November 01, 1991 by Ralph D. Winter

Dear friend,

Something is going on. Something many of our readers may not be aware of. Something very hopeful, very good.

Why would there be a sudden surge of new subscriptions to the little known, somewhat professional periodical called International Journal of Frontier Missions? (See back cover for ordering information.) We'll refer to this as the IJFM.

Why would there be a sudden surge of new people attending the normal annual meeting of the little known, somewhat professional, society called the International Society for Frontier Missiology? We'll refer to this as the ISFM.

Both things have happened. The journal subscriptions in the past six months have increased by 50% and the Society meeting rose to 140 this year.

However, that's not all, a similar meeting, mainly of evangelical professors of missions was also one of the largest ever this year.

Its recently chosen new name is the Evangelical Missiological Society. We'll refer to this as the EMS.

More still: in this very issue of Mission Frontiers an earnest debate will be presented (pages 28-36). Some of the same issues also surface in the discussions and interviews on pages 5-7?

The debate revolves around an unprecedented new level of concern for the whole discussion surrounding the countdown to the year 2000.

Now we are getting down to brass tacks. Now the nitty-gritty of terminology is exploding as a vital issue.

What precisely have we meant all these years by "winning the world to Christ"? Do we expect every person on earth to follow Christ in full commitment?

What do we mean by world evangelization? How can you "finish" something like that? Or, does anyone know for sure what is necessary in precise terms to fulfill the Great Commission?

Do you realize? Even the word Christian is used differently by missionaries than by evangelists. The difference? We'll be talking about it in the executive section.

In any case, such huge things are happening in our world today that the very goal-oriented words we use are under new scrutiny.

Finally, there is the amazing AD2000 Movement. We will have a large report on this in our next issue. Briefly, Dec 4-7, in Upland, California the first International Board and Global Track Leaders conference took place when 40 leaders from ten countries met together. These guys are a bunch of really up-beat people. They represent many existing ministries which are banding together in an incredible prayer and fellowship synthesis touching virtually every pocket of vital Christianity worldwide, under the rallying cry of "A church for every people and the gospel for every person by AD2000."

The news release goes on to say "The expected result is the presentation of the Gospel to every person in every nation and people group and the establishment of a church planting movement in every country and people group by the year 2000."

How close, really, can we come to anything by the year 2000? The AD2000 movement will not let us escape that question!

A great deal of credit for this movement goes to the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization, which is closely related to it due to the fact that this movement arose during the tenure of Thomas Wang as the International Director of the LCWE. Thomas Wang, and now Luis Bush, coming from Partners International, are deeply involved, the latter full time, giving up his post as the director of Partners International (formerly CNEC).

Well, in the mission executives section (pages 27-35) all of these matters will be opened up.

Christmas time can become a great distraction from reality.

Or it can be a time of getting the big picture all over again. What will you make of it? I realize that by the time you get this it may be all over, but can you let it be the new birth of hope and vision for you in 1992? I hope it can!

Faithfully, Ralph D. Winter

P.S. Note our new directory inside the front cover. Can you see yourself at work anywhere there? We need you. Badly. Or, come for a two-month internship and refresh your vision and direction for the days ahead! Dates for the internship program: Jan. 2--Feb. 29, 1992 (2 mo.) Feb. 3--May 19, 1992 (3 mo.) June 12--Aug. 15, 1992 (2 mo.) Sept. 14--Dec. 15, 1992 (3 mo.)

P.S. Also: The 1992 edition of the "Little Men" poster is on page 36.