This is an article from the November-December 1991 issue: IFMA Member Mission

The Rise of the Younger Generation

The Rise of the Younger Generation

Recently, a major panel focused on "Bridging the Generation Gap in Missions" at the meeting of the Evangelical Missiological Society.

Passing the baton to the younger generation in missions is a hot topic.

It has happened in both the IFMA (Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association) and the EFMA (Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies). These are the two largest associations of mission agencies in the world.

Last year, Paul McKaughan took over the reigns of the EFMA from Wade Coggins. This year, John Orme assumes the role of Executive Director of the IFMA following Jack Frizen. (See following for an interview.) Here is a summary of some of the meetings that took place this Fall.

  1. The AMA (Asia Missions Association) held its fifth Triennial Convention. The AMA is the rough equivalent of the IFMA in Asia. It takes in various missions and mission associations as members including interdenominational agencies. Another entity is the Missions Commission of the WEF (like the EFMA is part of the National Association of Evangelicals). The AMA meeting included presentations by David Cho (Korea International Mission), Minoru Okuyama from Japan (General Secretary of the AMA), and Ebenezer Sundar Raj (India Missions Association). Several younger leaders were put on the AMA board.
  2. While one main focus of the IFMA annual meeting was the "changing of the guard," it also included various presentations, including Richard Winchell (TEAM), Eldon Howard (SIM Intl.), and Dwight Smith (United World Mission). Update reports came from many different people including Islamic Ministries Post Desert Storm by Pat Cate (International Missions) and The Soviet Union Today by Andrew Semenchuk (Slavic Gospel Association).
  3. The International Society of FronMissiology (ISFM) met between the IFMA and EFMA (at the site of the EFMA. This coming year it will meet at the site of the IFMA). One main blessing of the ISFM is the intergenerational interaction. As a Society, it has determined to be this way. Its theme this year was Where are the Frontiers? That theme is part of the resulting discussion included in the Missions Executive Section of this issue of Mission Frontiers (see pages 27-36).
  4. Next was the Annual Retreat of the EFMA. Its theme was, Funding World Evangelism. It covered a broad spectrum of the financial dimensions of the missions industry from non-Western missionary support to the fielding of North Americans, to how one agency's overseas staff members raise funds in their home countries. These concerns and opportunities were helpful fuel for thought through the week.
    Presenters included Leighton Ford, Dave Bryant, Roger Greenway. The retreat ended with a stimulating report from Campus Crusade International's Jerry Sharpless explaining how their overseas national staff are getting involved in raising their support from their local churches.
  5. Twenty leaders connected with the AD 2000 and Beyond Movement met for the 10/40 Window Gospel Advance Assessment Consultation. The focus was to come up with measurable criteria to assess the progress of mission efforts in the great section of the world from North Africa through the Middle East and Central Asia, Asia and South Asia. This has become know as the 10/40 window (because of the latitudes).
  6. The EMS (formerly the Association of Evangelical Professors of Missions now the Evangelical Missiological Society) met in Kansas City in early November. (See one of the addresses given on pages 34 and 35 in this issue.) The EMS, because of its history, is made up of mostly professors. But that is changing as it seeks to include others, including executives who are interested and involved in these topics, but may not be directly teaching missions officially.
  7. Next the first meeting of the "International Board and Global Track Leaders of AD 2000 and Beyond Movement" gathered to plan for the 1994 meeting. See editorial on page 4 for more detail on this.

One significance in all these meetings is the heightened discussion and interaction around the concept of the Unreached Peoples. For example, many key definitions were hammered out in March of 1982 (and adopted by the Frontier Peoples Committee of the IFMA for their glossary of strategic terms.) But those definitions have yet to appear in the Evangelical Missions Quarterly .

Now though, it seems everybody is talking (or debating!) Unreached Peoples issues. Disagreement is often a sign that issues are at least being taken seriously, and there is convergence!

Take a look yourself. See pages 27-36 for a discussion of these issues.

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