Mission agencies and the church face a major question with respect to the national churches that are emerging as a result of missionary evangelism. The question is no longer one of establishing indigenous churches at some future date.

There is much said and written today about the approaching end of world missions. Such views are usually supported by statistics and radically changing conditions in many parts of the world where missionaries have been expelled or excluded, or where normal missionary work is exceedingly difficult.

No one questions that our world of today is an exciting place to live. It has been called by many names: the Age of Science, the Atomic Age, the Space Age, and even the Erotic Age.

Some years ago a missionary from Africa confronted me with this problem: “As a missionary returning to a field that may quite conceivably be taken over by Communists, how should I approach my task of teaching the church?”

During the last decade we have been made vividly aware of the rapid increase in the population of the world.

How can we close the gap between the first sowing of the seed in a new town and the establishment of a church? That was the question that plagued us during our first two terms of service.