Discussion and Suggestions for Contemporary World Mission(Directions for World Mission in the Context of Modern Mission History and Current Challenges)

Joseph Kwon

Editorial Board

1. Introduction

The Great Commission of Jesus Christ has been continually challenged throughout human history, and communities of faith have responded to these challenges and have worked tirelessly to fulfill God's will.

This article examines how the Great Commission has been adapted to the times through the history of modern missions and seeks to provide direction for fulfilling it in God's way in today's changing world.

Modern missions is not simply a rehash of past practices, but must respond to the needs of different cultures and times while maintaining the essence of the gospel. This discussion will consider how we can effectively respond to current challenges in a biblically-based way, and consider the future direction of missions.

In the face of a changing world and its many challenges, we must build on the legacy of our predecessors in the faith and move forward step by step. This article will explore the direction and process of world mission and propose concrete steps toward the eventual fulfillment of the Great Commission.

2.Historical Context of Modern Mission

A brief history of modern missions will briefly summarize the strategies and directions for the fulfillment of the Great Commission, which have gradually expanded and materialized throughout history.

(1) The Beginning of Early Protestant Mission (William Carey)

William Carey, the “father of modern mission,” played a pioneering role in the history of Protestant missions. William Carey's contribution to the development of modern missions was his insistence on the active will of missions, that Christians should actively engage in missionary work with a sense of will and duty. He articulated this shift in thinking in his 1792 book A Study of the Christian Duty to the Conversion of the Heathen, in which he explained from Scripture that every Christian should be actively engaged in missions.

William Carey's statement is obviously biblical and in line with the spirit of the Reformation, but surprisingly, given the fact that many Christians today are estranged from their duty and right to missions, it is still true today that in order to fulfill God's will, Christians must have a strong will to deny their own will and pursue God's will.

William Carey also recognized the importance of establishing a missionary organization for Christian participation in the Great Commission, which led to the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in 1792. This was a pivotal event in the history of Christianity in Britain and around the world, marking a missional awakening. Although some may still think of missions as a ministry undertaken by local churches and individuals, the revival and development of Protestant missionary history over the past 200 years shows that the establishment of missionary organizations is essential to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

(2) Reorientation of overseas missions and increased understanding and professionalization of incarnational mission (Hudson Taylor)

If William Carey opened the door to Protestant missions, Hudson Taylor was the one who reoriented world missions to a more Word-centered focus.

Taylor's advocacy for internal missions, a shift from the diplomatic missions of the day to coastal missions where military posts were located, infused Protestant missionary history with God's heart for missionaries to give up their security and lives and head to the frontier where the gospel was needed.

He also proposed a model of incarnational mission that assimilates missionary methods into local cultures and puts missionaries in the shoes of local people. These ministries were a challenge to missionary work that presented a model of ministry in which Jesus came to us in the flesh and ministered to us, making disciples and evangelizing.

He founded the China Inland Mission (CIM) in 1865, a missionary organization that sought to work on the basis of the Bible, and strongly promoted this ministry model, which in turn provided important inspiration and challenges to other world mission organizations, and laid the foundation for the Great Awakening of the Western Church with its missionary aspirations and purity.

In the end, it applied the Lord's words that one must take up one's cross and follow the Lord in order to fulfill the Lord's will and follow the Lord, thus providing the basis for the revival of world mission.

(3) Globalization of World Mission in the Age of Globalization (Ralph Winter, Lewis Bush)

At the turn of the twentieth century, the world experienced an explosion of change with the phenomenon of globalization, far beyond the changes of the previous millennia. Ralph Winter and Lewis Bush proposed various ministries and directions to fulfill the Great Commission in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in response to these changes in the world environment.

And it is no exaggeration to say that their suggestions and directions actually shaped the direction and flow of many missions today.

First, Dr. Ralph Winter systematized and promoted the concept of “Unreached People Groups” (UPG). This changed the basis of missionary strategy to focus on unreached people groups. In other words, he suggested that the goal of missions should not be to increase the rate of evangelization, but rather to reach all peoples with the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.

In fact, the percentage of Christians in the world's population has remained relatively stable over the past 200 years without significant change. As Dr. Todd Johnson reports, “For the past 100 years, Christians have always made up about one-third of the world's population.” While there have been regional variations, he says, the global percentage of Christians has remained the same at 30-33%.

But the rate at which the gospel is being witnessed to unreached peoples is accelerating dramatically.

In addition, Dr. Ralph Winter proposed that mission mobilization, mission education and training (universalization of mission education through the Mission Perspectives curriculum), mission research and information sharing (USCWM, now Frontier Ventures), and the establishment of mission cooperation networks (cooperation between mission agencies and churches and the formation of councils of mission agencies, especially through the Lausanne Movement, which established a global network of mission cooperation) were necessary to fulfill the Great Commission, and he systematized and refined these concepts. In fact, the core content of mission programs and mission materials used by most mission agencies for mission education and training is based on the fellowship and research materials created by Dr. Ralph Winter's team.

In addition, Lewis Bush proposed the 10/40 window mission strategy in 1990, which has had a major impact on the focus of missionary strategy on unreached people groups, and it can be said that if Ralph Winter proposed the concept of unreached people groups, Lewis Bush developed it into a mission strategy.

In addition, Lewis Bush pointed to the aging of the church and emphasized the importance of mobilizing the younger generation for missions, arguing that it was crucial to the future of the church. He also emphasized the importance of children's missions, explaining that attention and focus on the next generation, such as children, is crucial to an effective and powerful missionary movement. These strategies provided important mission strategies and directions for many mission organizations and churches in the future.

(4) Overseas Missionary Implications of the Lausanne Conference

The First Lausanne Congress, held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974, is considered to be the catalyst of the world evangelization movement. It was an opportunity for evangelicals from around the world to gather together for the common task of world evangelization.

The Lausanne Covenant, which was adopted at the conference, played a major role in defining evangelical theology of mission, especially as it emphasized the balance between social action and evangelism, while reaffirming the importance of evangelism.

It also emphasized the need for world mission to focus on unreached peoples and set an important direction for future world mission.

In fact, the Lausanne Conference provided a platform for denominations, mission organizations, and churches to come together in solidarity and cooperation, creating a real international mission network.

The evolution of this great global missionary movement shows that over time and in the long run, God will eventually direct the direction of world missions in a more biblical manner through people of faith who desire to obey His Word.

And we see that we need to move forward step by step through the devotion of thinking, discussing, praying, and offering ourselves to the Word like our predecessors in faith in the changing and dynamic times, based on the historical legacy built on the prayers, concerns, and devotion of many predecessors in faith.

Therefore, we must continue to pray, discuss, and consider how to fulfill the will of the Lord with the Bible in the face of the challenges and changes of a changing world with this missionary history.

3. Contemporary Changes and Challenges

(1) Strengthening of non-Western-centered missionary leadership, clash of civilizations, and emergence of identity

As mentioned earlier, the proportion of Christians in the world population has remained roughly the same over the past 200 years, but there have been significant regional changes. In 1910, 66% of the Christian population lived in Europe, but by 2010, that number had dropped significantly to 25.6%. In Africa, on the other hand, only 2% of all Christians lived there in 1910, but by 2010 that number had jumped to 22%, making Africa the most evangelized continent.

In the Northern Hemisphere (Europe and North America), more than 80% of all Christians were concentrated in this region in 1910, but by 2010 this had dropped to less than 40%.

This shift is due to differences in population growth rates, missionary activity, and socio-cultural changes. As a result, Christianity today is characterized by a shift toward the Southern Hemisphere (Africa, Asia, and South America), a trend that is accelerating.

Along with this massive shift in Christian populations, there has been a shift in missionary leadership from the West to the non-West. In the early 20th century, the United States and European countries were the major missionary sending countries. However, in the second half of the 20th century, non-Western countries in Asia, Africa, and South America began to send more missionaries. One of the most notable changes was the rapid growth of Korean missionaries. Beginning in the 1980s, South Korea's overseas missions have grown rapidly, and it is now the world's second largest sender of missionaries after the United States.

Along with these changes in the Christian population and changes in mission leadership, the Yalta Conference in 1945 after World War II and the world since then have created the world structure of the Cold War system. The world structure that was created after the Yalta Conference was dominated by a huge aderogi or agenda of the liberal camp and the communist camp, and there was a huge tension in this huge agenda or hegemonic system, but at the same time, a stable system was maintained in the balance of power. At that time, the world was led by the leadership of the US/European camp and the Soviet Union, which were described as the first world and the second world.

However, the end of the Cold War was declared at the Malta Conference in 1989, and the world was reorganized into a new international order, which was divided into various civilizations and became an era where small-scale discourses and ideologies different from the Cold War system interacted and clashed.

Especially in this era, national identity and community identity have become important issues, which stems from the basic need for human beings to establish their own uniqueness or identity separate from others or other groups, and for human beings to enjoy a sense of security in belonging.

Along with this, various religious, linguistic, cultural, and ethnic characteristics are emphasized, and identities are created within them, sometimes closed and sometimes accepting of others.

(2) Changes in the world after 9/11/2001

In the midst of these global changes, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks served as a trigger for the explosive beginning of the clash of civilizations between Islam and non-Islam. In particular, Islamic principalism was a powerful political and religious movement that sought to find its identity in the original Islam in a chaotic world, and this Islamic principalist revival led to the atrophy of Western missionary work in the unreached areas, as Western missionaries were seen as representatives of Western Christianity in non-Western countries, especially in areas where unreached people groups were concentrated.

However, since the global Christian revival had already shifted to the non-Western world, this crisis naturally became an opportunity for non-Western missionaries to minister to unreached peoples, and non-Western missionaries were able to change the perception that Christianity was a Western religion and idea for a long time, and to return to the gospel itself by sharing the message that the gospel is good news for all peoples.

In general, when comparing polytheistic religions to monotheistic religions, monotheistic religions are stronger in terms of outward influence. This is because polytheistic religions are more inclined to recognize multiple gods and truths and are less willing to communicate their truths to the outside world. However, monotheistic religions are basically based on the belief that the truth is unique and clear, so they have a stronger will to communicate that truth to the outside world.

Currently, the major religions of unreached people groups are Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous beliefs such as shamanism. In the case of Hinduism, Buddhism, and folk beliefs, their influence is localized and limited to specific regions. Islam, on the other hand, is monotheistic and expansive, especially when combined with political movements, and has a strong influence that can be armed.

This external influence, coupled with zero tolerance for apostates, has led to a rapidly growing percentage of Muslims.

In fact, the Muslim population is growing much faster than the world's population. It is projected to grow from 23% (1.6 billion) of the world's population in 2010 to 30% (2.8 billion) by 2050, an increase of about 73%. And by 2050, Islam (30%) and Christianity (31%) are expected to be nearly evenly split.

In the end, if we had to choose a religion that should be the most intensive focus of unreached people ministry globally, it would be Islam.

(3) Changes in communication through the Internet information revolution and the spread of smartphones

The information revolution began in the 1980s with the spread of PCs and the Internet, but it was not until the mid-to-late 2010s when smartphones became widespread that it began to make a real difference in the lives of unreached people groups.

In particular, unreached people groups have entered the era of the information revolution at a very fast pace since the late 2010s, about 10 years ago.

In less than a decade, we have barely had time to objectively evaluate this change, and the information revolution is accelerating the pace of change on the mission field.

Changing human thinking is done through information. Human thought is created by interpreting and reworking information as it is encountered. The biggest problem with unreached people groups for thousands of years has been that they have been very closed to information, hence the term unreached people group, which means they have not been exposed to the gospel.

For thousands of years, most unreached people groups have operated in very closed societies within their own religions and cultures. However, in the past decade, with the spread of smartphones and the development of various social networks, a flood of information has begun to pour in.

In the cyber world, where information flows, there are virtually no national or ethnic borders. The only borders that have existed so far have been linguistic barriers and, in a few countries, mechanical restrictions through Internet control.

The people most affected by this information revolution are the younger generations on the mission field. They have not yet formed a belief system, and the abundance of information available to them through smartphones is beginning to shape their mindset, which is completely different from that of previous generations.

For example, in Turkey, a country that is 99% Muslim, a 2020 Gezici Araştırma survey found that 28.5% of Generation Z claimed no religion, and a 2023 Marmara University report found that 11% of the 18-24 age group were non-religious, with 12.6% of them categorized as “secular non-believers.” This shift is likely to affect all unreached people groups.

This is a shift that will be observed among young people of all unreached peoples in the coming years.

Despite this explosion of information and increased access to it, there is an ironic decline in deep thinking skills. The instantaneous availability of information reduces the ability to analyze and solve problems in depth. The ability to categorize important and unimportant information is diminishing, leading to a selective search for and exposure to spontaneous and interesting information, and a relative lack of access to important and good information.

As a result, there is an increase in access to shallow information about various ideas and religions, but a decrease in the concentration to think for oneself and find the truth, and a problem of pursuing the pleasure that comes from shallow knowledge.

In addition, recent changes in the labor force and information processing capabilities in the AI era have brought fundamental changes to the economic and industrial structure, and the uncertainty and fear of the future of young people have intensified.

In terms of missions, the percentage of people who hear the gospel and accept Jesus through content on the Internet is increasing rapidly, and the role of cyber evangelism is becoming very important because unreached people groups are open and interested in the gospel, but they cannot ask around or get information, and if they become known to the outside world, they risk life threats and expulsion from their groups. In addition, personal encounters are generally weakened, and the importance of a community of faith with personal encounters becomes critical.

(4) Unreached areas, accelerating urbanization, and growing mobile population

Urbanization generally occurs when the economic structure shifts from primary industry to secondary and tertiary industries. In most unreached areas, economic development is moving from primary industries to secondary and tertiary businesses. Rapid industrialization leads to a surge in urban jobs and a large influx of rural populations, especially young people, into cities.

In Asia as a whole, the urbanization rate is growing at 1.5% per year, and the urban population has already exceeded the rural population. The acceleration of urbanization shakes up existing values, and the lifestyle and values created in cities are rapidly spreading throughout the country as a result. Especially nowadays, the speed of change and spread of these values is even faster due to fast communication channels such as SNS.

In addition, since the 2011 Middle East democratic revolutions, the civil wars in Iraq and Syria, and the emergence of IS, there has been a global refugee problem, and there is a very dynamic population flow phenomenon in unreached countries such as migration, study, and employment. These demographic shifts are unlike anything we have seen in the past, and it is difficult and complex to even begin to describe the effects of these changes.

What is clear is that the missionary frontier is in the midst of a tremendous challenge, one that is highly dynamic and where new changes are constantly occurring. And we live in a time when a particular change in a region can quickly become a global phenomenon and bring about other changes.

4. Discussion and Suggestions for Continuing to Fulfill the Great Commission

Our discussions and proposals should be biblically based, and we should also look back in history and consider how the direction of world mission has changed throughout history.

We should also discuss how we can respond to the challenges of our dynamic times and how we can fulfill the rest of the Great Commission according to the Lord's will. In conclusion, we will discuss topics and suggestions for how to fulfill the Great Commission in light of the brief history of missions and the present-day context.

The basic direction of missions as laid out in the Bible by William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Ralph Winter, Lewis Bush, and many others needs to be more firmly and clearly established.

This should be viewed as an independent variable rather than a dependent variable that changes with the times, i.e., the focus of world mission should be on unreached people groups.

This means that evangelistic efforts to spread the gospel through various forms of evangelistic ministries and world missions to unreached areas should be separated and invested in together.

In other words, we need to focus and invest in the various evangelistic and discipleship ministries of Christians in areas where the gospel has already been preached, but at the same time, with a strong will, we need to recognize and focus on unreached peoples, such as barren areas where there is no gospel, as a different concept of focus and service.

Only then can the Great Commission of Matthew 28 be fulfilled.

While this statement may seem obvious, statistics show that only 3.3% of the nearly 400,000 Christian missionaries worldwide are assigned to unreached people groups, meaning that 96.7% of missionary resources are concentrated in already evangelized areas. Surprisingly, even within the overseas mission plan, the majority of missionary work is skewed toward evangelized areas.

Zooming in on this, the typical local church focuses less than 20% of its missions on overseas missions. And of that 20 percent, only 3.3 percent of overseas missions are to unreached people groups.

Hudson Taylor's call 170 years ago to go to China, despite the dangers and difficulties, is still urgently needed by the global church and Christians.

We also need to actively share information about the mission situation and continue mission mobilization, education and training for local churches and Christians. The history of missions and the reality of the global missionary situation show that the fulfillment of the Great Commission will not be accomplished over time unless we mobilize Christians in the Great Commission with a strong sense of commitment and duty, as William Carey wrote in his 1792 book, A Study of the Duty of Christians to Convert the Heathen.

To this end, the importance of missionary organizations is as important today as it was then, and only through close cooperation between missionary organizations and the local church can the Great Commission be fulfilled.

There is a peculiar connection between the history of modern Protestant missions and the Great Awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in England and the United States: both were about the power of the gospel and the restoration of the purity of the gospel. Protestant missions grew with strong spiritual leadership because they had missionary organizations that were committed to overseas frontier missions along with quantitative growth. In particular, Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission (CIM), whose missionaries' pure desire and commitment to the righteousness of God challenged and influenced many missionary organizations and the British and American churches for good, resulting in the improvement of the quality of ministry of the entire church and missionary organizations.

This is relevant to us today, as we are in an era of global missions, with the possibility and opportunity for active international travel, increased mobility of Christians for various reasons such as emigration, immigration, study, and career, and an overall increase and diversification of the types of ministries and potential workers available on the mission field.

As a result, the number of Christians serving on the mission field has exploded, including long-, short-, and long-term missionary travelers, international students, and corporate expatriates. Along with this increase in quantity, it is important that the groups of short- and long-term missionaries who are leading the missionary work are those who have a pure desire for God's righteousness and a total commitment to the kingdom of God, such as the missionary organization founded by Hudson Taylor. In God's history, it has always been a small but pure and sincere community that has worked together for good, providing leadership and influence to the entire Christian community.

It is important for mission organizations to properly train and equip their long-term workers, strengthen their capacity for frontier ministry, and send out people with basic missionary skills so that they are equipped to move the great commission movement in the direction of Jesus.

Without clear leadership on the field, overseas missions can be structurally unchecked and run very loosely, and this leaven on the field can quickly sicken the entire mission.

With these unchanging independent variables, we need to prepare foreign missions to meet the challenges of the times.

First, we need to understand the concept of ethnic windows, or civilization spheres, as a concept of mass homogeneous identity.

Considering only the concept of unreached peoples leads us to focus only on the situation of individual peoples, but in reality, the mission field today is characterized by similar civilizational, religious, and linguistic/ethnic spheres.

Within these similar civilizations, there is a wide variety of population movements, especially through social media, which allows for rapid information sharing and the spread of ideas.

Small groups such as tribes and ethnic groups were important in a closed world based on a rural economy, but with rapid urbanization, new groups are already being created in urban centers in the mission field. Urban life patterns and ideas are becoming more influential than ethnic characteristics, and the cultural and ideological content produced in each city is actually becoming the central culture and ideas of the country.

Therefore, gateway city ministry is becoming increasingly important. Gateway city ministry can be a new form of church planting along with the existing house church-centered mission field church planting.

Especially in large cities where young people gather in large numbers, a church planting model that is open-minded and adapted to the fluid environment is required. In addition, a model of an above-ground church that takes advantage of the dynamism of the city and breaks away from the underground church is required according to the region, and gradually, with the development of social media, the security of mission sites is becoming virtually impossible, so a church planting model that is open to each region is needed.

To this end, it is necessary to develop a lay-centered, megachurch type of church planting where various groups of Christians, such as international students, expatriates, exchange students, refugees, and migrants, naturally share ministry roles and form a community, rather than a church plant led by a few ministers.

Finally, there is a need for a truly international community that mobilizes all Christians in the Great Commission by explaining that the Great Commission for all nations and all generations is not a command that applies only to special groups and generations, but is addressed to all of Jesus' bride, the community that longs for his return.

In our globalized world, we live in a time of identity confusion, with globalist patterns and values of openness to everything, and a search for identity within local and homogeneous groups. No one organization, nation, or group in this world has the answers to truly human identity and community. In the midst of this confusion, young people are torn and hungry for truth.

The only answer to their questions that exists on earth is the church. Especially in these dynamic times, we need the model of an international church community.

They are calling for a church plant like the early church, which broke down all worldly standards and barriers, including race, culture, gender, and economic differences, and was filled with the joy of salvation and the passion of the call.

In these dynamic times, we are faced with the challenge of a truly global church of all nations, built together as one body with the Word and vision of the Lord. As communities rise to this challenge in the power of the Gospel, God's work will move forward again.