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TechnoratiIt was while he was helping to establish a new School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary that Dr. Ralph D. Winter realized that the mission movement was overlooking many people groups and that there was a need for a specialized institution that probed the problems of missions.
(Photo: CP / Lillian Kwon)
So after ten years at Fuller, Winter left and established the Frontier Mission Fellowship in 1976, immediately initiating two major projects: the U.S. Center for World Mission and William Carey International University.
As stated by TIME Magazine—which recently featured Winter on their cover-story list of America’s top 25 Evangelicals—Winter “revolutionized […] missionary work overseas” with his “impassioned call for Christians to serve the world’s ‘unreached peoples’.”
On Friday, Mar. 11, the Christian Post had an opportunity to speak with Dr. Winter on the campus of William Carey International University in Pasadena, California. The following contain excerpts taken from the interview:
What type of works does the USCWM specialize in that distinguishes it from other mission groups?
We’re always promoting the cause of missions. We’re not recruiting missionaries, we’re recruiting mission mobilizers and critiquers. Our goal is to improve the cause of the Mission, working behind the scenes.
We’re involved in many frontiers, which by definition is an area in dispute. If it were clear it would be solved. If it isn’t clear it’s still a problem.
Generally speaking a problem is hard to explain or else it wouldn’t be a problem. Once a problem is clearly understood as a problem, the solution is relatively easy. So when we talk about problems, we’re talking about confusing things. Whether, for instance, you make a Muslim call himself a Christian to become a believer in Christ. People say “Oh, if Muslims don’t become Christians how can they follow Christ?” Well, Greeks became Christians without calling themselves Christians. Jews became believers of Christ without call themselves without calling themselves Christians. Why can’t Muslims become followers of Christ without becoming Christians? They’re thrown out of their families if they call themselves Christians. Why use the term? Now that’s a frontier. That’s a problem—a very serious problem all around the world. Missions to Islam are stumbling because they don’t understand that problem. So we’re trying to solve that problem.
In fact there’s a recent book called Juice. And he’s talking about the juice of an inventor. What is it that makes an inventor and inventor? He says these are not people who solve problems but these are people who identify problems. When you identify the problem. The solution is relatively easy. Inventors are usually distinguished not by the fact that they solved the problem. Inventors may be famous for solving the problems, but their real contribution was identifying the problem.
At the International congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974, you called for Christians to serve the world’s "unreached peoples," noting that there was a problem with the missions at that time. How were the missions being directed at that time when you made that call? Continue »
