Articles

Reading Fortune magazine is not part of my routine, although I must confess that mission work at the end of the century shares some of the characteristics of international business operations.

Eleven years ago my wife and I moved in among the unreached. We surveyed our area and found no believers, not one. They were unresponsive, too. I still remember planning and praying for our first event.

Missionaries can have a lot to worry about. Should they add the “Year 2000 Bug” to the list?

Cathy Thornberg of the Russian-American Christian University, Moscow, interviews Cliff Harder, Campus Crusade for Christ.

Most Western missionaries overseeing publishing houses abroad would love to see effective indigenous leaders emerge and then move the missionary-initiated publishing efforts to local ownership and financial autonomy. However, making these transitions work can be a nightmare.

I sat sipping coffee, listening to a missionary, recently arrived in Ukraine, telling a common story. After he rented an auditorium, the director of the building began dropping hints that the agreement might have to be canceled. We both knew that a gift to the director would solve the problem.

At the end of the second millennium since Christ’s birth, we have near equality in the number of missionaries sent from the Western world—the nations of Europe and North America—and those sent by the nations of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

During a home ministry assignment several years ago, it was my privilege to mow a friend’s “postage stamp-sized” lawn. After finishing, I experienced an incredible sense of joy and accomplishment.

Since the first Asian Missions Congress held at Seoul in 1990, Asian missions has developed remarkably. Increasingly, local churches have become missionary minded, many more indigenous missions agencies have been formed, young people have gone out as missionaries, and the church has grown significantly in countries like China, Nepal, and Mongolia.

“Uttermost” simply meant everyone everywhere. To people like me, it clearly defined the scope of missionary outreach.