July 01, 1986 by Ralph D. Winter

We invite you to look over the shoulder of the executive vice president of our university as he writes the lead article in the July '86 issue of Evangelical Missions Quarterly, the professional journal published by the two largest evangelical mission associations in the world. Notice an unusual feature that pervades this whole article. See how large his vision is! We would naturally expect Greg Livingstone to reveal a keen interest in Muslims, but it is clear that his interest is much larger than the confines of his own organization, Frontiers (or the U.S. Center for World Mission, for that matter). Not very many people think in such large terms. He calls urgently for new levels of collaboration the purpose for which the USCWM exists! (By the way, do you subscribe to Evangelical Missions Quarterly? Now is the time to do so. See Order Page, inside back cover.) 

Not long ago, a distraught Bible college student said, "I don't know whether God is calling me to the Muslim world or if it's peer pressure."

Peer pressure to go to the Muslim world? The remark surprised me and opened my eyes. I remember when God's people were almost entirely unaware of the existence of Muslims. However, times have changed, and the surging interest of the church to evangelize Muslims continues to astonish me.

At Urbana '84 there were 29 seminars and workshops on Islam and Muslims, nearly all of them packed and overflowing into hallways.

Mission organizations that do not work among Muslims are increasingly feeling pressure to "get with it." An executive of Worldtearn complained that as soon as an inquirer learned that Worldteam did not work among Muslims, the inquirer lost interest in talking to them.

Is it possible that in the next two decades God is intending to open the eyes of tens of thousands of Muslims? Is He preparing His church for a great harvest, a harvest never before imagined?

I believe the honor of Jesus Christ is as stake. Mission organizations must prepare for this harvest. I have been warning mission agencies for several years to be prepared for the avalanche of young people God is now calling. We have a one inch diameter pipe unable to receive the flow of candidates. Unless we restructure our agencies, many will not get placed in neglected areas, cooperation if not merger is needed between various mission organizations.

For years I was intimidated by laymen who frowningly inquired, "Why can't Christian missions work together more than they do?" Reluctantly, I rose to the defense, explaining how complicated cooperation is when agencies have their distinctive histories, slants, cultures, and seniority systems. Few of these businessmen who daily witness cooperation in the business world were satisfied. Neither was I.

Have we toss consciousness that we are indeed baffling against principalities and powers? Does our minimal cooperation lie in our loss of wartime mentality? Have we become jaded and therefore no longer bothered by almost 900 million Muslims facing a Christless eternity? Would reflection on 40,000 Muslims passing daily into hell cause us to assign more management problem solvers into inter mission management by objectives?

Here on the campus of the U.S. Center for World Mission (USCWM), we five in the shadow, or skeleton, of Ralph Winter's dream. Perhaps Winter was naive to believe mission agencies would in fact interface and solve problems together by utilizing the gifts and strengths of each agency. Winter's motive is to accelerate getting pioneer missionaries to people groups still without a church.But as chairman of the USCWM board, it is my impression that we in Pasadena also tend to fall into the same survival mode as other agencies. We have little creative time left over for the overall task.

Perhaps it is fear that keeps us from going beyond want smiles, handshakes, and generic slogans at annual retreats. We fear being controlled by others outside our mission. As Ralph Winter has discovered, mission agencies find it difficult to believe another agency really wants to help. We suspect ulterior motives.

We fear the unknown. We set up a "safety zone" around ourselves that consists of the known and tested, and are afraid to venture beyond its secure boundaries.

In 1978. North Africa Mission (NAM) approached Sudan Interior Mission about a possible merger. A good deal of money and man hours were spent trying to bring it to pass. The proposal was ultimately defeated by a referendum of NAM field missionaries who apparently feared being controlled by a larger mission. To my amazement, however, many StM leaders continued to help NAM stand on its own feet. Their actions, in effect, made merger no longer necessary.

I was so moved by the giving spirit and unlikely actions of these SIM leaders that I asked them point blank, "Why are you helping NAM so much?"

With a genuine smile, one of them asked, "Do you want to know the real reason?"

"Yes, please," I replied.

His answer came as an unexpected surprise. "Because we suspect God likes it."

That experience was a lesson I'll never forget. I determined at that moment, by God's grace, to be a giver, to be a resource to co workers outside my own mission.

The following suggestions are made in the hope that inter mission cooperation among missions to Islam can be increased.

Opportunities for InterMission Cooperation

1. Regional representatives.

Ralph Winter has been a prophet crying in the wilderness, asking why we can't send our most gifted spokesmen to colleges and churches to represent the Muslim work of eight to IC agencies. Bob Sjogren, who heads up recruiting for Frontiers, has determined to give every inquirer a brochure from North Africa Mission along with the brochure from Frontiers.Inquirers who want a more dispensationally oriented mission are referred to international Missions. People interested in medical work are referred to TEAM or SIM.

Recently, Frontiers has turned its two recruiting vans over to Caleb Project which plans to form student mobilization teams made tip of candidates from five different missions in each of five vans.

Let's be frank. Some people are more gifted in motivating people to join missions than others. I set no reason why several missions can't utilize these gifted recruiters and reassign the non recruiting types to minister in areas of their strengths.

2. Media.

In the past I can remember seeing joint mission pamphlets dealing with the Muslim world. We need more of that We need to produce and distribute common literature, films, video, and books. The Fellowship of Faith for Muslims has contacted all of us so they can do a larger printing of the booklet, Chrsilianity's Greatest Opportunity. Why don't we do a lot more co publishing?

3. Computer processing.

It will be interesting to see how mission organizations respond to InterVarsity's 'fish pond" of recruitabte people gleaned from the Urbana decisions. Will the top "draft choices" feel like All¬American high school athletes besieged by coaches from a multitude of colleges? Perhaps the best solution is to develop a screening process that will accelerate applicant placement to field assignments that best fit their individual gifts and sense of calling.

4. Secondment of personnel.

In Frontiers, we are well aware that we cannot plant churches among Muslims with inexperienced team leaders unless we have the advantage of circuit riding resource people from other missions.

When mission executives visit the field we should create an aunosphere where their best thinking will be welcomed by missionaries from other Cooperation if not merger is needed between various mission organization missions. Inter-mission retreats should not include mete devotional emphases but also critical thinking, evaluation, and strategixing.

I feel deeply that we have not only made a mistake, but have been cruel in "sending ones and twos here and there." This holds especially true of the oppressive, hostile Muslim world. When we have only two or three ready for an area, we can put them on the same team with others from another mission. Later, as personnel increase, two church planting teams in separate areas of a city can be formed. Surely we will see much more accomplished if we can together place eight to twelve persons in a Muslim city or people group where they can serve as mutual enablers in working toward the planting of a Muslim convert church.

5. A professional journal.

It is amazing how much in the dark we are as to what other missions are at tempting in the area of disciple making and church planting in the Muslim world, if we're serious about reaching Muslims a group of peoples that accounts for one fifth of the world's population it seems to me it is high time we expanded NAM's church growth journal to include serious case studies from across the Muslim world.

6. Finances.

This is, perhaps, the touchiest subject of all. I believe we should explore the possibility of creating a "United Fund" approach to the Muslim world. A fund of this type could be administered by our Islamics Committee, for example. Missions could make proposals to this committee, and the committee in turn could distribute the 'United Fund" according to set guidelines.

Many smaller missions dream of having a development department, But it takes finances to develop a department that can concentrate on widening one's financial base.

Can you dream with me that we could have a cooperative development department for four to eight missionsparticularly in the areas of deferred giving, estate planning, direct mail, and working with foundations and corporations?

I strongly feel that we will not see a breakthrough in church planting in the Muslim world as long as were preoccupied with financial survival.

Only when we get appropriately gifted people in the right places will we see progress. Yet so often in our smaller missions, we have people wearing too many hats people who do a good job in one area, but mediocre work in three or four others. We need to better implement stewardship of ministry skills in our missions.

7. Subcontracting.

Smaller missions could subcontract some functions to lager agencies. It has often been said that efficient home staffs in some missions can facilitate and serve more missionaries than they have. Meanwhile, other missions do not have enough personnel to properly provide for the missionaries they have. To solve the problem, some missions could do receipting, payroll, and bank transfers for other, smaller missions.

8. Muslim awareness seminars.

Churches across North America want to have Islam featured at their mission conferences. With the help of the Zwemcr Institute, we could put together a package that will be unforgettably dynamic and yet usable by all those who are involved in Muslim work. A traveling team could be assembled for just this purpose, representing several missions at one time. The churches would love it, and our missions would get greater visibility and credibility.

9. Advertising.

Now may be the time to establish the United Missions to Muslims Association (IJMMA). The formation of UMMA would serve to deepen our practical cooperation. None of his is interested in more bureaucracy or in being controlled by some committee, but should our fear of the worst prevent us from taking bold new steps to get the job done in the Muslim world? Why not start with joint ads regarding possibilities of service in the 44 Muslim counuies of the world?

10. Candidate training.

We should all have the best lectures by the most fruitful missionaries to Islam in videotape libraries. By doing so, we could all glean from the wisdom of Don McCuny, Phil Parshall, Bill Call, Rose Baer, Dick Corley, and others. Candidate schools could be combined so that those heading to the Muslim world could train with 30 others rather than just a few. Some denominations have been having joint candidate schools for years. The classes could be divided to deal with areas of each mission's distinctives.

Conclusion

All of the above suggestions will take hard thinking and hard work if they are to be implemented. Both of these are unpalatable choices for already overworked personnel to make. Implementation of some of the suggestions, however, could help to take some of the load off their shoulders.

Perhaps God would have us realign our priorities with the result that thousands upon thousands of Muslims will worship Him for all eternity.