 4 below.)
5. Crucial to the Mission 2000 movement is the care and feeding of those who respond to the visitation program during the campaign period. Vision building will take place principally through the vehicle of the monthly Mission Fellowship meeting just mentioned.

F. The Terms of Agreement

1. One level of agreement is national. We contemplate a minimum of 30 national networks, each of which is capable of enlisting a minimum of 100 Coordinating Congregations'. This national level of agreement is between the leaders of a given Network constituency and the central office of the Mission 2000 Consortium. Membership in the Consortium implies acceptance and adherence to certain non negotiable common denominators, such as the definition of unreached peoples, the use of the net $15.50 registration fee, etc.
2. Each national network will make agreements with its own leaders in an average of ten regional locations.
3. Each regional office will deal with ten local "Coordinating Congregations," which are the principal operational base of responsibility of the Mission 2000 movement.
4. Each Coordinating Congregation will be responsible for ten Mission Renewal Teams, whose two or three members will constitute the nucleus of the monthly Mission Fellowships referred to above. These Renewal Teams can come from, and work in, congregations other than the Coordinating Congregation with which, as a team, they are affiliated. That is, one larger church can be the center for three or four smaller churches which may have only one MRT at work in its membership. Or, a smaller church can be the coordinating congregation relating to teams in several other congregations that are larger or smaller.
5. Members of each Mission Renewal Team will have signed on for a stipulated number of "seed plantings"   e.g. presentations to specific individuals in a home visit As in the Parable of the Soils, the team's goal for the number of individuals to be visited is 30, 60, or 100, so to speak. Some will accomplish more than others. For the sake of evaluating the amount of materials to be produced, etc., we will assume that on the average each Mission Renewal Team (in, say, 15 to 25 visits) will contact 40 individuals. This fairly heavy assignment will be undertaken by only the very highly conintitted.
6. This "Seed Planting" activity does not absolutely require a visit to the home, although that is assumed to be standard. The initial goal is to register as many as possible and to distribute the inspiring vision building materials in the registration packet. Eah Team can make its own plans and try its own ideas. A team may choose to give a thorough "Presentation" in a home meeting, where six or seven "Simeon" types are invited all at once. ("Simeons" are those already sold on missions.) It is also possible that a serious presentation and plea for registrations could take place in some Sunday School class. The main idea is 1) to present people with the exciting challenge of the Mission 2000 campaign and 2) to enlist them in the development of a monthly fellowship in their own setting. Later they will be introduced to the other goals of the movement, such as the daily devotional discipline of the Frontier Fellowship.

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G. THE LOCAL PLAN OF ACTION

1. For many of the people drawn into the Mission 2000 movement, their very first discovery of the world of renewed mission vision will occur when a Mission 2000 Renewal Team visits their home. At that time they will hear a presentation, will be shown some exciting materials to ponder, and will be invited to pay a once and for all $17.50 Registration Fee to become official, permanent participants in the Mission 2009 Campaign. If they register, the materials shown them, which constitute the 'Registration Packet," become theirs to ponder further. This kind of presentation with its early financial hurdle will fairly accurately determine the true level of their concern at that time.
2. Which individuals should be visited? In the first round, they are the 'Simeons" (of Luke 2) who are definitely in the "looking, believing, hoping" category. Fundamental to the Mission 2000 Campaign is the Parable of the Four Soils, in which it is presumed that the farmer is definitely looking for soil which is likely to be reproductive. Rather than just spending our efforts, we seek to multiply them by deliberately and prayerfully enlisting first those who will be most likely to help with further enlistment and renewal efforts. Thus it is strategic to assume that the people to be visited first in any area or group of congregations are those who will welcome the goals and objectives of Mission 2000 and will be delighted by the solid base of additional information about 'what God is doing around the world.' (See the first chapter in C. Peter Wagner's ON THE CREST OF THE WAVE).
3. In terms of the four responses the parable describes, it is possible that of the 40 people carefully chosen to be visited, the following responses will occur: 
   Pathway: ten will not actually be ready and will decline any involvement at that time;
   Shallow soil: ten will respond momentarily, to the point of paying the $17.50 registration fee and receiving their packet of materials;
   Thorny soil: ten will participate in the annual 'Mission Update" study program to which all who register will be invited;
   Reproductive soil: ten will agree, in addition, to become part of additional Mission Renewal Teams in the second round of outreach.
4. But the long term primary goal of the visitation campaign is to enlist people, heart and soul, in the monthly Mission Fellowship. It is this meeting which is to be the central source of materials and expanding interest constituting the foundation of the renewal movement. Area and regional meetings along network lines or across networks in "Concerts of Prayer" may or may not take place. And of course some people will be blessed and inspired who do not come to the monthly Mission Fellowship meeting. But the central force and backbone of the Mission 2000 Renewal is understood to be the Mission Fellowship.

H. The National Timetable

1. It is envisioned that initially only three to five national networks will make up the Mission 2000 Consortium. Their representation will constitute the corporate board of the Consortium.
2. At that point, an additional five to ten other networks (denominations, para church organizations, etc.) will be invited to join an enlarged Consortium, each agreeing to hold firm to the non negotiables of the original concepts and principles. Representatives of these will be added to the board, the earlier group becoming the executive committee.
3. In the third stage, as many as 30 nationwide networks will become consortium members. This number is considered the minimal essential level of viability for a "movement" to lake place.
4. The early "unveiling" of the Mission 2000 Plan is scheduled to take place at the annual meeting of the Association of Church Mission Committees in July, 1985. Some pilot 'Coordinating Congregations" will test out the program before that date, and several national networks will begin in the fall. It is hoped that by January of 1986, ten or more network will be committed and begin operations shortly thereafter. If all goes as planned, by December of 1986 the minimum goal of 30 networks will be involved.

Appendix

A. Footnotes to the Table "The Projection to the Year 2000" (See D.)

Underlying the table in section Dare the following assumptions and estimates:

1. There are 17,000 UNREACHEI) PEOPLES   with no indigenous church yet
2. We seek 'A Church for Every People by the Year 2,000."
3. These unreached peoples contain and seal off hail the world's population, and avenge 150,000 individuals in each group.
4. It will take a minimum of two couples five years to reach each people.
5. We can expect 4,00) new missionaries of this type by the beginning of 1987.
6. The necessary increase of the mission force will be gradual, a rate of 8,000 more missionaries per year, beginning in 1988.
7. It will cost an average of $ 12,500 per person per year for these new frontier missionaries, many from other countries.
8. A "Support Team" = 100 people giving an avenge of $10.42 per month.
9. Thus each new Support Team enrolled can support, completely, one new missionary.

B. The Contents of the Registration Packet

The content of the registration packet is of no essential concern to the Mission 2000 Consortium, other than that it be value received for the $2 collected in the Registration Fee, and that it be relevant to the basic vision of the movement.

In most cases, it will be the Network involved that will want to choose from the mass produced, lowpriced materials which are being used by other networks. They will want to put in things of their own choice, as well.

It may well be that many Networks will see the current "Neutral Crucial" (to which $15 of the $17.50 Registration Fee goes) as an added, exciting attraction in their network, and will be happy to have the work or that Neutral Crucial mentioned somewhere in the Packet. In other cases the current "Neutral Crucial" can go completely unmentioned.

However, let as suppose a Network highly favorable to the cause of the current Neutral Crucial were making its selection for this packet. And, let us suppose that Neutral Crucial were the U.S. Center for World Mission. Following is the kind of packet which might be made up, and which, delivered to the Sponsoring Church, would fit into the allowed $2 portion of the Registration Fee:

1. Sample copy of Mission Frontiers,
2. Sample copy of World Christian Magazine.
3. Sample copy of The Global Prayer Digest.
4. Poster: "The Unreached Peoples of the world.'
5. Book. I WILL DO A NEW THING (the story of the 1,1.5. Center for World Mission.)
6. Booklet'" Look at What God's Doing.'
7. A hat of materials at a healthy discount, costing a good deal more than $2

C. The Basic Ingredients of the Monthly Mission Fellowship Meeting.

This is to be a meeting for prayer and inspirational education about the mission cause. Provisions are silently being made for the highest quality motion picture input on a monthly basis, mediated through low cost video tape, Small groups can get the basic equipment and have their own tapes updated for $1 each month at cooperating Christian bookstores andlnr Consortium offices. Soon Sman tapes (similar to audio tapes) will be available. They will cost far less and can either be sent out on a "one way" basis for about $4 per month, or updated in the way mentioned. The same materials will be available in both the form of slides and 16mm film, depending upon the option selected.

Monthly printed materials will also be made available (perhaps by the different Networks), in addition to the already existing monthly Global Prayer Digest, which is even at this point backed by 36 different organizations, with 22 different covets (and t page customized sections).

Many monthly fellowships will, among other things, sake in the "loose change" offerings of those who are participating in the Frontier Fellowship daily prayer discipline (a lake off from the widespread Asian Christian "handful of rice for missions" pattern).

However, these meetings will be expected to follow widely different formats, and we do not see any great value in trying to standardize a single pattern.

I. The Ten "Neutral Crucial?' (See B 7.8).

Certain crucial functions are deemed essential so an authentic mission renewal movement They are also characterized by the fact that they cannot readily be in a direct fund raising mode and at least in their early stage  need financial assistance. A detailed treatment of ten such needs may be found in the Jan. '84 (Vol 1:1) issue of the !nternaaional Journal of Frontier Missions. Each of them has been summarized in a phrase below:

1. A widespread daily devotional discipline emphasizing the completion of the task,
2. The Concerts of Prayer "for spiritual awakening and world evangelization,"
3. The Global Mapping Project, which can feed the work of countless agencies around the world,
4. Certain strategically missing mats media.
5. A groundswell, international student mission movement.
6. The strategic 'enrichment' of certain existing programs and customs
7. The engineering of a new pattern in higher education which will routinely locate college students overseas half of each undergraduate year, and involve them in a work study program which will prevent them from emerging with debts which will keep them out of Christian work,
8. A new missionary associate lifestyle ("Senders").
9. An international network of cocperative mission centers.
10. A 'Mission 2000" type of promotional coalition of Christian organizations.