Not long ago, a pastor announced to one of our missionaries: “The age of Christian missions is past.” When I heard of the encounter, I almost dropped my jaw. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
In fairness, our pastor friend meant (I think) that the age of sending western missionaries is past. It is not an uncommon opinion in some circles. There remains, perhaps, some mission work to do. But now the task belongs to the emerging church around the world. Let our Indian friends evangelize their Indian neighbors. Let our Eritrean friends reach their Eritrean compatriots. If the western church is to be involved at all, goes the logic, it must restrain its involvement to a somewhat passive partnership – maybe pray some prayers or send some funds. But sending missionaries, it is argued, has become a thing of the past.
There is a grain of truth in the appraisal. We should certainly pray and work and contribute toward the mobilization of Asian and African churches, etc., for the evangelization of Asia and Africa. And we should be thrilled to notice that the Asian, African, and Latin American churches are sending missionaries. Many missionaries. Seventy percent of the worldâs total missionary force, in fact.
And yet, there remain many, many cultures and people groups around the world that are still today quite unreached. By current estimates, approximately 12,000 people groups may be classified “unreached.” And they will not be reached – they cannot, in fact – without a pioneering, boundary-crossing missionary effort to reach them.
It is fine, you see, to encourage our African church friends to reach their unchurched African neighbors. But among the unreached, there is no Christian church to encourage. That is precisely the point: the unreached are without a viable indigenous Christian presence among them. It is the purpose of Christian missions to remedy the situation. To name the Gospel where it has not yet been named. To plant the church where it has not yet appeared.
Is the age of Christian missions past? Much to the contrary, I believe that we may be entering upon a golden age of Christian missions. Already we are seeing missionary outreach and growth of almost unprecedented scale. One agency in Nigeria sends 600 cross-cultural missionaries. The Christian community in India sends more than 40,000 cross-cultural missionaries. The churches of China are now undertaking a missionary program whose goal is 100,000 new missionaries, deployed from the heartland of Central Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. As a missionary website in Latin America announces, “La fuerza misionera debería fluir de los seis continentes hacia los seis continentes, en un espíritu de servicio humilde.” Missionary forces must flow from six continents toward six continents, in a spirit of humble service.
Oh yes – the age of Christian missions is still upon us! The need is as challenging as ever, and the forces at work to meet the need are absolutely astounding. Our Lord invites us to be a part of it! Through our prayers, our sending â and our going, too â we are invited still to participate in the wonderful mission of God.