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TechnoratiA giant has passed away, lamented colleagues of the late missiologist Dr. Ralph D. Winter.
(Photo: The Christian Post)Dr. Ralph D. Winter, founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, says the biggest trend in global mission is the polarization among mission agencies between those that focus on evangelization and those that concentrate on relief and development at the Korea World Mission Conference 2008 on Tuesday, July 30, 2008 at Wheaton, Illinois.
(Photo: The Christian Post)Dr. Ralph D. Winter, founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, is greeted with applause after being introduced at the Korea World Mission Conference 2008 on July 28, 2008 in Wheaton, Ill.
At the ripe age of 84, the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission (USCWM) and the man who coined the term “unreached people groups” returned to his heavenly Father on May 20, 2009 at 9:05 p.m. at his home in Pasadena, Calif., after a long battle with cancer.
His list of achievements includes founding a mission think tank, a university, and a mission society. But arguably his greatest contribution to the world of mission and what he is best known for is his ground-breaking 1974 presentation at the Congress for World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland.
It was at this legendary summit, convened by American evangelist Billy Graham, where Winter introduced the term “unreached people groups” that had the profound effect of shifting the entire global mission strategy thereafter.
The phrase "unreached peoples" was first defined by Winter as a people group that had less than a certain percentage of Christians. Later, it was redefined as a group of people with their own distinct culture or language that does not have a viable indigenous evangelizing church movement.
Winter, who was previously a missionary with his wife Roberta in Guatemala for ten years, argued that cross-cultural evangelism is urgently needed because more than half of the people in the world who are not Christian are people who cannot be reached any other way except by pioneer missionary techniques.
The presentation of “unreached people groups” is hailed as a milestone event in missiology.
“Dr. Ralph Winter was perhaps the most influential person in missions of the last 50 years and has influenced missions globally more than anyone I can think of,” said Dr. Ray Tallman, professor of missiology at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and Olivet University in San Francisco, to The Christian Post on Thursday.
“He was a man who could think creatively in relation to the new world in which we live.”
Tallman was a student of Winter at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois. Later, the two would participate in many of the same mission leader conferences around the world. Most recently, Tallman worked directly with the renowned missiologist to set up the Ralph D. Winter Library at Olivet University.
“He was a man who embraced total commitment and sacrifice and embodied what missionary vision is all about,” said the Olivet University professor.
Beyond mission strategies, Winter was also a revolutionary thinker when it came to theological education. He is credited as being among the founders of a movement to extend theological education beyond seminary walls.
Instead of seminaries being the only option for theological education, Winter helped spearhead a movement to take the training to students. In Guatemala, the location of the first Theological Education by Extension (TEE) program, extension campus sites were set up in rural areas where active pastors or church elders could continue to work while taking courses.
These students would meet on some weekends at the extension sites to work on their reading and lessons and once a month at the main seminary located in the city. TEE became the precursor to many modern day theological distance education programs and the multi-campus models used by schools and seminaries today.
Winter’s longtime friend and colleague Greg Parsons, general director of the USCWM, remembers him most fondly for his vision and passion for spreading the Gospel.
“He died in his boots,” Parsons told The Christian Post. “He was still at it days before [he died]. He was engaged, thinking, challenging, circulating ideas, studying, and reading.” Continue »
