The Major Denominations Are Jumping Ship

Last year’s Consultation on World Evangelization at Pattaya, Thailand, emphasized strategy: developing a methodology to evangelize the world before the coming of Jesus Christ. In doing this, COWE took a hard look at such major opponents of the Christian faith as Marxists, Muslims, cult advocates, secularists, Buddhists, and Hindus. Responding to the enormous need, COWE advocated an all-out missionary advance around the world. Participants were faced with the challenge of enlisting 200,000 missionaries by the end of this century.

Speaking specifically about the United States, which currently has more missionaries overseas than any other nation (about 35,000), one can say to this challenge that this country will not raise up 200,000 missionaries now or in the near future. Why do we make such a statement? Because the recent history of some of the major denominations, relative to evangelism at home and missionary outreach abroad, reveals retreat and retrenchment, not growth and advance.

Perhaps the best way to show how dramatic the missionary retreat has been is to look at the percentage decline in the number of overseas career missionaries among some of the major denominations between 1962 and 1979: Episcopal Church, 79 percent decline; Lutheran Church in America, 70 percent; United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 72 percent; United Church of Christ, 68 percent; Christian Church (Disciples), 66 percent; United Methodist Church, 46 percent; American Lutheran Church, 44 percent.

Many factors have contributed to the serious loss of missionaries among the traditional ecumenical denominations. However, it is legitimate to reckon that these figures are a rough index of the depth of conviction about basic Christian doctrine—the nature of the gospel, the lostness of mankind apart from Christ, and the necessity of obeying biblical mandates calling for sacrifice and discipline for the sake of advancing the kingdom of Christ.

On the other hand, there were some significant increases in the missionary forces of some denominations and parachurch agencies. Among these were: Southern Baptist Convention, 88 percent; Assemblies of God, 49 percent; Wycliffe Bible Translators, 55 percent.

Three major umbrella missionary associations represent both denominational and parachurch agencies. It is instructive to compare numbers of missionaries under these three groupings. Between 1962 and 1979 the number of missionaries from denominations belonging to the Division of Overseas Ministries of the National Council of Churches decreased by 51 percent. However, the two associations requiring evangelical doctrinal commitment from their member missions—the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association and the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association—showed increases of 63 and 19 percent, respectively.

Of course, overseas missionary vision is also tied in with evangelism in the U.S. Some of the major denominations showing striking decreases in missionary forces have also shown declines in membership between 1960 and 1979, according to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, 1981 (Abingdon).

For example, the Episcopal Church lost 430,000 members; Lutheran Church in America, 130,000; United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 770,000; United Church of Christ, 520,000; Christian Church (Disciples), 570,000; United Methodist Church, 1,150,000.

These six denominations alone lost over three and a half million members in 19 years. It is apparent that declines in both missionary outreach abroad and evangelism at home can be attributed, in part, to the infiltration of theological liberalism. The vitality of evangelical commitment in other denominations has led to both growing membership and an enlarged missionary force. These trends are noticeable in such denominations as the Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God, Church of the Nazarene, Baptist General Conference, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.).

In addition, one must consider the rising tide of missionary interest among evangelical young people, most dramatically obvious at Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship’s Urbana student missionary conventions. At the 1979 gathering, for example, more than 8,000 youths indicated they were serious about God’s call to a missionary vocation.

Another recent phenomenon affecting missionary outreach relates to the short-term as opposed to the career concept of service. If one were to subtract the number of youths involved in short-term service, the total numbers in overseas deployment would be significantly less. Even among evangelical denominations and parachurch agencies, short-termers account for much of the personnel growth in the last decade. For example, Youth With a Mission and Teen Missions between them account for nearly 2,000 short-term missionaries.

How realistic, then, is it to expect U.S. churches to come up with 200,000 missionaries by 2000, when the number now is about 35,000? Twenty percent growth per decade would bring this figure only to 50,400. To put 100,000 couples, each with two children, on the field would cost about $2.8 billion (figured at an average support figure today of $28,000).

Statistically, one would not be far wrong to guess that the United States has a shrinking role in this endeavor. That is why many missiologists are now saying that reaching the unreached will be the major task of those who once were unreached but now have been reached and must therefore assume responsibility for their own people. Churches have been planted around the globe. These churches must reach their own peoples with the good news.

Any strategy that does not major in evangelism in every country is doomed to failure. Evangelist Billy Graham has grasped this fact and is therefore planning a worldwide conference for national evangelists from churches all over the world. They are the key to world evangelization. They know their people, their languages and customs. They know how to proclaim a gospel in terms indigenous to their cultures.

North American Christians can provide the money; Christians can pray that the Lord of the harvest will thrust laborers into the harvest fields. But more and more it appears that the answer to the need lies in the expanded outreach of Christians of all nations to evangelize their own people.

From the looks of things in some American churches, it is obvious that the need for evangelism exists at “home” too. Maybe sending Third World missionaries to the U.S. would help us. Yet the great wealth and number of Christians in the U.S. shows that the resources for evangelism are there—but they must be enlisted. When U.S. churches see effective evangelism and dynamic growth, there will be a corresponding growth in worldwide missionary vision and practice.

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