The claim of God’s Holy Spirit on an individual’s heart regarding commitment to service is certainly a most sacred and cherished matter. However, the way in which a potential missionary candidate finds his place of service is often characterized by some as a sort of “mission board roulette.”

In his book, The Bible Speaks to Our Times, Alan Redpath writes, “If you are a Christian and not a church member, then you are out of the will of God!” Mr. Redpath is right!

The title of this article is important because impressions of Urbana ’70 are likely to be as diverse as the people who went there. People there were plenty of: 10,937 students from 48 states and 72 countries and 50 denominations, plus 406 missionaries and 961 “miscellaneous.”

Protestant missionaries from North America now total over 3,000. They are spread around the world perhaps more widely than missionaries from any other continent. In recent years the distribution of these Christian workers has been altered, and we need to see the new patterns in light of our rapidly changing world.

For simplicity’s sake, permit me first to characterize the missionary of the seventies in a five-fold manner: (1) He must be rooted in Christ; (2) he must be anchored in the Word; (3) he must be filled with the Spirit; (4) he must be related to the church; (5) he must be geared to the times.

The most pressing need of the church in Asia today is for adequately trained and deeply committed national leadership in the life and service of the church. This crisis in national leadership is being felt particularly in the sphere of theological training in view of the increasing restrictions on foreign missionary work in most countries in Asia.

The Kalahari Mission is young in years but has been active in growth and development of its own life style in the Christian community. It has been the avowed purpose of this work to allow the church to be truly indigenous, not only in its finances and government but in every aspect of its life.

Since the chief concern of this article is the differential in the growth rates between the missionary society oriented churches and the lower-class churches, it is now time to look at these missionary churches.

The claim of God’s Holy Spirit on an individual’s heart regarding commitment to service is certainly a most sacred and cherished matter. However, the way in which a potential missionary candidate finds his place of service is often characterized by some as a sort of “mission board roulette.”