MISSIONS / EVANGELISM

Biblical and Strategic Foundation
God has a global, historic, eternal and unchanging purpose to redeem a family of glad worshippers from every tribe, language, people and nation on earth (Rev. 5:9, 7:9).  God has entrusted to the Church the privilege of partnering with Him in the completion of this purpose (Matt. 28:18-20).  History will not conclude until the task of establishing the Church among every ethnic group is completed (Matt. 24:14).   Although great needs exist throughout the earth, in order to complete the Great Commission, special attention must be given to those completely lacking access to the good news of Christ's love and power.  The large majority of these unreached people groups live in the 10/40 Window. To maximize strategic impact, the local church's limited resources must be focused and prioritized, then enhanced through strategic partnerships, with the goal of establishing culturally-relevant church planting movements.
Missions versus Evangelism
The classic definition of Missions is any ministry or evangelistic outreach that is done cross-culturally.   Evangelism, on the other hand, is ministry or outreach that is carried on within the same language and culture.  To further define the missions task, missiologists have created a well-known tool, called the E-Scale, to measure the cultural distance between the Christian witness and the unbeliever.  E-0 and E-1 occur within the same culture as the evangelist and therefore should be referred to as Evangelism.  E-2 and E-3 are cross-cultural by definition and therefore should be referred to as Missions. Obviously the church should be actively involved is the entire scale of evangelism, E-0 to E-3.
Geographical versus Cultural Distance
Missions is no longer defined by "crossing salt water." Old categories spoke of "Foreign Missions" and "Home Missions." These categories are no longer valid in the 21st Century. Missions (cross-cultural ministry) can occur in our own neighborhood and Evangelism (same-culture ministry) can occur in a cosmopolitan city on the other side of the globe. With the massive migration of peoples the world over, the distinction is no longer geographical distance, but cultural distance.

For example, befriending and sharing Christ with my Japanese neighbor or Kurdish refugees in Louisville or Iranian students enrolled in University of Louisville all constitute "Missions."   The other culture has come to my home city. On the other hand, if I went as a "missionary" to Hong Kong and served in an International church ministering only to fellow Americans and Europeans, I would be doing "Evangelism," rather than "Missions." This is because I would be working within my own language and culture, even though physically located in another country.

This understanding is critically important to the mission task. In His divine plan, God has sent the peoples of the world to our doorstep to speed up and facilitate the completing of the Great Commission.  It is important that we do "Missions" right here at home.  On the other hand we need to understand that just because a ministry work is overseas, it does not necessarily fulfill the "mission task."   Both Evangelism and Missions are equally important wherever they occur in the earth.   Understanding the difference between the two enables relevant and strategic policy and decisions.
Availability versus Need
Another important distinction to understand is the difference between availability of the Gospel and need for the Gospel.  All people groups and individuals within them have an equal need for the gospel.   White suburban Louisville residents need the gospel as much as a Tibetan villager high in the Himalayan Mountains.  However, not all people groups and individuals within them have equal availability of the gospel.  The Louisville resident can choose from numerous churches, radio and TV programs, and Christian books and films on a daily basis.   The Tibetan villager will likely live and die without ever hearing the gospel once in a way he can understand.   In his case, there are no Christians or missionaries for hundreds of miles, no Christian radio or TV or books or films in his language accessible to him, and probably very little, if any, Scripture translated into his language or dialect. How is he to hear and respond to Christ?   "How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?" (Romans 10:14)

In order to complete Christ's Great Commission, priority must be placed on making the gospel available to those who are still lacking access to the Good News.   As the apostle Paul affirmed, "I aspired to preach the gospel where Christ was not already named." (Romans 15:20-21)
Regular versus Frontier Missions
All mission work is important, but not all mission work is equally strategic.  Twenty centuries of Christian mission have resulted in the Church being established on every continent and in every political country on earth.   Around the middle of the 20th century, the Church began to relax a bit thinking its mission task on earth was practically done.   It wasn't until the mid-1970's that this assumption was recognized as errant.   The mission task had been assessed geographically rather than culturally, making invisible huge cultural blocks lacking access to the gospel.   Upon recognition that Jesus' commission to take the gospel to every "nation" was a cultural challenge (Greek word is "ethos" meaning "ethnic group") rather than a geopolitical one, the mission task was reassessed, revealing that half the world's population had little or no access to the gospel.   These ethno-linguistic groups were termed "unreached people groups" and a clarion call went out to reach them.   The last quarter of the 20th century saw an immense global effort to redirect some resources from saturated mission fields and mobilize massive new resources to make the gospel available to these unreached people groups.   On the brink of the 21st century, the world's population can be roughly divided into thirds.   One third of earth's people call themselves Christians.   One third are non-Christians living in reached people groups.   The last third are non-Christians living in unreached people groups.   An "unreached people group" is defined as "a people group within which there is not a sufficient community of indigenous Christians able to evangelize their own people without requiring outside assistance."

For evangelistic purposes, a "people group" is "the largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance."   At the turn of the millennium, there are roughly 24,000 people groups on earth; approximately 10,000 of these are unreached, containing a total of 1.2 to 1.4 billion individuals who have not yet heard the gospel.   Most of these unreached people groups are in the Muslim, Tribal, Hindu or Buddhist religious blocks and live in the area of the world known as the "10/40 Window."

Regular Mission is cross-cultural Christian work that spreads the gospel within people groups where churches have already been established (reached people groups). Frontier Mission is cross-cultural Christian work that seeks to establish churches within people groups where it does not yet exist (unreached people groups).   Because Frontier Mission is essential to complete the Great Commission, it is important that these distinctions be understood.