• Directories
    • Business Directory
    • Church Directory
    • Organization Directory
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Help
  • Log In

MENUMENU
  • Learning
        • Leader’s Edge
          • Author Interviews
          • Book Summaries
        • Book Reviews
          • Book Look
          • EMQ Book Reviews
        • Publications
          • Anthology
          • Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ)
          • Missiographics
        • Podcasts
          • The Mission Matters
          • Members Only Feed
          • Missions Podcast DirectoryNew
        • Topics
          • COVID-19 Resources
          • Diaspora Missions
          • Global Issues Updates
          • Member Highlights
          • Mobilization
          • Muslim Missions
          • Support Raising
          • UkraineNew
        • Media Library
          • Conferences
          • Global Issue Updates
          • On Mission
          • Thought Leader Briefings
          • Webinars
          • Workshop
          • View All
  • Programs
    • Accreditation
    • Bible Certificate
    • Church Missions Coaching
    • Cohorts
    • Cybersecurity
    • ImproveNew
    • Mission Jobs
    • Missions DataNew
    • Publish
    • RightNow Media
    • The Mission App
    • Women’s Development
  • Events
          • Calendar
          • In-Person Events
          • Virtual Events
          • Event Recordings
          • Awards
        • Premier Events
          • Mission Leaders Conference
          • On Mission
        • Upcoming Events

          • Evangelical Views on Women in Ministry & Marriage: Differences in Interpretation, Not Inspiration
            Fri May 20, 2022, 04:00 PM PDT
          • Webinar: An Introduction to the Theology and Practice of Cross-Cultural Risk
            Thu May 26 2022, 12:00pm EDT
          • Pocket Guide to Being a Missions Pastor: 5 Things Every Missions Pastor Needs to Know
            Wed Jun 1 2022, 01:00pm EDT
        • View All Events
  • Research
          • Missions DataNew
          • Missiographics
          • Research Reports
        • Popular Research
          • Compensation Reports
          • COVID-19 Resources
          • Field Attrition Report
          • View All Reports
        • Contribute
          • Current Research Projects
          • Volunteer
  • About Us
        • Who We Are
          • Our Contribution
          • Meet the Team
          • Board Members
          • History (1917–present)
        • Our Beliefs
          • Statement of Faith
          • Community Standards
        • Awards
        • Partner with Us
          • Advertise
          • Donate
          • Sponsorships
          • Volunteer
        • Help
          • Contact Us
          • Advertising Specs
          • Branding Guidelines
  • Join
        • Learn
        • Learn what you cannot learn anywhere else.

        • Meet
        • Meet people you otherwise won’t meet.

        • Engage
        • Engage in a community like none other.

          • Benefits
          • Benefits for Churches
          • Pricing

Sponsored Content

Upcoming Events

  • Evangelical Views on Women in Ministry & Marriage: Differences in Interpretation, Not Inspiration
    Fri May 20, 2022, 04:00 PM PDT
  • Webinar: An Introduction to the Theology and Practice of Cross-Cultural Risk
    Thu May 26 2022, 12:00pm EDT
  • Pocket Guide to Being a Missions Pastor: 5 Things Every Missions Pastor Needs to Know
    Wed Jun 1 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • From Harlem to the World - the Local Church Mobilized for Global Missions
    Wed Aug 3 2022, 01:00pm EDT
  • Innovation Leaders Discussion
    Mon Aug 8 2022, 01:00pm EDT

View all events »

Topics

author interview CEO Church Church Missions Church Mission Team Church Planting COVID-19 Cross Cultural Skills Diaspora Disciple Making Discipleship Focus Future Innovation Islam Justin Long Leadership Management Member Care Missiology Missionaries Mission Finance and Administration MLC2019 MLC2020 MLC2021 Mobilization muslim Muslim Diaspora Networks Partnership Podcast Presenter Pursuing Partnerships Series Research Risk Short-Term Missions Spirituality support raising Training Trends Unengaged Unreached Weekly Roundup Women Women in Leadership

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

More Than a Window

Posted on January 1, 2003 by Ted EslerJanuary 1, 2003

by David Nelson

Beyond doubt, the 10/40 Window as a trend has mobilized many like never before.

The twenty-six-year veteran of missionary service anguished, “We’re being told that we’ve wasted our time and God’s resources because we don’t work in the 10/40 Window. But less than one percent of the people here are believers,” he continued, perplexed over this reaction to his life’s work and calling.

At a missionary retreat the question was asked, “Are any of you angry or resentful about the 10/40 Window emphasis?” There were around one hundred of us there and the response was almost unanimous. I was genuinely shocked. After having served in Spain for thirteen years I was certainly battling resentment. I had no idea that so many others were too, and that some were very wounded indeed.

Please understand, this is not a missionary sob story. Rather, I want to address some misconceptions that affect us as a result of the Window emphasis. Some mission leaders are saying that the 10/40 Window has become a fad rather than a trend. This distinction is important to responsibly balance zeal with knowledge and avoid riding the pendulum of what motivates and excites us.

Beyond doubt, the 10/40 Window as a trend has mobilized many like never before. The “AD2000 and Beyond Movement” was one group that did an admirable job at communicating the vision of “unreached peoples” of the 10/40 Window in particular. There was an identifiable target for vision, prayer and resources. The rallying cry was, “A church for every people and the gospel for every person by AD2000.”

However, the goal was never to promote the 10/40 Window vision to the exclusion of other missionary activity. Yet at a recent conference I heard an international missions leader assert that only one percent of the mission work being done today is real mission work, narrowly defined as first-contact evangelism. Why?

There’s ambiguity regarding the terms “reached” and “unreached,” even among our most prestigious missions analysts. Peter Wagner gives an explanation of why people groups with less than twenty percent practicing Christians are unreached and therefore still need cross-cultural evangelization. His premise: “The missionary is needed until the church has reached the stage of becoming self-reproducing” (Wagner and Dayton 1988). Ralph Winter writes,

The majority of mission leaders has shared the view that “reaching a people” must consist of planting adequate church movements… [they] must be given the opportunity to join a fellowship, not just hear a message. (Winter 1993)

Conversely, Patrick Johnstone writes “strictly, [unreached] should be a measure of the exposure of a people group to the gospel and not a measure of the response” (Johnstone 1993, 654). However he later defines “unreached” as those who have “no viable indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize their own people without [cross-cultural] assistance”(Johnstone 1993, 655). The result of this ambiguity is that missions and churches are forced to arbitrarily decide who’s reached and unreached. The second result is that the missionaries’ ministry is then qualified by that standard. Many pastors are now stating that their churches won’t support missionaries not working in the “Window.”

Besides belittling the sacrificial lives and fruit of many missionaries, this approach fails to distinguish need from call. It’s painfully obvious that some aren’t heeding their call since the 10/40 Window need is still largely unanswered. However, if someone isn’t gifted to do extreme cross-cultural evangelization should we insist that Jordan be their destination instead of Peru? Should the missionary doctor abandon his clinic in Cameroon to become an evangelist in Yemen? What about home-country pastors? Are precious time and resources being squandered on the “reached” around them? Is their call to preaching, teaching, youth, worship, visitation to the sick, all invalidated because of the unevangelized world? Of course not. Perhaps we’re too eager to invalidate similar missionary non-evangelistic ministry.

To ignore the importance of calling and gifting in our zeal to see the world evangelized is short-sighted and unworkable—not to mention unscriptural. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:7-9a "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers…"

We’re all familiar with the five-fold ministry passage of Ephesians 4:11-13, both pastors and missionaries are called to “perfect the saints.” The difference is that missionaries do it in cultures that aren’t their own until the host-culture church can live without them. To do otherwise is spiritual abortion.

Why put a yoke on our missionaries with double-standard terminology and extra-biblical principles? While presenting world vision, needs and goals, let’s still enthusiastically recognize all missionaries as fellow ministers, worthy of their vocation and call wherever and whatever it may be. We’d do well to trade the easy-answer, tunnel-vision approach with God’s majestic plan to fully reach all humankind in all of his “bigger than a window” world.

References
Johnstone, Patrick. 1993. Operation World. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House.

Wagner, Peter and Edward R. Dayton, eds.1980. Unreached Peoples ’80—The Challenge of the Church’s Unfinished Business. Elgin, Ill.: David C. Cook Publishing Co.

Winter, Ralph D. 1993. “Mission Network News and World Concern.” Operation World. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House.

———-

David Nelson served in Spain as a missionary from 1984-97. While there he and his wife, Janet, established two churches. The Nelsons are currently full-time itenerant missionaries with Elim Fellowship of Lima, NY and travel extensively to the Spanish speaking world doing courses, seminars and field projects in the areas of missions and ethnomusicology. They have four children.

Copyright © 2003 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

GoToOlder PostNewer PostAll PostsEMQPerspectives: EMQ Guest EditorialSectionVolume 39 - Issue 1

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Mailing List

Keep up to date with our community.

Menu

  • Home
  • Directories
  • Advertise
  • Donate
  • Contact Us

Join

  • Join
  • Benefits
  • Learn
  • Meet
  • Engage

Help

  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Cookies Policy

About Us

  • Who We Are
  • Statement of Faith
  • Awards
  • Resources
Missio Nexus Logo

© Missio Nexus. All rights reserved.
As an Amazon Associate Missio Nexus earns from qualifying purchases.


PO Box 398
Wheaton, IL 60187-0398

Phone: 770.457.6677
678.392.4577

Annual Sponsors

ECFA Logo Brotherhood Mutual Logo

Subscribe to our Mailing List

Membership website powered by MembershipWorks