Almost Fast Enough

Recently I came across an encouraging headline statistic. The unevangelized world is shrinking. In the year 2000, the overall number of the unevangelized decreased by approximately four million souls…

Beneath the headline, however, the story becomes more complicated.

The "overall number of the unevangelized" represents…

The number of unevangelized at the beginning of the year, plus:

The number of children born into unevangelized homes, minus:

The number of unevangelized persons who have heard the Gospel during the year, minus:

The number of unevangelized persons who have died during the year.

At the beginning of 2000, the number of the unevangelized stood at approximately 1,630 million persons.2 It has increased by birth: some 87 million children were born last year into unevangelized homes. It has decreased by evangelism: 78 million of the unevangelized heard the Good News. It has decreased as well, of course, by death: last year, 13.2 million persons died without hearing the Good News even once.

One researcher concluded: "By a slim margin, they are dying faster than we are telling them the good news of Christ." He goes on: "We are almost fast enough…"

We are almost fast enough.

The comment reminded me of the relative speeds and rythyms exhibited in my own home. If I announce, let’s say, that we’re going out to see a movie, the entire household mobilizes quickly. But if I announce that the hour has come to rake the leaves or shovel the sidewalk, mobilization stalls. Sometimes, even, it is difficult to be "fast enough" on Sunday morning to get to church on time. It is a matter of priorities. We are "almost fast enough" to shovel the walk before it ices over. But we have no trouble acting quickly, let’s say, to drive to the stadium and take in the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Sadly, the unevangelized will not wait for us forever. They die first. Those who have never heard – the truly unevangelized – die at a rate of 13.2 million persons per year. The figure translates to 36,164 per day, or 100 in the four minutes it takes you to read these few paragraphs. We are almost fast enough.

Is it fast enough for you?

1 Justin Long, reality-check@egroups.com (Jan 9, 2001)

"The Way I See It", February 2001
© Copyright 2001 (World Mission Prayer League). All rights reserved.