January 01, 1992 by Ralph D. Winter

• Mission agencies all over the world continue to struggle for funds and for recruits. They struggle even to be well understood in the local churches of our globe today. Yet they are desperately needed for the AD2000 countdown! THESIS: They can gain new life IF they can distinguish "Mission" from "Evangelism"
• Can the AD2000 Movement help? It is suddenly much more than "a cloud the size of a man's hand. "Has any movement in history had as great a potential for the benefit of the global mission movement? THESIS: It can gain its potential IF it can distinguish "Mission" from "Evangelism"
• Well, why wouldn't the mission agencies want to distinguish "Mission" from "Evangelism"? Didn't they when they first started? (See page 4)
• Why wouldn't the AD2000 Movement do so? Aren't both Thomas Wang and Luis Bush quite well aware of the distinction? Is not their chosen "Rallying Cry" clearly both mission and evangelism? (see page 21
• the difference between reaching peoples and winning persons)
• Why, why, why? Well, it is uncommon to make the distinction. Few people do. I didn't used to myself. Let me tell you how my own thinking changed. Maybe that will explain the complications:

In 1958 Roberta and I (and our three children) went to be "missionaries" in Guatemala, working among Mayan Indians (the Mam tribe) in the highlands. There was already a substantial church movement among our group, the whole New Testament in their language, etc. We helped those desperately poor, non-literate people train some of their people for ordination by an extension process, helped their people medically, helped their churches work toward setting up a regional church entity, helped their people earn a living, etc. At best, we were assisting "evangelism" as this movement reached out to its own people.

My first strictly "mission" venture was when I teamed up with Max Lathrop, a Wycliffe missionary on the Mexico side of the border, to hold "The First Interamerican Evangelical Indian Conference" at Lake Patzcuaro in Mexico, and years later at Izmiquilpan in Mexico.

The thrust of those conferences--which were not appreciated by all of the missionaries involved--was for the Indian believers to become missionaries to the still untouched tribal groups (which often were long standing enemies). This idea is what is now called "Third World Missions."

In Guatemala there was a drastic difference between the Spanish- speaking world and the 33 different Indians worlds. Indians are the majority of Guatemala but the minority of believers. Most Spanish- speaking churches planted new churches called "missions" before they were full blown. But, finally, a visionary Spanish-speaking pastor in the capital launched a true missionary effort north to the Kekchi Indians, with marvelous success.

I am afraid I did not do all I could to promote that kind of vision among the Guatemalan Spanish and Indian believers.

Today Guatemala is about 30% evangelical, perhaps only three of the Indian groups are still Unreached Peoples by the March 1982 definition (see page 21).

The most significant meeting held perhaps in all the previous history of Missions--was the well-known Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910.

That meeting emphasized "missions" to the "unoccupied fields" (still thinking geographically rather than by peoples), but it overlooked entirely the very few existing "Third World Mission Agencies."

Not until 1980--the World Consultation on Frontier Missions, again at Edinburgh, did a similar meeting take place (mission executives only), but this time a strapping 1/3 of the 170 agencies represented were from the Third World, and virtually all of the strongest Third World agencies were there. Thomas Wang was one of the plenary speakers. The rallying cry was "A Church for Every People by the Year 2000." This was a strictly "mission" thrust to reach unreached peoples.

Wang organized the meeting in January of 1989 at Singapore which was an attempt to do that again. While it did not quite achieve all it set out to accomplish, it planted seeds which have now been growing astonishingly in the past few months: the AD2000 Movement is the direct result of that Singapore conference.

The AD2000 Movement is headed up by Thomas Wang (who spearheaded the Singapore meeting), born in China, with the able assistance of Luis Bush, born in Argentina, Alvin Lau, born in China, and John Richard, born in India.

God has allowed these men to blanket the globe with their vision and passion. Probably no Third World Christian leader is more highly respected than Thomas Wang. Luis Bush, more than any other person, was the driving force behind the unprecedented missionary flame sweeping Latin America today--a movement that clearly distinguishes mission from evangelism, emphasizing Unreached Peoples. Let's pray and help them!