October 1986
"You Will Have To See To Believe It"
(Habakkuk 1:3)
To the casual observer, it was probably the smallest, most insignificant parade ever held in the city of Pasadena. The marchers were mainly middle-aged men dressed in business suits. There were no floats, just the unfurled flags of forty-two countries from which those marching had come. The only music was their singing. And the parade route itself was only a few blocks long. It was not surprising, therefore, that not a single newspaper reported this event. Pasadena did not even notice.
Nevertheless, as Ralph saw it, what this parade signified was far more important that the sum of all the Rose Parades for which the city of Pasadena is so famous. He doubted if in anything in the history of the city — or the United States, for that matter — could be more crucial than what these people were about.
In a formal sense, the parade was merely the closing event of the Fourth Triennial Congress of the Asia Missions Association. After meeting in Asia for its first three conventions,
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the AMA decided to meet this time in the U.S., hoping thereby to encourage the sizable Christian Asian population of Los Angeles to participate and to lend financial support. But there also was another, more surprising reason: for the first time AMA leaders had invited national mission leaders from outside of Asia — in particular, from Africa and Latin America.
Most American Christians, even those best acquainted with the situation overseas, are astounded to learn that the converts in mission lands not only run their own churches but nowadays head up their own mission agencies as well. At this meeting, almost all of the delegates were this new breed of mission executive. They represented more than fifty mission agencies (plus 40 other related organizations), all of which were organized and run by non-Western leaders. Many of them directed the work of at least a hundred missionaries, together with other "Third World Missions" represent more than 20,000 non-Western missionaries who work cross-culturally today.
In a nutshell, the fact that such a meeting as this could be called made it very clear that what had once been mission-receiving lands were now lands from which missionaries were sent. That is why Ralph felt that this first world-level meeting of such leaders was the most important milestone since the Reformation. We had come full circle. The world's mission fields had become mission bases. The missionary task was almost done.
But sometimes reality is hard to believe, even when it is right before your eyes. Americans are so accustomed to thinking of missions in terms of nickels and dimes that it is hard to believe that today missions is the largest and most influential multinational enterprise in the world.
It seems incredible that in Los Angeles the 280 traditional (Anglo-Saxon) Presbyterian churches are now outnumbered by Korean Presbyterian churches in that city.
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As Americans, we feel a bit outclassed to learn that a local church in Korea (Paul Yonggi Cho's Full Gospel Central Church) has a membership of 270,000, while our largest is no more than 1/27th that size! Even the logistics make it hard for us to believe that (in 1980) Koreans, all on their own, could pull together a week-long evangelistic meeting that seated, at a single gathering, 2.7 million people.
We find it hard to believe that Africans hold revival tent meetings with 25,000 present. Or that in the city of Santiago, Chile a Methodist Pentecostal church not only has 16,000 in attendance every Sunday morning, but also a 2,000-member choir and orchestra besides. Or that a church sanctuary in Brazil seats 25,000.
The list goes on and on. We are so accustomed to thinking of ourselves as the teachers and the rest of the world as our pupils that it comes as a great shock to learn that they are far ahead of us!
It used to be that when we spoke of the "unfinished task," we thought of the numbers of Western missionaries that would be needed to finish evangelizing the world. Not any more! Christians around the world are responding to this challenge, and within just a few years, we will be left in the dust.
Most shocking of all, perhaps, is to realize what the Spirit of God has done when we weren't looking. When all the missionaries left China in 1950, they left in despair, wondering where they had gone wrong and if Christianity could possibly survive the onslaughts of Communism.
Then, in 1979, the long-closed door to China creaked open again. With a certain amount of caution, followed by shock and then exuberant joy, the former missionaries to China who were still living learned that the Chinese Christians, for the most part, had done far better than to simply endure persecution. The first report was that the million left behind were now three million. A few months later we heard it was 10 million, then 25 million. Now the most reliable
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estimates indicate at least 50 million known believers in China, perhaps even twice that!
Nevertheless, these mission executives from around the world — especially those from Asia — recognized that there is still much to be done in China. Besides the animistic tribal groups near the Indochinese border, there are many Muslim groups to the northwest who are still unreached — the 2.7 million Uighurs, for example. These are so culturally different from the Han Chinese, where most of the Christians are, that whoever reaches out to them will have to do so as a genuine cross-cultural missionary, whether he is Chinese or not.
The mission executives from India tell a similar story. For a number of years, now, it has been almost impossible to get a missionary visa for India. In that time there has been a resurgence of Hindu missions, such that Hindu philosophy, if not its temples, now flood the Western world. Meanwhile, in much of India itself, Hindus wanting to become Christians are actively persecuted.
Yet, they report, God has not forgotten India. In the northeast tribal areas, more than 50% of the people are now Christian believers. Many of these former headhunters are sophisticated businessmen and educators, with Ph.D. degrees. And now they are sending their own missionaries to other tribes in India and across the border into "closed" Burma.
The main body of Indian Christians, several million strong, live in South India, the area in that continent where the gospel first arrived. They also are sending missionaries — to Sri Lanka and other countries where Indian populations are large, but also into North India, where the people speak a different language, come from distinctly different racial backgrounds, and are often resentful of everyone from South India, Christian or not. In some areas, so these Indian executives report, thousands of former Hindus are asking to be baptized. Yes, God is at work.
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Every Thursday evening someone who has recently come from overseas gives the U.S. Center for World Mission community and visiting friends a firsthand report on his area. Recently Emil Jebasingh, head of TransWorld Radio in India, told us the following story.
A couple of years ago, the staff of TWR in India was able to buy a radio station in Madras. In the providence of God, their location on the dial was just to the left of that used by the "All Nation" station of the Indian government, so they decided to call theirs the "All Universe" station.
For some years, now, the government has been urging Indian couples to adopt family planning as a means of population control. For an incentive, it offered a free transistor radio to all who would promise to follow some method of birth control. About the same time, some skilled engineers working with the "All Universe" station designed a very inexpensive radio which the government is buying for these give-aways.
The All Universe station plays classical Indian-style music which sounds very similar to the music played by the All Nation station. Thousands of Hindus, by accident, get the wrong station when they turn on their radios, and for the first time are hearing the gospel of Christ.
"A Hindu priest in one village became a Christian just by listening to the radio," Dr. Jebasingh told us. "He destroyed all the idols in his temple and urged his followers to give their lives to Jesus. Now the temple is full of people worshipping Jesus."
Just as exciting is the new film about the life of Christ, perhaps inspired by the success of the Jesus film of Campus Crusade. This one, however, was produced by one of the top Indian film makers, who happens to be a Hindu. It is shown in public theaters and village squares all over India. The people clap when Christ on the screen heals someone, become angry when He is crucified, and shout for joy when he rises from the dead. Christians are amazed at its influence
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and rejoice that it is quite faithful in its portrayal.
A few of the Third-World mission executives came from lands which are predominantly Muslim. For years Western Christians have considered the Muslim world the most difficult of all to evangelize. Consequently, the total number of missionaries working with Muslims around the world is less than the number of missionaries in the state of Alaska, where the population is not much larger than that of the city of Pasadena. Yet even this is beginning to change.
Most exciting, although there is a resurgence of traditional Islam, there seems to be at the same time a new openness to hear about Jesus.
An Indian mission executive at the AMA convention told one of our staff of a conversation he had with a Muslim in his country.
"Do you believe in the virgin birth?" the Muslim asked.
"Yes," the Christian answered.
"So do I! Do you believe in the miracles of Jesus?"
"Yes," the Christian answered.
"So do I! Do you believe in the resurrection?"
"Yes," the Christian answered.
"So do I! Even so, I think our faith is better than yours because we also believe in living right. We do not drink alcohol nor eat pork," he added.
Two Christian girls from Iran recently spoke at one of the Thursday night meetings. "Khomeni has helped to spread the gospel," they told us.
"But how can that be," we asked.
"Well, the people see now what fanatical Islam is like, and many of them want no part of it. Now you sometimes see Muslims wearing crosses around their necks. That doesn't mean they believe in Jesus. But there is a new hunger to know more about Him. More Muslims have become Christians in Iran since Khomeini came to power than has been true in the last two centuries."
We hear of Muslims high up in society who hold extended
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earnest conversations with believers. They have no respect for merely intellectual Christianity, but they are hungry for a personal relationship with God as their Father. We also hear there are villages of faithful Muslims which have decided that Jesus is not only a prophet (as the Koran alleges) but the Messiah.
God is not only preparing the Muslims for the gospel, He is awakening a love for Muslims in the hearts. Increasingly, Christian young people from countries as distant from each other as Korea and Latin America are expressing a "call" to tell Muslims about Jesus.
Especially exciting is the response of young Latin Americans. Because Muslims controlled Spain for 700 years before the time of the conquistadores, their descendants in Latin America feel a special affinity for the Arab world. The Spanish language has 10,000 words which are Arabic, and other aspects of their culture — their love of poetry and debate, even their physical appearance and temperament — reveal their common roots. It is no wonder, then, than many Latin Americans wonder if the Muslim world is not their personal responsibility.
The churches in Latin America have long astounded the Christians to the north with their vitality and tremendous growth. But this new awareness of their role in the Great Commission is relatively new. Only in the last two or three years have there been nationwide mission conferences in almost every country of Latin America. These are leading up to COMIBAM, an international missions conference for every country of the world where Spanish or Portuguese is spoken. The conference, to be held in Brazil in November of 1987, is completely run by Latin Americans and anticipates more than 3000 invited delegates. Evangelical faith in Latin America is so strong and so vital that almost single-handedly Latin Americans could evangelize the world. No one knows what will be the final impact of the revival that is currently sweeping Argentina, for example.
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Not all the pioneer missionary work which must be done today will take place in foreign countries, however. Like a master chess player, God has moved representatives from unreached people groups far from their homelands all over the world and has plunked them down in the midst of traditionally Christian populations, essentially saying, "You have not gone to them, so I have brought them to you. Now, tell them!" Unreached peoples by the thousands are among us: Kurds in Munich, Kazakhs in Berlin, Berbers in Paris and Amsterdam, Sikhs in Toronto, Gujaratis in Vancouver, Yeminis in Detroit, Saudis in Houston, Cambodians in Long Beach, Afghans in San Francisco.
There is a regular "pentecost of nations" in greater Los Angeles: Lebanese, Iranians, Saudis, Cambodians, Taiwanese, Koreans, Afghans, Salvadoreans, Nicaraguans, tribal people from Vietnam, from Mexico, from Guatemala ... In recording each pupil's "language of the home," the Los Angeles public school system found there are at least 137 different languages spoken in that one city! Similar statements could be made for many world-class cities today.
Today, even Uzbeks and Tajiks and other Central Asians from behind the iron curtain can be found in New York, or Chicago, or Minneapolis. They are waiting for perceptive Christians to reach out in love and friendship, such as their own cultural traditions require. If ever our churches needed a course on being cross-cultural missionaries to their neighbors next door, it is now. Indeed, this is precisely the new thrust of ISI (International Students, Incorporated) — to train church people to do this strategic work.
We have to stand back in awe. God is doing something wonderful — a brand new thing. Already 370 from the city of Singapore are serving overseas as short-term or career missionaries. From one city alone! As a result, the Christians of Singapore have increased their giving to an incredible extent, even in the middle of a recession.
But this harvest of Unreached Peoples is going to be so
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big that God is not depending on the "professionals" alone. He is sending Christian lay people by the hundreds of thousands to work among peoples who are otherwise shut off from the gospel. Sometimes the "sending agency" is a secular corporation. Sometimes, as in China and Russia, it is an atheistic government which as a punishment unwittingly sends Christian witnesses to Hidden People groups thousands of miles away, as happened in China's ten-year "Cultural Revolution." But still, God is behind these moves, whether we recognize this fact or not.
Many Asian Christians are going overseas — to be the Pakistani taxi drivers in Yemen, or the Filipino oilfield workers in Saudi Arabia, or Korean nurses in secular Germany or Indian nurses in some Muslim land. Like the old game of Fruitbasket Turnover, God is mixing us all up — nations with nations and Christians with unbelievers. He has a marvelous purpose in mind. He is in the mission business. He is determined to win the nations back to Himself. And He will do whatever it takes for that to be accomplished.
It is a brand new thing when the Christians who stay home also have to learn to witness to someone from a foreign culture. Who isn't called to be a cross-cultural witness today? Where on earth does he live? Not in any city. And rarely even in the countryside anymore.
It is incredible that God would transport those He wants to win half way around the world just to get the attention of His people. Or that He would use a Khomeini to awaken the Iranians to their need for a Savior. Or Mao Ze Dong not only to destroy idol worship in China but to force thousands of Christian leaders into her less evangelized areas. Or the pain of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan so that a third of her people could more likely hear of Him. Or even bring blessing out of the horrors of Cambodia so that 25,000 of these formerly highly resistant people have now welcomed Him into their hearts in the refugee camps of Thailand.
What, in God's economy and time, does all this mean?
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"Look at the nations and watch — and be utterly amazed," God told Habakkuk. "For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told" (Hab. 1:5).
As 1986 drew to a close, we became more and more excited. All around us we saw signs that God was doing something new — something brand new. And like children on tip-toe on Christmas morning, we could barely wait.
