September 01, 1996 by Rick Wood

The Future of the Frontier Mission Movement?

It would be hard for us to tackle a larger or more complex subject than "The Future of the Frontier Missions Movement." Our analysis of this subject falls into two basic categories, the strategic aspects and the structural aspects.

In the strategic area we deal with those new ministry strategies which we feel hold great promise in penetrating Hindu, Muslim and Chinese cultures much more effectively and more quickly than we are currently able to do. In order for the Gospel to advance in these spheres we must deal with the problem of people being forced to leave their family or culture in order to receive Christ.

The issues involved are difficult, but they are the same problems that must be dealt with each time we bring the Gospel into a new culture and make it truly indigenous to that culture. The difficult thing is to communicate the essence of the Gospel NOT the culture of the messenger who brings it. Read carefully the series of articles starting on page 7 which deal with this crucial issue.

In the structural area we present a number of articles that provide ideas for how we can cooperate more effectively in reaching the unreached peoples. In my article starting on page 21, I suggest several things that need to be addressed in order for the Frontier Missions Movement to move forward.

Phill Butler in his "Open Letter to North American Mission Leaders," talks about the tremendous need for Strategic Partnerships as well as the "Adopt-A-People Advocates" and "Strategic Partnership Facilitators" that make these Partnerships work effectively in reaching each of the 146 Gateway People/Clusters as listed in the last issue of MF. Don't miss this important article by Phill Butler of Interdev on page 26. He also gives some wonderful examples of how Partnerships have been the key to significant progress in a number of unreached peoples.

Calling All Mission Agencies to South Africa

For years now, Dr. Winter has been pointing out the critical need for mission agency leaders to get together for a face to face meeting to share their latest "work among" data with each other, divide up responsibility for reaching each of the unreached peoples, coordinate their efforts and initiate Strategic Partnerships. Next year, in July of 1997, hundreds of mission agency leaders will be heading to South Africa to fulfill this vision. The AD2000 and Beyond Movement is sponsoring a Mission Executives Consultation as part of GCOWE '97 to be held in Pretoria, South Africa from June 30 - July 5th, 1997. They want as many interested mission agency leaders to participate as possible. Take special note of the GCOWE '97 articles which start on page 42. George Verwer of Operation Mobilization issues a special invitation to mission agency leaders in the article starting on page 44. We would like to see this meeting be a tremendous step forward for partnership and coordination of mission agency efforts. We encourage all mission leaders to consider participating in this important meeting.