The Impossible Challenge: The Founding of the US Center for World Mission

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In my experience, there have been few periodicalsthat, when received, immediately go straight intomy briefcase to be read ASAP. Im very pleased tohave a permanently bound copy covering those first

years of Gods miraculous leading and provision.Remembering what God did at the founding ofthe U.S. Center for World Mission will strengthenour faith and renew our commitment to continuedsacrifice on behalf of the Hidden Peoples.

Gary Ginter

Chairman/CEO, VAST Power Systems, Inc.

TheMission FrontiersBulletin is about movement,mission in high gear with all wheels spinning. This

volume is living church and mission history. Dontmiss the thrill of it.

Paul Hostetter

Retired missionary, Professor of Missiology

When my friend Ralph Winter speaks, I listen! Fordecades hes been leading on the cutting edge of themost significant movement of world historythecompletion of Christs Great Commission. The firstfour years ofMission Frontiersis important. Read,learn, and understand as mission history unfoldsthen get involved.

Loren Cunningham

Founder, Youth With A Mission

In the pages of this volume of the first four yearsthe reader will find the fascinating story of thosecrucial, cliff-hanging years of the U. S. Centerfor World Mission, written down as they werehappening. I can hardly wait to pore over the drama

recorded in this illuminating record again.Jim Montgomery

Chairman, Founder, Dawn Ministries

(Member of USCWM founding board of

directors)

We look forward to the reprinting of those crucial firstfour years of theMission FrontiersBulletin.

Betty Schubert

Missionary

I appreciate the crucial part that theMissionFrontiersBulletin and the U. S. Center for WorldMission have had in putting the spotlight onreaching the unreached people groups in the worldfor Christ.

Barbara F. Grimes

Wycliffe translator, Ethnologue Editor from

1971-2000

I appreciate the sense of energy, unexpectedinsights, up-to-the-minuteness, and glimpses of thenew edges of mission that I find between the coversof each issue.

Evvy Hay Campbell

Associate Professor, Missions and

Intercultural Studies, Wheaton College

This reprint of early issues ofMission Frontierswill be a rare treasure of cutting-edge, creative,provocative, always applicable missions reflectionsand proposals. A must-read for all with a global

vision and contextually relevant engagement in themost important, most holy and most urgent task in

the world.Dr. Peter Kuzmic

Distinguished Professor of World Missions

and European Studies, Gordon-Conwell

Theological Seminary

All who are committed to world evangelization willenjoy picking up this book and reliving a crucialmilestone: the founding of the U.S. Center for

World Mission.Dana L. Robert

Professor of Mission, Boston UniversitySchool of Theology

This reprint of the first four years of theMissionFrontiersBulletin covers a watershed period inthe life of a movement that would contributesignificantly to the shaping of mission strategy fordecades to come.

Duain Verow

Pastor and former missionary

In Anticipation!


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Many are going to be blessed through thiscommemorative volume of the first four crucial

yearsa powerful testimony to the faithfulness ofGod and his people.

W. Harold Fuller

Missions author, SIM, Canada

Faith often seems reckless, clueless and blindblindto overwhelming obstacles because its eyes are fixedon the goal. These pages relive the reckless faith thatstarted the U.S. Center for World Mission and revealthe amazing early steps toward the goal of spreading tothe Church the vision of unreached peoples.

Former USCWM staff member

Throughout the years theMission FrontiersBulletinhas challenged me to see the world from a differentperspective. It has been my constant steady classroom

for effective missions. Praise God!Heidi Grooms

Student Mobilizer

From this joint venture and concerted effort of Ralphand Roberta Winter, along with mission minded peoplefrom across the country have come resources such astheMission FrontiersBulletin circulated among 80,000people and articles, textbooks, materials and curriculum-lessons which are being used today in over 100 collegesand seminaries. The U.S. Center for World Mission

continues to play a key role in the areas of research,training and education synergistically, strategically,evangelistically both here and around the world.

John Coulombe

Pastor to Seniors, First Evangelical Free Church

of Fullerton, CA

I thank God for the U.S. Center for World Mission.The reprint volume of the first four years of theMission FrontiersBulletin is a wonderful record of itsfounding years and stands as a testament to faith-

filled trust in the God who supplies our every need.Richard J. FosterAuthor of Celebration of Discipline

Founder and Chair of Renovare

Mission Frontiersis indispensable reading for anyonewho wishes to be on the cutting edge of missiologicalinformation. You cant help but be inspired.

Tetsunao Yamamori

President Emeritus, Food for the Hungry

International

If you want to learn how to raise $15 million whenyou only have pocket change and a heavenly dream,READ THIS BOOK.

Ron Symons

Insurance broker

Board member, Presbyterian Frontier

Fellowship

Mission Frontiersis one of the most importantjournals influencing the modern missionarymovement. The articles in this volume of the firstfour years will inspire you, challenge you, and cause

you to contemplate your own role in the fulfillmentof the Great Commission.

Timothy Tomlinson

Dean of Alternative Education, Northwestern

College, St. Paul, MN

Nothing has shaped (or shaken) mission strategy inthe last three decades more than the seeds containedin this volume. One example: the realization that theGreat Commission refers neither to countries norto individuals but to ethnic groups of people. Suchinsights remain as compellingly relevant today as

when Mission Frontiers was first printed. Dont missthis historic volume!

Robby Butler

Founder, theMissionNetwork.org


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William Carey International University

Pasadena, California

The first four years of theMission Frontiers Bulletin

January 1979 to December 1982Plus, an introduction to previous events

A reflection on an unusual cluster of events,reprinted in commemoration of

twenty-five years ofcontinuous publication

The ImpossibleChallenge The Founding of theU.S. Center for World Mission


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Copyright 2004, U.S. Center for World Mission

ISBN: 0-86585-003-8

Mission FrontiersBulletin is the official bulletin of the U.S. Centerfor World Mission, a project of the Frontier Mission Fellowship,1605 East Elizabeth Street, Pasadena, CA 91104, USA. Informationconcerning more copies of this publication may be found on the

web at www.missionfrontiers.org. Comments to the editors can bemailed to the editor ofMission Frontiers.

Permission to reprint anything in this volume is granted on thecondition that a reference is clearly made to the source.


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Preface

What you hold in your hands covers the first six years of theexistence of the U. S. Center for World Mission and the firstfour years of its bulletin,Mission Frontiers. The Introduction

to follow gives the background and summarizes the first two full years, 77and 78. Then, beginning in January of 1979, the pages ofMission Fron-tierscover events from then on almost blow by blow for the next four years

through December of 1982.

Of course, 1982 is not the end of the story. Amazing things have happenedsince then. None are quite as important as knowing about the early period.How did it happen? What weighty factors were there? Why was so far-outa goal even pursued at all?

This is why a brief introduction has been added. The highly readablebook by my first wife, Roberta, covers many more years and in a moredramatic way, and was updated two years ago for the 25th anniversary ofthe USCWM. It was first called, Once More Around Jericho and, expand-

ed, is now calledI Will Do a New Thing. In contrast, this volume com-memorates the 25th anniversary of the inaugural of theMission FrontiersBulletin, which as I write this is now in its 26th year.

You will note that these pages are somewhat like the diary of an organiza-tion. The specific value of a diary over an interpretive biography is that itrecords what happens even when the meaning of the events is not yet clear,and whether those events are good or bad. It is a candid picture, not a for-mal portrait. The eight pages of annotations on specific pages I have pro-

vided, again and again reveal intriguing hindsights. But you, the reader, aregiven an inside look at things yourself so as to draw your own conclusions.

In taking the initiative in 1976 to found the Center, I have never in my lifefelt so clearly drawn by the living God to make such a radical decision, eitherbefore or since. But I will leave that story for theIntroduction which follows.

Ralph D. Winter, October 2004Founder, Frontier Mission Fellowship/U. S. Center for World MissionPresident, William Carey International University


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Preface vIndex, Comments ixIntroduction, Background xvii

1979, Vol. 1, (64 pages)

Vol. 1:1, Jan-Feb 1Vol. 1:2, Feb-Mar 9Vol. 1:3, Mar-April 17Vol. 1:4, April-May 25Vol. 1:5, July-Aug 33Vol. 1:6, December 57

1980, Vol. 2, (108 pages)

Vol. 2:1, January 65

Vol. 2:2, February 73Vol. 2:3, March 81Vol. 2:4, April 89Vol. 2:5, May 97Vol. 2:6, June 105Vol. 2:7, July 113Vol. 2:8, August 121Vol. 2:9, September 129Vol. 2:10, October 137Vol. 2:11, November 149

Vol. 2:12, December 1611981, Vol. 3, (130 pages)

Vol. 3:1, January 173Vol. 3:2, February 189Vol. 3:3, March 201Vol. 3:4, April 217Vol. 3:5, May-June 227Vol. 3:6, July 239Vol. 3:7, August 255Vol. 3:8, Sept-Oct 271Vol. 3:9, Nov-Dec 287

1982, Vol. 4, (148 pages)

Vol. 4:1, Jan-Feb 303Vol. 4:2, Mar-April 327Vol. 4:3, May 343Vol. 4:4, June 355Vol. 4:5, July 379Vol. 4:6, Aug-Sept 395Vol. 4:7, Oct-Nov 415Vol. 4:8, December 435

Contents


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Note that in the following pages IFMA refers to theInterdenominational Foreign Mission Association ofNorth America, founded in 1917, while EFMA refers towhat used to be called the Evangelical Foreign Missions

Association, founded in 1945, but which recently changedits name to the Evangelical Fellowship of Mission

Agencies. The EFMA, from the beginning, unlike theIFMA, welcomed denominational, interdenominational,and Pentecostal agencies whether or not denominational.

Volume 1, 1979

Vol. 1:1, Jan- Feb 1979p. 1: This photo reveals what could not havehappened overnight. Thus, this first issue of

Mission Frontiersbegins after our first two years.To fill in the gap see the first page in this book.Also, pages 38-39.

p. 2: What is the U.S. Center for World Mission?

p. 3: Finding and Researching the HiddenPeoples (as we called them early on).

p. 4: The First Athens Congress on World Missions.

p. 5: What Is a World Christian?

p. 6: William Carey International University, andthe Institute of International Studies (the lattersponsored what is now called the PerspectivesStudy Program.

p. 7: Do You Want This Project To Succeed?

p. 8: Editorial: Meet the Director.

Vol. 1:2, Feb-Mar 1979p. 10: A dramatic account of the peculiar problem of

reaching the remaining untouched people groups.

p. 11: First of a series of full-page ads in Christianity

Today.p. 12: Finding Gods Will.

p. 14: What we suggest churches ought to do.

p. 16: We need everything from furniture to dinnerplates.

Vol. 1:3, Mar-April 1979p. 18: Who is the real missionary? Dividing the

world in three parts.

p. 19: A fascinating parable of a Japanese youth thatwants to win America for Shintoism.

p. 20: What you can do to help us. The FirstAthens Congress on World Missions. A newposter showing facts of the unreached.

p. 22: Training opportunities.

p. 24: Editorial: Meet the Director.

Vol. 1:4, April-May 1979p. 25: Introducing the pre-candidate crisis.

p. 26: A one-semester study program.p. 27: Pre-candidate problem/solution: Fish below

the Dam.

p. 28: The origin of the watchword: A Church forEvery People by the Year 2000.

p. 30: A stirring challenge to students.

p. 31: Announcing on-campus courses (pre-Perspectives).

p. 32: Editorial: Meet the Directors Wife.

Vol. 1:5, July-Aug 1979

p. 33: A special, longer Founders Reference Issuewhich we sent to everyone who gave $15.95.

p. 34: An early letterhead.

p. 35: Twenty-seven face-to-face meetingsscheduled for July alone with groups from Bostonto Seattle.

p. 36: Introducing the Third era of missions.

p. 38: Three Miracle Yearsa recapitulation of theinitial months beforeMission FrontiersBulletinexisted.

p. 39: A chart showing our progress to the first $1.2million.

p. 40: Second full-page ad in Christianity Today.

p. 41: Ten Questions People Often Ask.

p. 43: Our famous wall chart and a table of statisticsof the world from a missionary perspective.

p. 45: Scenes of the campus.

p. 46: Third full-page ad in Christianity Today.

Index/Commentsby Ralph D. Winter


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p. 47: Fourth full-page ad in Christianity Today.

p. 48: Chart showing how 30 mission agencies havealready helped us.

p. 49: An abortive, pre-Perspectivesone-semesterprogram.

p. 50: Why we decided to ask for only $15.95 from

any one person.p. 51: Bill Bright, Leighton Ford, Billy Graham,

Harold Ockenga, Don Hoke, Harold Lindsell,Donald McGavran, et al. speak about this project.

p. 52: Three USCWM priorities and a diagramof the roots, trunk, and branches of a treerepresenting the Cause of Missions.

p. 53: An early organization chart of the Center andthe University showing what a slim crew we stillhad after two and a half years.

p. 54: How people have helped us and the strategic

reasons for a word-of-mouth approach to creatingvision and support.

p. 55: A list of vision expanding materials that areavailable.

p. 56: What we would like people to do.

Vol. 1:6, December 1979p. 57: Announcing a final decision for

October 27-31, 1980 for the World Consultationon Frontier Missions. News: EFMA agencieschoose to reach 5,908 by 1990!

p. 58: Report of the Athens Congress on WorldMissions.

p. 59: First chart displaying our entire paymentschedule.

p. 60: The link between the Urbana conferences andour Pre-Perspectivesstudy program. Ninety churchesagree to hold annual Hidden People Sundays.

p. 61: The Evangelical Foreign MissionsAssociation invited me to give the openingaddress highlighting the conference theme, which

was Reaching Unreached Peoples! Summary ofmy address. Eighty agencies chose to reach 5,908unreached peoples by the year 1990! (see page 57for the latter).

p. 62: Another editorial on an early letterhead.

p. 63: Key missions books available.

Volume 2, 1980

Vol. 2:1, January 1980p. 65: Famed theologian, Dr. Carl F. H. Henry,

mentions our work in an article in Christianity

Today. Also, the theme of the Urbana studentmission conference yielded significantly to ourcampaign for unreached frontiers. One of ourPerspectivescoordinators had his book becomea Book of the day. The article continues onpage 70.

p. 66: Our first announcement that we would not

ask for donations once the property was paid for.p. 68: Birth of what later was called World Christian

magazine.

p. 69: The initial chapter of a series this whole yearon Missions in the Bible. Note the announcementthat my wife, Roberta, provided the cover storyforMoody Monthlyin the February 1980 issue.

p. 70: The announcement of our outstanding degreeprogram in teaching English to Speakers of OtherLanguages.

p. 71: A unique fold-up reply form with a listing of

materials on the back side.p. 72: Quite a maze of materials specifically

focusing on frontiers.

Vol. 2:2, February 1980p. 73: A view from the air of the 11 university

buildings plus the USCWM building in thebottom left. Mention is made of extensiveinterviews in bothEternity Magazineand CampusCrusades Worldwide Challenge. I am interviewedbeginning here, cont. on p. 78.

p. 74: A list of good things that have happened.For example, the president of Wycliffe wrote toall of their members urging them to contribute$15.95 to buy the campus. Note the reference tothe circulation ofMission Frontiersbeing 15,000at that date.

p. 75: Planning for the October 1980 WorldConference on Frontier Missions now includes asimultaneous student level conference.

p. 76: Numbers through Deuteronomy in thesecond of the Missions in the Bible series.

p. 77: Former staff member David Bliss bringsback 33 South Africans to our JanuaryPerspectivescourse. Further on the Edinburgh1980 conference.

p. 78: The remainder ofMission Frontiersinterviewwith me.

Vol. 2:3, March 1980p. 81: We are now in dire straits: three months

behind in our payments.


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p. 82: I dont understand this crude chart.

p. 83: Moving the Perspectivescourse beyondPasadena was a smashing success in this firstlarge extension.

p. 84: A significant chart showing the lack ofworkers among the frontier populations.

p. 85: I am interviewed by Campus Crusade fortheir magazine. A picture of me and Dr. J.Edwin Orr.

p. 86: Third installment of Missions in the BibleDeuteronomy through II Kings.

Vol. 2:4, April 1980p. 89: Celebration of three years of existence.

p. 90: Absolutely crucial to the future financialstability of this project is the acquisition of 93residential properties for $3.2 million. But to dothat, $625,000 would be needed in two months.

(In 2004 those properties were worth $40million.) Will we make it?

p. 91: In April 1980 momentum is growing for theOctober World Conference on Frontier Missionsin Edinburgh, Scotland.

p. 92: Here in two pages is the first half of RobertasMoody Monthlycover story: The Non-Essentialsof Life. The Moody editors debated a long timebefore printing this article on simple lifestyle!

p. 94: The fourth installment in Missions in theBible, including a simple chart portraying the

entire Old Testament. Through Chronicles andNehemiah, the children of Israel get a betterglimpse of their mission.

Vol. 2:5, May 1980p. 97: We sponsored the first Southern California

Annual Missions Festival.

p. 98: A three-page reprint of a superb interview byEnglands leading Evangelical magazine.

p. 101: The second half of RobertasMoody Monthlycover story, The Non-Essentials of Life.

p. 103: Missions in the Bible, fifth installment.p. 104: A passionate plea for help. Thirty days to

the most crucial deadline in the acquisition of theentire campus.

Vol. 2:6, June 1980p. 105: 700 turn out for our third anniversary.

Amazing program.

p. 106: A two-page chart of our five-year goals inthree dimensions.

p. 108: Note the impact of my wifes book, OnceMore Around Jericho.

p. 110: Missions in the Bible, installment six.

Vol. 2:7, July 1980p. 113: Just about the worst crisis we ever faced:

Here and at the bottom of page 115gain or lose

$3 million. Curious but true.p. 115: The upper part of this page recounts

some amazing achievements thus far andproposes a new advances program allowingpeople and churches to advance (and laterretrieve) larger gifts.

p. 117: 7th Installment of Missions in the Bible, thistime with even more diagrams.

p. 118: An out and out pitch for readers to becomeMacro-missionaries as we are in Pasadena,behind the scenes but vital to the cause.

Vol. 2:8, August 1980p. 121: Faltering at the world levela huge

Lausanne-sponsored conference in Thailandreveals some disparate ideas of how to go forward,and the tragic fact that this accurately representsthe mainsteam of Evangelicalism.

But also, God DID help us over that enormoushurdle of needing $200,000 in two months tosave $3 million.

p. 122: The work of the Zwemer Institute (forMuslim outreach).

p. 123: Report on the Annual Missions Festival.Also, the official announcement of the student-level companion conference at the Edinburghmeeting (see also on page 125).

p. 124: More on the impasse at the Thailandcongress. More on the way Bill Bright and BillyGraham both stepped in to help us.

p. 125: Now, comparing the Thailand conferencewith, our world-level conference scheduledonly four months away to meet at Edinburgh,Scotland, the World Consultation on Frontier

Missions. Note the differences!p. 126: 8th installment of Missions in the Bible.

Vol. 2:9, September 1980p. 129: On a return visit to his mission field in Irian

Jaya, what does Don Richardson find? Goodthings, hope, and land encroachment!

A quick survey of eight global level missionmeetings. Some good, some not so good.


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p. 130: Are we in a renewal of the StudentVolunteer Movement?

Financial update.

p. 131: Here and on p. 132 is a detailed new year-long plan whereby a congregation can imbue itspeople with World Christian vision.

p. 134: 9th installment of Missions in the Bible:The shock waves of Jesus concerns.

Vol. 2:10, October 1980p. 137: The Hindu challenge, running through

three pages, is the most stubborn of all remainingmajor blocs. This article spells out why.

As promised in the previous issue, here is a fullblown survey of five of the major global missionconferences and details of the most important onestill to come, The World Conference on FrontierMissions, in November at Edinburgh, Scotland.

p. 138: Letters from donors who shared materialswith friends. The box score reports 18,560 donorsto date.

p. 139: An urgent letter reporting our status andasking for help.

p. 140: Perspectivescourse taught in India.

p. 141: Foursquare Mission Board accepts thechallenge of reaching 100 Hidden People groups.

Vol. 2:11, November 1980p. 145: An astounding September 19 list of over 150

mission agencies already planning to participate

on November 27 in Edinburgh. (194 finally cameto the conference, sending 270 delegates).

p. 146: 10th installment of Missions in the Bible.Negative reactions to the Gospel.

p. 149: Presenting the concept of congregationsAdopting a Hidden People.

p. 150: An editorial reporting that last Friday ourproperty doubled and our net worth tripled.

p. 151: Announcement: $100,000 gift to assist theEdinburgh conference. This will enable a numberof smaller agencies from India and other placesto attend.

p. 153: The great impact of motion picture films.Now 18,883 donors.

p. 154: The amazing story of Robert Wilder andthe Student Volunteer Movementrunningthrough the next three pages.

p. 157: The Hmong people aided the U. S. militaryin Vietnam, but faced genocide after the U.S.pulled out. Now, 88 young Hmong believers 15-

22 years old converged on our campus for a 5-dayconference.

p. 158: 11th installment of Missions in the Bible,Acts.

Vol. 2:12, December 1980p. 161: Finally, the amazing Edinburgh 1980

conference has past and here is a complete report.p. 162: This editorial lists the entire history of our

obligations and actual payments.

p. 165: A full page on the student conference atEdinburgh 1980. They pledged themselves tothree major proposals. One, a bulletin, has growninto what is now called theInternational Journal ofFrontier Missions(www.ijfm.org).

p. 166: The wording of the pledge adopted by thestudent conference.

p. 167: Announcing a World Briefing Conference

to be held on campus just after New Years Day.Box score: Now 19,209 donors.

p. 170: Final installment of Missions in the Bible.

p. 172: How you can help spread the vision.

Volume 3, 1981

Vol. 3:1, January 1981p. 173: This January issue is a complete rundown of

all four major divisions of the Center.

p. 174: An earnest plea for people to help us spreadthe vision

p. 175: An official announcement of CharterMembership in the ECFA (Evangelical Councilfor Financial Accountability). This was two yearsbefore we realized that our membership in theIFMA (Interdenominational Foreign Mission

Association) urged their member missions not toduplicate things this way.

p. 176: Our most important division, MissionStrategy, a relationship mainly with missionagencies.

p. 177: Twenty four new staff added in 1980 are

pictured here and on pages 179, 181, 182 and 185.

p. 178: Our Mission Mobilization Division,a relationship mainly with students andcongregations.

p. 180: Our Mission Training Division, arelationship mainly with students but alsocongregations and agencies.

p. 182: Our Mission Services Division.

p. 184: Box Score of donations at this point.


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p. 185: Gods Call To You.

p. 188: Four years after its founding, courseofferings at the university.

Vol. 3:2, February 1981p. 189: Two things of special note in this issue:

Beginning here, an important five-page article

describing the three distinctly different ProtestantEras of Missions in the last two centuries. Astaggering diagram, see page 191.

p. 191: This amazing diagram plots our NetWorth in just four years as rising from zero to $5million! It also portrays the growth of our centralstaff from three to 62, and all-center workersfrom zero to 207.

p. 197: On this and the next page the hard factsabout Hindus, Muslims, Chinese and Tribals.

Vol. 3:3, March 1981

p. 201: Announcing a way to become a dailyWorld Christianthe Loose Change Fellowship.

p. 202: Editorial on the latest letterhead showingten entities in our worldwide network of Centersfor World Mission, 37 Consultants and 32organizations and departments under four mainDivisions.

p. 203: Eighteen recent important visitors.

p. 204: Three pages: March 1981 and the firstformal announcement of the Loose ChangeFellowship, a means of becoming a daily World

Christian. How to form a local group.p. 205: The goal of a million people saving loose

change for frontier missions by the end of the yearno less! (Overly optimistic).

p. 207: An illuminating four-page letter thatwas sent out to all 20,000 recipients ofMissionFrontiers. Tackles head-on the most searchingand delicate questions people have raised.

p. 208: A synopsis of our highly unusual self-limitation to asking for only a small, one-time gifts and the intent to return or reassign

eventually all larger gifts.p. 209: Our strategy with just small giftsother

agencies will help?

p. 210: But the loose change wont go to the Center!

p. 211: Christian RVers help very strategically.

Vol. 3:4, April 1981p. 217: The intentional murder of Chet Bitterman

in Colombia shocked the mission world.

p. 218: Editorial: Our plan to enlist other missionagencies in a nationwide Loose ChangeFellowship. Would they help?

p. 220: Letter about Chet Bitterman from WycliffeBible Translators.

p. 221: Don Richardson writes a brilliant three-page article regarding Chets murder, explaining

the campaign of many anthropologists againstmission work.

Vol. 3:5, May-June 1981p. 227: The cover story is a remarkable and

simplified description of the unfinished task inonly two pages. It was first published in TEAMscollege-student magazine, Wherever.

p. 228: Eleven photos tell of the 10k race wesponsored.

p. 230: A marvelously simple diagram described the

unfinished task.p. 231: Our best diagram yet: The World in

Missionary Perspective.

p. 233: Announcing our Christian Leaders Instituteof International Studies (especially for pastors andmission executives).

p. 234: Radiant letters coming in full of creativeways of spreading vision about the state ofmissions and unreached peoples (and ourfinancial need).

Vol. 3:6, July 1981

p. 239: We now receive a letter giving a neardeadline for foreclosure. We need $300,000 by

July 15, just a few days away. See my plea to oursupporters: A three-page handwritten letterprinted in full!

p. 242: The formation of the Theological Studentsfor Frontier Missions (TSFM) hamperedby the decision to restrict board and staffmembership to current students. Lived until thestudents graduated.

p. 243: Announcement of a goal of $100 million per

year for missions through a network of the LooseChange Fellowship. Also, listeners respond to ournew daily radio broadcast.

p. 244: Announcement of the Vision Partner planand kit.

p. 245: How and why to start a Loose ChangeFrontier Mission Fellowship in your local church.

p. 246: A huge two-page diagram of a self-expanding campaign of vision spreading involving


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many congregations and agencies, which wouldtouch one million people in nine monthsandthen year after year generate an extra $100million for frontier missions!

p. 247: Why did it not work? Because we promotedit partly for our own benefit. Will it work if wedo not stand to gain? Yes. Are we going to try it

again? Yes. We have most recently called it ourMillion Person Campaign.

p. 248: For the first time, a complete organizationalchart of both the USCWM and the relateduniversity.

p. 249: A heart-felt letter from one of our staff toa hypothetical person in an unreached peopleexplaining why the Gospel has not yet gotten tothembecause rich Christians dont know ordont care and spend their money on other things.

Vol. 3:7, August 1981

p. 255: Cover story is a typical, enthusiastic, off-the-cuff talk given by me at our regular Thursdayevening meeting.

p. 257: A chart and a detailed table showingthe sober facts of our financial situation, pastand present.

p. 259: A map of the USA showing cities whereindividuals have responded to our FrontierFellowship programdaily prayer and givingloose change to some mission for unreachedpeoples.

p. 260: Written by a professional writer: Theoutlines of the new plan to engage othermission agencies in the Loose Change FrontierFellowship.

p. 261: A global map showing 21 sister centersand 41 former staff with whom we were in toucharound the world.

p. 265: A report on the Annual Mission Festivaland the new Christian Leaders Institute ofInternational Studies.

p. 266: Two facing pages portray in full size two

pages from what later was called The GlobalPrayer Digest.

Vol. 3:8, Sept-Oct 1981p. 271: A group photo of more than 50 of our staff

in Pasadena.

p. 273: Brief reports from the four divisions ofthe USCWM: Mission Strategy, MissionMobilization, Mission Training, andMission Services.

p. 274: A two-page presentation of the FrontierFellowship movement designed to reach a millionpeople.

p. 276: A two-page article from Christianity Todayis reprinted here with 19 errors pointed out.

p. 278: A five-page article describing twohypothetical plans to secure the campus (plans A

and B), plus our plan C, which we pursued.

Vol. 3:9, Nov-Dec 1981p. 287: An astounding statement on the cover!

p. 288: Chart on two pages showing progress.Spectacular!

p. 289: List of eight mission agencies that offered toassist us in finding the million people.

p. 290: Two pages: Five available materials to assista church with the Frontier Fellowship.

p. 292: Seven unbelievable statements about globalmission progress.

p. 293: Announcement of the Urbana conference in1981, which was just around the corner.

Volume 4, 1982

Vol. 4:1, Jan- Feb 1982p. 304: Editorial describing where we stood

financially.

p. 305: Summary of our $15.95 policy and its largerstrategy.

p. 308: More on the $15.95 plan.p. 309: Thirteen pages and 30 photos, describe

the work and the staff of the Center for WorldMission and the William Carey InternationalUniversity.

p. 316: Two pages describing the visionary $100million campaign we sought to launch (as of 2004still not launched).

p. 322: Four pages of thumbnail sketches of 23organizations on our campus.

p. 326: Announcement of the first major text for

the Perspectivescourse, Perspectives on the WorldChristian Movement. Over 600,000 in print by2004, 862 pages, 70 Authors.

Vol. 4:2, Mar-April 1982p. 327: Cover theme: Students and the

Great Commission.

p. 328: Two pages: Who runs this place? Aneditorial on that subject.


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p. 331: Recommending the Chariots of Firemotion picture.

p. 332: Two pages: Description of a uniqueplan for adding $100 million per year to thecause of missions via daily prayer sponsored bymany organizations.

p. 334: Two pages: The testimony of a college

student who got ten units of credit for workinghere in a Service Internship.

p. 336: Two pages: How to organize a regionalstudent mission conferencethe seventh year inPasadena for Southern California.

p. 338: Three pages: A report on the burgeoningNational Student Mission Coalition (NSMC), alist of 28 colleges and seminaries where chaptersalready existed.

Vol. 4:3, May 1982

p. 343: Cover picture of Dr. Virgil Olson, newpresident of the William Carey InternationalUniversity.

p. 344: Five mission agencies now cooperatingin the nationwide Frontier Fellowship. Howto use the Daily Prayer Guide (now the GlobalPrayer Digest).

p. 345: The definition of Frontier Missions iscompared to Regular Missions.

p. 346: What is strange and new about the U.S.Center for World Mission.

p. 348: Two pages: Background of Virgil and CarolOlson in missions. Most recently for seven yearsheading up a denominational mission board.

p. 350: Dr. Olson speaks for himself and his visionfor the William Carey International University.

p. 352: Two pages: Introducing our Institute ofChinese Studies (later relocated to Wheaton).

Vol. 4:4, June 1982p. 355: Cover picture of Cameron Townsend,

founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators, who died amonth before.

p. 356: Four things we screamed about other thanmoney.

p. 357: This issue is a run-down of six dimensionsof our energies here: The Center, Students,Schools, Agencies, Churches, and the growingnationwide Loose Change Frontier Fellowship.

p. 358: Two pages: An aerial photograph of ourcampus plus six functions it performs.

p. 359: The incredible story of The little manfrom Burma and the development of the LooseChange Frontier Fellowship as an equivalent tothe custom of a handful of rice for missions inhis land.

p. 360: Two pages: A complete graphic update onthe past and future payments on the campus.

p. 362: Two pages: The remarkable career ofCameron Townsend.

p. 364: Two pages: Report: With the Students.

p. 366: Two pages: Report: With the Schools, atable of summer mission courses at seven schools.

p. 368: Two pages: Report: With the Agencies, afascinating swell of interest in frontier missions.

p. 370: Five pages: Report: With the Churches,how a congregation can develop frontiermission vision.

p. 372: Two pages: An interview with Paul Cedar,pastor of a mega church in Pasadena, California.

p. 374: Ten mission agencies and denominationscooperating in the nationwide Frontier Fellowship,

with goals exceeding $3 million per year.

p. 375: Two pages: Report: With the FrontierFellowship, a description of how this campaign

works.

Vol. 4:5, July 1982p. 379: Cover theme: We want to list the many

miracles and near miracles that by this date had

paid more than $4 million toward the properties.

p. 380: How it happens that we face foreclosure onthe property.

p. 382: Eleven astounding events and accomplish-ments which we deem evidence of God beingbehind us in this project.

p. 383: Progress with the Frontier Fellowship,adoption by eleven agencies.

p. 384: Why Billy Grahams report on his Moscowtrip was badly misunderstood by reporters.

p. 385: Three pages: 28 important missionconferences in 1982, thumbnail sketches.

p. 388: Two pages: Chair of the TheologicalCommission of what is now called the WorldEvangelical Association, Bruce Nichols, in anextended interview about a rare mission-oriented

WEA conference.

p. 390: Two page photocopy of a TimeMagazinereview of a frontier mission book! The two-

volume World Christian Encyclopedia.


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p. 392: The US director of OMF speaks from hisheart about the relationship of a mission agency anda local congregation.

Vol. 4:6, Aug-Sept 1982p. 395: A full-page portrait of the immensely

significant 20th century missiologist, Donald A.McGavran, chair of our board of directors.

p. 396: The cliff-hanging question we face: Willother agencies rally to help us?

p. 398: Two pages: McGavran speaks on the crucialdifference between Frontier Missions andInternational Domestic Missions.

p. 400: Two pages: Dialogue with McGavran on thefrontiers of mission.

p. 402: Two pages: The most up to date diagram andcomplete financial report of our overall situation.

p. 404: Speculating about how the next 39 months

will roll out if our small-gift campaign succeeds.Twelve million for us, over 100 million for otheragencies.

p. 406: A truly astonishing collection of 67 photos ofmissionaries working on (or related to) our campus,from 64 mission agencies, 40 countries and with1,339 (average 20) years of mission service.

p. 409: Three pages: Sample pages from Parade ofthe Nations, a new research document producedhere showing the status of evangelization (and 19other factors) for over 100 countries.

Vol. 4:7, Oct-Nov 1982p. 415: This issue ofMission Frontiersdescribes an

incredible milestone in the history of missions in theUSA in the 20th Century. Here you can see (two

years after the important Edinburgh 1980 WorldConsultation on Frontier Missions) that both ofthe two large U.S. associations of mission agencies,IFMA and EFMA, focused seriously at theirannual meetings on the Unreached Peoples vision!

p. 418: Two pages with diagrams and numbersdescribing the Frontier Fellowship campaign andour tight financial update.

p. 420: Three pages describing the IFMA conference,its official news release and Declaration placingall 84 member missions squarely in the UnreachedPeoples camp!

p. 423: Two pages: Now the EFMA missions meetand also highlight Unreached Peoples.

p. 425: Choice excerpts from McGavrans address atthe EFMA meeting.

p. 426: Excerpts from my talk (the opening address)at the simultaneous IFMA conference.

p. 429: An interview with Greg Livingstone, at thistime a young executive representing the North

Africa Mission, on our staff part time as Director ofMission Agency relations.

Vol. 4:8, December 1982p. 435: The cover picture of Cliff Holland symbolizeswhy this project holds greater promise for thefuture of missions than any other. It has to do withTransforming mission fields into mission bases.

p. 436: A newer picture of me! (Compare page 416)

p. 438: Two pages: A campus payment update and therationale of our peculiar approach.

p. 440: Four pages describing both the colossalimportance and also the profound difficulty of oldermissions shifting gears to assisting field converts to

organize their own mission societies.p. 443: Three pages: An interview with Cliff

Holland and his new Central America Institute ofMissiology, a crucial key to missionaries being sentout from mission fields.

p. 446: A small new local church was raising $400per month from offerings of loose change. That

was the congregation the pastor of which was RickLovenow International Director of Frontiers,Inc. with close to a thousand missionaries in theIslamic world.


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xvii

Introductionby Ralph D. Winter

This book bursts with actual facts, good and bad, recorded at the verymoment they occurred. They dont always tell why we were doing what

we were doing. At the time we began breathlessly reporting in thesepages ofMission Frontiersevery step forward in an almost hopeless effortwedid not stop to explain why we were willing to take on so great a risk. That storyis also intriguing. Furthermore, the events underlying the decision to assail thatchallenge must certainly be of keen interest. From what did this impassionedeffort arise?

There is little question that none of this would have happened had Donald A.McGavran and Alan Tippett not been called by Fuller Theological Seminaryin 1965 to found the Fuller School of World Mission. For ten years, from 1966,I was a witness to what that move meant, since I was the first additional facultymember appointed, arriving in the new schools second year.

The worldwide respect McGavran had already gained drew students rapidlyand the school soon possessed the largest missiological faculty and student bodyin the world. It became one of few such schools that, for its first ten years, lim-ited its enrollment to missionaries with at least three years of field experience,

plus only a handful of overseas church leaders who might be interested in theGreat Commission.

For me, those ten years on the faculty were a surge of additional understandingof global missions, based on and adding to my own previous ten years as amissionary to a group of Mayan Indians in the highlands of Guatemala.

The new school was a growing beehive of serious thinking and critical evaluationof missionary methods and strategies. It was great! Those years were full of gush-ing insight and floods of information from every corner of the earth. A thousandmissionaries passed through my classes while I was busy researching, evaluatingand teaching about the major moves forward of the Christian faith in the last

2,000 years. I taught The Historical Development of the Christian Movement,a course title which, after I left in late 1976, has been retained ever since (mainlyby Dr. Paul Pierson) for 28 more years as of this writing.

I. Where did this all come from?

INEVITABLY, however, all these new insights illuminated new opportunities, ob-stacles and problems which cried out to be taken into account as soon as possible.


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However, a school as a school was not quite the proper place for idea-implementation. Furthermore, I have considered myself a scholar-activist. Even before the Fuller

Theological Seminary School of World Mission existed I had been drawn toproblem solving. When I moved from my Caltech background in engineeringto Cornell for a doctorate in linguistics, anthropology and mathematical statis-tics, people said, Why are you leaving engineering? I answered, I am movingfrom civil engineering to social engineering. When, after that degree, I thencompleted theological seminary I told people I was moving from social engineer-ing to Christian social engineering. When I became a missionary I was now inChristian mission engineering.

Thus, for me, there had to be an indissoluble connection between the new ideasof serious academic inquiry and the engineering or implementation of those ideas

out in the real world, if only to test them rather than mindlessly teaching them.By 1976 I had ten years of teaching at Fuller behind me, plus ten years as a fieldmissionary before that, and ten years of graduate study before that. I was nowspring-loaded to take all these new insights, to get back out to grasp the new op-portunities they illuminated, and in general to deal with the real problems im-peding the progress of the Christian mission.

In order to make my next move seem more feasible, a move out of a superbschool into the wilderness of an untried implementation, I will list a few ofthe real-world projects in which I had already been involved, speaking biographi-cally. This will enable a better understanding of what I have done sincethings

that never had easily fitted into the daily schedule of a heavily loaded professor.The following events, then, essentially define the purpose of, and the need for,the U.S. Center for World Mission, the William Carey International University,and the underlying mission society, the Frontier Mission Fellowship.

1. The astonishing need is the call

A first hint illuminating the ultimate break in 1976 from teaching at Fuller to theattempt to start the Center and University, I would characterize as an in-depth,day after day, immersion experience which occurred years earlier in 1945-46,right after graduating from Caltech and getting out of the Second World War. I

was 21. During that academic year during which I was teaching as well as study-

ing, I was exposed to the daily chapels at Westmont College, in which a differentministry was highlighted each day. I was soon overwhelmed by the impressionthat many jobs were going unfilled in the full-time Christian cause. Having beentrained in engineering I began to wonder just how badly the world needed onemore civil engineer. I wondered what in the Christian global cause might needengineering. Could I be of more use there?


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At that time a number of things began to appear on the horizon. My life sincethat time at Westmont has been essentially one of seeking to engineer solutionsfor a series of problems related to the global mission of the Church.

My immediate point here is that the engineering of problems was somethingthat could be conceivedof in classroom teaching at Fuller (or elsewhere), but onceconceived could not as readily be implementedby a full-time professor or in aschool setting.

2. Project in Afghanistan

From that brief post-college Westmont experience I went for a year of (in mymind) further laymens training to Princeton Theological Seminary. I was nowalmost 23. While at Princeton I realized the need for more efficient languagetraining in the mission world. Also, during that year arose a clear example of

what cannot be done in a classroom, namely the initiative I took in foundinga movement of Evangelicals to teach English in Afghanistan. That seed, onceplanted, became a large enterprise with now a 50-year tradition, the current namebeing the International Assistance Mission. It now draws on many countries toprovide assistance in Afghanistan.

3. An unfulfilled vision

A third antecedent would be a project that is to this day unfulfilled. After thatone-year stint at Princeton, another year at the brand new Fuller TheologicalSeminary on the West Coast, and a brief period up and down the Atlanticseaboard, assisting the establishment of the Afghan Institute of Technology, I

wanted to pursue the missionary language problem. For that reason I did doctoralstudies in linguistics, anthropology and mathematical statistics at Cornell (1951to 1953). I had conceived the idea of systematically exposing language studentsto two artificial languages, one which would employ the familiar grammar of thestudents own language while borrowing in the strange words of the languageto be learned, that is, the nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The second, at the sametime, doing the opposite, that is, using the familiar vocabulary of the studentsown language while employing the grammar of the language being learned.Once again, neither studying for classes nor even teaching classes would allow socomplicated an engineering project. Before I even achieved the Ph.D. at Cornell I

had determined to go back to seminary and finish up, be ordained, and be a full-time missionary rather than a lay tentmaker in Afghanistan. I was now 33.

This then led to a ten-year period in Guatemala and many different incidents ofimplementation. One stands out above all others.

4. Selecting and training the right people

A fourth antecedent to the event of my moving away from Fuller was my longstanding involvement with others in the engineering of a worldwide move to


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xx The Impossible Challenge

the extension training of pastors. Theological Education by Extension is the nameof a 600-page book which I edited in 1969, while at Fuller, describing the de-

velopments along this line during my experience in Guatemala. By now I wasalmost 45.

Before moving to teach at Fuller, and just before leaving Guatemala, I waselected the Executive Director of the Northern Latin American Association of

Theological Schools, encompassing the 17 Latin American countries north ofthe equator.

One of my main jobs in that role, as I saw it, was promoting the idea that the bestfuture pastors, and the individuals most strategically to be trained, were not thepenniless youth who inhabit most theological schools around the world, but theseasoned, tested and gifted believers in local congregations who, with families

and jobs, really cant pick up and go off to seminary. The idea of reaching out toprecisely such unclassroomable but tried and true, gifted local leaders soon tookme around the world speaking to seminary leaders of over 500 schools in a tripsponsored by the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association. Other speakers weresimilarly sponsored in other years.

This better way to find gifted pastors thus sprouted wings and became a globalmovement training, at its peak, over 100,000 local leaders for ordination. Thebrightest example of the impact of this idea is an organization in India whichenrolls, part time, over 6,000 outstanding local leaders (often professionals) and isgenerating a whole new breed of congregations (often large). The implementationof this idea is still going on, involving as it does, an enormous institutional shiftin the concept of finding and training pastors, for the USA or anywhere else.

Once again, such an idea could be taughtin the classroom, and was, but could notbe implementedin class. It needed to be pursued outside of class, even if the imple-mentation was to create a new school that would operate on such principles.

5. Publish the vision!

Another antecedent to the founding of the USCWM was again something whichwas revealed by teaching but needed engineering and thus was not the usual activ-ity of a professor. It was the founding of an essentially non-profit book publishing

firm that would focus exclusively on books of strategic value to missionaries andpeople interested in missions. Fullers mature missionary students were generating40 book manuscripts per year full of insights and ideas that cried out to be sharedaround the world with other missionaries. Soon I was encouraged by the missionfaculty to look into this. In 1969, seven years before leaving Fuller, a tiny publish-ing company was formed called the William Carey Library. People scoffed at the


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xxiIntroduction

idea of publishing just books of relevance to missions. You wont sell more than500 a year, they said.

Today this project sells 75,000 books a year, has published 400 titles in its ownname, and draws books from over 80 other publishers, all of which are availableat one address (1-800-MISSION, or www.WCLBooks.com) at a significant dis-count. Again, this kind of publishing activity could be conceivedin the classroom,and its existence certainly enhances the classroom, but is not an idea effectivelyimplementedby a teaching professorunless somehow that professors wife andfamily would be willing to do the work, which was, in fact, the case. My first

wife, Roberta, and four daughters literally had to be involved. The William CareyLibrary is today one of the most important ministry arms of the U. S. Center for

World Mission.

6. Scholars of mission comparing notesA sixth antecedent to the break was the need, first voiced by Fuller presidentDavid Hubbard, that for missions to be considered a respectable academic activ-ity, the world of missions needed both a scholarly society and a scholarly journal,

without which a doctoral degree in the field of missions was inappropriate. Thus,in 1972, I wrested time from my teaching schedule to take an important rolein the founding of the American Society of Missiology. That society now has arespected journal, calledMissiology, an International Review, started the next year.It was ghost published for its first six years by the William Carey Library Pub-lishers. I was the defacto business manager of the journal for its first six years, as

well as secretary of the society for the first three. But efforts to launch this societyand this journal did not sit well with the administration at Fuller, even thoughsuch efforts were clearly essential to the developing academic field of missionstudies (e.g., missiology). That kind of activity simply was not what professors aresupposed to do.

7. Gather mission leaders globally

A seventh antecedent to the USCWM was a proposal in 1972, at the first meet-ing of the American Society of Missiology, of a world-level congress on missionslike the one in 1910. My involvement began while still at Fuller but crested afterthe Center was founded. The organizing meetings were held on our campus here

in Pasadena, but the meeting itself finally took place in Edinburgh, Scotland in1980 where the 1910 meeting was held. Since 1910 there had never been anothermeeting on the world level of just mission people. To this meeting 70 years latercame the largest number of Third-World mission leaders ever to gather in oneplace. Due to the 1980 meeting, The World Consultation on Frontier Missions,the concept of unreached peoples now rapidly became an issue of global aware-ness. Fifty members of our USCWM staff were involved at the meeting mostly


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behind the scenes. This type of thing could not have been accomplished while Iwas still a faculty member at Fuller.

8. Helping young people to see the world from Gods perspectiveA very significant event had occurred in December of 1973, when an unforeseenand totally unprecedented surge in young people at Urbana signed cards indi-cating their willingness to be foreign missionaries. To make a long story short,even though still at Fuller, I organized a summer study program to assist someof those card signers in finding their way forward. This study program, whichtoday is called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, enrolls more than6,000 per year in well over a 150 locations in this country. It is widely used inother languages and countries as well. This project began while I was still atFuller but is not the kind of thing that is normally pursued by a teaching profes-

sor. It has built up its strength today (in touching so many thousands) not fromteaching activities but from engineering activitiescareful, long standingadministrative care.

9. Employing the university tradition more efficiently

While still teaching at Fuller I became aware of a student from India who arrivedat Fuller with a three-year M.Div. graduate degree behind him. He then workedfor two more years at Fuller to fulfill the requirements of the M.Th. degree (un-known outside of seminaries, the degree underlying a doctorate). He unexpected-ly petitioned to be given an M.A. degree instead! Fullers registrar protested thathe must not have understood that he had arrived at Fuller with a degree more

advanced than an M.A. but those of us on the mission faculty explained that inIndia no one knew what an M.Th. was, while an M.A. degree was widely knownand respected. He finally got the M. A. he wanted plus a letter saying he hadearned an M.Th. and could have it whenever he wanted it. In much of the worldthere is little significance for an M.Th. degree.

But I got to thinking, mission studies crucial to missionaries working aroundthe world need to result in standard degree names, not letters no one has everheard of. Even the name of the school, seminary, does not sound good to somegovernment officials. What was needed was a genuine university offering thestandard B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees, not M.Div., M.Th, D. Min, or D.Miss.

degrees, as most seminaries still do. Seminaries also need to change their namesso as to become universities, as some are now doing. It is a cardinal principle ofmissionary work to speak the language of the native. Many countries are requir-ing ever higher degrees for those who come to work in their countries. The onlysocial pattern as widely spread in the world today as the Christian church is theuniversity tradition, which is the child of Christianity.

Did I need to leave a school in order to start a school? Apparently. Thus, in buy-ing a campus we also had in mind the great need for at least one full-fledged, ac-


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xxiiiIntroduction

credited university owned and operated by missionaries, able to give B.A., M.A.,and Ph.D. degrees, and able to work at a distance in view of the fact that mission-aries cannot break stride for years on end to attend schools in the USA.

Furthermore, national leaders, whether pastors, seminary professors, or laypeople, ought not to have to break out of their societies for such long periods ofoverseas schooling. Many of them in such cases are no longer well fitted to returnto their home countries. Worse still, some USA schools are quite willing to takethe husband away from an overseas family for a year or more. My background

was in extension training, now called distance education. The super-important fac-tor for me is whether or not you can achieve exactly the same educational resultsby working at a distance. You can certainly get through to far superior leadersthat way. Is it better to give a first-class education to second-class unknowns, or a

second-class education to time-proven leaders? Actually, distance education is notnecessarily second class.

Our thought here has been to set an example to other schools of what can bedone, not to try to attract all students to us, and certainly not to urge everyoneto come to the USA to study. It is amazing how working faithfully within thebounds of educational formalities a very great deal more can be done for thecause of missions than the ordinary school located in the USA is doing. Our veryunusual integrated curriculum (in which we have already invested more than $1million) is being used now in other schools, giving theological education, missionhistory and the global presence of the Christian movement their due. Programs

at Biola University, Azusa Pacific University and other places are headed up byour graduates or by members of our fellowship. We have attained the pinnacle ofCalifornia State recognition and are working steadily but surely toward the muchmore meticulous private recognition called regional accreditation. Our Perspec-tivestextbook is used in more than 100 other schools and more than 600,000 arein print.

Much more could be said about other things we have been able to do because weare not merely a school. Lets shift now to the key events of our beginning on thiscampusespecially the part of our story prior to the period described in theseearly pages of ourMission Frontiers Bulletin.

II. When things really got going

ASPRESSUREBUILT to make allowance somehow for more effective implementa-tion of new mission perspectives, I convened a small discussion group from timeto time during 1975 and 1976, meeting in the faculty lounge at Fuller. It wasusually from six to ten people. My personal journal records who attended and

what ideas were discussed. Gradually the idea emerged of the need for a legallyseparate major mission center that could be in some ways a functional annex to


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xxiv The Impossible Challenge

the School of World Mission at Fuller. Various faculty members, even the FullerProvost, Glen Barker, often attended these meetings along with people from

World Vision.

In the fall of 1976, in giving the opening address at the Evangelical ForeignMissions Association, I actually mentioned the impelling need for such a majorresearch and implementation center. By that time, however, while I could not gointo details, plans were pretty far along.

The final step

In the late spring, for example, I had finally gathered up my courage to pay avisit to the Nazarene district headquarters just below the campus on WashingtonBoulevard. There I met Paul Benefiel who was the District Superintendent at thattime, but who was also a member of the college board. He listened sympatheti-

cally to my thoughts about the future of the campus. This was a Friday. I wasastounded to hear that the full college board of about 40 people was to meet the

very next day, Saturday, and would be deciding yes or no to rent the campus forthe next two years to an Eastern cult, and that the document to be signed included anoption to buy the property at the end of that period. Dr. Benefiel explained that manyNazarenes were quite opposed to such an organization leasing or buying the cam-pus, and that the board was almost evenly divided on the issue. Yet, the collegedirely needed the money.

After this personal conversation I was quite perplexed. Benefiel called me onSunday and said he could not tell me the result of the board decision for anothercouple days but that he thought I would be pleased. At that point in history, ofcourse, I was not in a position to rent or buy the property. I was simply a professor

with no donor backing, and soon without a salary. I simply believed it was a solid,even if far out, possibility to rally Evangelicals to such a cause.

What he told me two days later was that the board had arrived at a Solomonicdecision. They knew I could not put up even a single months rent at that point.

Thus, half of the board was mollified by the decision to go ahead and lease it tothe cult for the next two years. The other half of the board was pleased to gainenough votes to cross out the paragraph about handing the cult an option to buy.

That left the door open a crack for us.I was elated. He also told me that they would convene the Executive board (abouteight out of the full membership of about 40) to talk to me specifically about myhopes. This meeting would be in Sacramento, California.

The nitty gritty

By the time I arrived at that meeting I had some more detailed thoughts myself.After explaining my novel purpose for the campus (for both an implementationCenter and a unique new university), I made three requests:


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xxvIntroduction

1. I said we were not interested in trying to buy the whole thing unless theystopped selling off the off-campus houses.

2. I asked for some free space on the campus so we could raise money duringthe next two years from a position on the campus itself.

3. In view of our overseas mission purposes I asked for a million dollar reduc-tion in the price.

They listened sympathetically to my ideas for the campus, and a bit dubiously tomy expectation of the willingness of 40 million Evangelicals to help us buy it.

They did agree to stop selling off houses. They did allow us, for $100 a month, asmall portion of the property that had not been leased to the cult. And, the presi-dent said they would probably be willing to reduce the price for the kind of orga-nization we were. This latter point was apparently something to which the fullboard later objected because later we could not persuade them to lower the price.

The campus proper would be $8.5 million and the additional off-campus houseswould be another $1.28 million. The down payment would be $1.5 million, latersplit into two halves, $850,000 one year and $650,000 the second.

The impossible challenge

In my preface earlier in this book I said, In taking the initiative in 1976 to foundthe Center, I have never in my life felt so clearly drawn by the living God to makesuch a radical decision, either before or since. On the other hand it was perfectlyobvious to everyone that this was an almost impossible challenge, since I had no

denominational or organizational backing, no experience in fundraising, etc. Tomost people it was clearly impossible. Some of my best friends privately talked tomembers on my initial founding board of five members urging them to get offthe board lest they become embroiled in the legal consequences of the inevitablefailure of so rash a plan.

It is also true that at one point I wondered why most of my best friends in theministry would not say one word that might have encouraged me to take theplunge. Finally, since the whole thing was admittedly a very long shot, I realizedthat obviously they did not want to be blamed for my doing something so risky, sostupid. Many got around to asking, How does your wife feel about this? In that

dimension, however, I had every encouragement even if somewhat dazed belief.One of my daughters said, Daddy, we have to do this even if we have to eat card-board. I look back on those moments of decision as almost a dream.

Taking the plunge

November 1, 1976, was my first day no longer with Fuller. November 5th weincorporated the USCWM, now called the Frontier Mission Fellowship (FMF),of which the USCWM is a major project. I was now almost 52.


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xxvi The Impossible Challenge

In January one board member suggested that we needed to ask for an option tobuy, and suggested $15,000. At that time that amount of money for us was totallyunthinkable. But that board member offered to pay $5,000 if we could raise theother $10,000. A day or so later, totally out of the blue, one of the backers of oneof our related entities, the Lutheran Bible Translators, hearing of our need, un-hesitatingly pulled out a checkbook and on the spot wrote a check for $10,000.

But when we sent this $10,000 and the $5,000 to the board, nothing happened.The cult which had been granted a lease on the campus now offered a hugeamount for an option. Weeks went by. Apparently the board was divided over

whether or not to cancel its promise to us in favor of the other party. A monthwent by, and two months. Finally, James Dobson (who had already invited meto be on his radio program) was quite unhappy with the foot dragging and I was

told wrote a letter to the board suggesting that if they were to accept the cultshigher offer for an option he would write a letter to his entire Southwest constitu-ency pointing out that the college had gone back on its word in favor of the cult.In any case, within a couple of days we received the signed option to buy as ofSeptember 1, 1977. Now all we needed was to collect the money by that date, and

we had already lost three months waiting for the option.

Facing the countdown

We were to lose some more time. It was April, and the deadline for the firstpart of the $1.5 million downpayment, $850,000, was rapidly approaching. I,however, was unwilling to go to the public for money unless and until I could put

a list of outstanding mission leaders on our letterhead. I began writing a letterweekly, first class, to about 45 such mission leaders. One I invited was LeightonFord of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He said he could not givehis name to an advisory board but he could be listed as a consultant. This is thecategory we then asked of everyone else. Most of these leaders I knew personally.

Thankfully, all but one agreed to be a consultant on our letterhead. You can seean early letterhead with a list of consultants on page 34.

Once this group was publicly behind us we swung into action to raise the money.By now it was early June and we now had less than three months left to raise the$850,000 by September 1st.

The Fellowship of Artists for Cultural Evangelism, a member agency, helped usproduce an excellent brochure (see illustration). We produced this in large num-ber and air freighted boxes all over the country. In three months we accumulated$450,000. This included $50,000 from one of the Ahmanson foundations andanother $105,000 (the very day of the deadline) from the main foundation. Thatday was also when our tax exemption came through, and that is what enabled thatsecond gift. But what about the missing $300,000?


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xxviiIntroduction

Even more unlikely

Our board was divided about accepting loans. We did so, however. I felt thatgetting a loan on a property, which was backed by collateral, was not the same astaking out a loan to fund expenses or even an unrefundable option. Two missionagencies, Campus Crusade and World Literature Crusade each lent us $100,000,and another $100,000 loan came from the same man who had given $10,000 forthe option. The World Literature Crusade charged at 7% per year interest. Somemoney was still coming in so that we were able to pay off that loan in about threemonths; the other two loans did not carry interest. We then began to pay downthe $100,000 from the individual and the $100,000 from Campus Crusade. Butsoon our time to pay the second part ($650,000) of the downpayment was draw-ing near! We were sorry, but greatly relieved that Campus Crusade pardoned usthe last $60,000 or so of their loan.

But I am now getting into the part of the story covered in the early pages of theMission Frontiersperiod in the pages that follow.

From the beginning I fully expected to recruit a leading mission executive totake over the whole project. Always before I had tried to locate someone else to

whom I could sell an idea. This was true for the outreach to Afghanistan. Thatperson turned out to be Christy Wilson, Jr. In the case of ACMC we found DonHamilton to carry the ball. So also, of course, with the American Society ofMissiology, which has a typical structure for a scholarly society. This was not truefor several years for the William Carey Library, and my own family had to run it.

Finally, for a 17 year period we found a magnificent man in a former missionary,David Shaver.

Whats in a name?

One clarification in regard to the name, U. S. Center for World Mission. Soundspresumptuous, doesnt it? Our original legal name simply stressed our concern forthe entire world, or so we thought. It was simply World Mission Center. Early,however, some mission executives asked, Are you trying to direct the whole

world? No, no, we said. We just want the USA to be concerned for mission tothe entire world. We expected other centers, independent of us, to rise up aroundthe world (now there are over 50). We just want to express the interest of people

in the USA.

So, we changed the name to the U. S. Center for World Mission. Oops, thatstill sounds presumptuous. Still later, in order more clearly to distinguish betweenthe basic corporation we founded and the projectof the U. S. Center for WorldMission, we settled on the Frontier Mission Fellowship as the designation for theunderlying mission society, allowing the earlier name, USCWM, to remain thename of that particular major project of the FMF.


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xxviii The Impossible Challenge

Back when this whole thing was founded I always referred to myself as Act-ing Director. One day someone said to me that I was giving the impression ofinstability as long as I kept using that title. I had tried very hard to recruit severaltop executives to take over. They were very favorable to the idea but were notpersuaded to take the job! Finally, I realized that the enormous millions yet to beraised was truly an obstacle to finding someone to come in and shoulder all thatrisk. I had underestimated that.

We tried lots of things

In some of our earliest efforts at fund raising we put an ad in Christianity Todayheaded by large letters, Buy a piece of property in Pasadena, California for $15.

That ad cost about $3,000 but brought in over $7,000.

We tried running a daily 15-minute radio program but did not have sufficient

professional staff to do it effectively.

We ran a monthly full page in Christianity Todaydisplaying a countdown ofweeks past and ahead showing the money coming in and then most of the pagegiving tidbits of exciting news about the global cause of missions.

Ted Engstrom of World Vision helped us as the emcee of the evening at a PatBoone benefit concert in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Pat did not charge usanything and also starred in a documentary 16mm film without charge. Provi-dence Mission Homes, one of our on-campus offices sponsored that concert,managed by one of our staff members, David Bliss. It netted $25,000.

Key leaders befriended usDonald Hoke, who headed the new Billy Graham Center, was one of the earliest

widely known mission leaders who got behind us. He allowed us to quote what hehad said of our project,

The U. S. Center for World Mission is probably the single most strategic institution

and movement in the world today aimed at evangelizing the two billion persons who

can only be reached by cross-cultural missionary evangelism.

Other famous people are quoted on page 51. Many of the fascinating details inthis period prior to the publication ofMission Frontiersare to be found in Roberta

Winters exciting book,I Will Do a New Thing.

In the pages that follow you have the most credible, unvarnished, blow-by-blowaccount of the four years of our experience following the very initial period

just sketched.

A phrase that came to me in the early days was,

Risks are not to be evaluated in terms of the probability of success but in terms of the

value to be achieved.

This was a good description of our situation.


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xxixIntroduction

Was the risk worth it?

We hope that as you page through those early days of our harrowing struggle itwill become clear to you how worthy all that risk really was, in view of the greaturgency of centers for world mission around the world that are watchdogs,evaluators, and promoters of global mission. Who else speaks for missions in gen-eral? Think of all the misinformation and resulting scepticism people generallyhave about the foolish cause of missions. In actual fact the work of Christianoutreach to the nations of the world across the last 2,000 years has been humble,sacrificial, sometimes foolish, often brilliant, but nevertheless the most influentialsingle force in the story of humanity. In this life no one will ever know the fullstory. Missionaries have often, as Hebrews 11 puts it, been men and women of

whom this world was not worthy.

Indeed, for some of us, the story of the expanding Kingdom is THE story of thehuman race, it is THE story of the Bible, it is THE ultimate heavenly visionundergirding missions. In this perspective no one anywhere is doing anythingtruly important if it is not part of the battle to restore creation, to restore the gloryof God in all the earth. From that embattled ultimate purpose there is no retire-ment, no absence of a call, no reason for non-involvement. It is inescapable. Welive for Him or die in vain.

Dear Reader

HOWSIGNIFICANT will the remainder of your life be if you continue as you are?You can be sure God is calling you to do your utmost for His highest. Do you

know what that means for you?

As of this writing, we now have a fellowship of 75 families hard at work at manyof the strategic opportunities which inundate us. Look closely at the next page tosee the variety of functions we seek to perform. We seriously need more help. To serve

with us behind the lines, within a warm fellowship of other dedicated believers isnot a terribly sacrificial assignment, yet it could mean more than being one moremissionary. Why not get in touch with our people and discuss the possibilities?Please contact us at 626-398-2330 or [email protected] (and check out our

web site at www.uscwm.org/service_opportunities). Periodically we also have aone-week Explore conference for people considering full time involvement in

missions, with us or any other agency (see www.uscwm.org/explore).

But even if you dont tear yourself away from the work you are doing to become afull-time Christian worker, do you consider the job you have a holy calling? Is it

just a source of income and an opportunity to witness? Or is it the most significantkind of work you could choose to do? The founder of the Navigators, Dawson

Trotman, used to say,

Dont ever do anything others can do or will do if there are crucial things you can do

which others cant do or wont do.


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xxx

This diagram was drawn up in our early months. It shows outreach to the Unreached peoples of

the world, and back reach to the church for help. In both cases the cultural diversities need to

be taken very seriously and thus are separate departments that can understand the specific sub-

worlds that exist. The Center has two divisions which correspond: Strategy and Mobilization (on

this early chart it says Resources.) Two other supporting divisions are Training (academicwhere

our university fits in) and Services (technical).

The Impossible Challenge


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xxxiIntroduction

You have only one life to live. Why not choose something most others cant orwont do?

Almost half of our families are not in Pasadena, California, but are in variousregional centers in the USA and in several countries around the world assistingin likeminded centers, working behind the scenes in the promotion of the globalcause of mission. We operate two major projects, the U. S. Center for World Mis-sion and the William Carey International University. We need people over a very

wide range of knowledge and skills. Will you pray about this opportunity?


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Documents

The Impossible Challenge: The Founding of the US Center for World Mission