August 01, 1985 by Tetsunao Yamamori

Commencement Address, William Carey International University.

Distinguished faculty, parents, ladies and gentlemen, members of the graduating class of 1985.

God needs special envoys such as yourselves as workers in His vineyard.

Jesus said to the disciples. "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for the harvest" (Jn, 4:35; NASB).

Elsewhere He said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (Lk. 10:2).

St. Paul reminds us that "we are ambassadors for Christ" (2Cor. 5:20), meaning the messengers of the gospel of reconciliation  reconciling men and women of all races to God in Christ. In short, God's special envoys are urgently needed to make disciples, to disciple the nations, and to reach the world's unreached now, and into the 21st century.

Who Are They?

I wish to define who these special envoys are. They are the new breed of cross cultural workers, urgently needed in the next few years, who are able to function as God's messengers of reconciliation in countries where pure evangelists may be prohibited to enter.

Like any missionary, the special envoy must be whole heartedly devoted to Christ and His mission on earth, believing in the availability of salvation only in and through Jesus Christ. God's special envoy must be physically sound, emotionally stable, socially aware, culturally sensitive, and biblically literate.

These qualifications and more are expected of God's special envoys.

What additional qualifications should they possess? I maintain that toward the 21st century, effective mission will require God's special envoys to be 1) to the emerging mission context; 2) equipped with strategic thinking; and 3) called from diverse sources.

God's Special Envoys Must Be Alert to the Emerging Mission Context

Two basic trends characterize the context of the 21st century mission. The first trend is the exploding non Christian population.

What are the facts?

The world population has grown rapidly and will continue to do so. The world population at the time of Jesus' birth has been estimated at 250 million. By 1900 it had reached the two billion mark. There axe 4.7 billion people in the world today. Projections for the years 2000 and 2020 are roughly 6 billion and 8 billion respectively.

Approximately 25 percent of the world's people today claim to be Christians. This means the remaining 75 percent (3.5 out of 4.7 billion people) are non  Christians. If the current ratio of Christians to non Christians prevails, there will be 4.5 billion non Christians in the year 2000, and 6 billion nonChristians by 2020.

(Research conducted by church growth analysts indicates that the current ratio is not likely to continue. The church is actually growing at a faster rate than that of the general population. Yet we have every reason to be alert to the world's population trends.)

Furthermore, current trends lead us to believe that over half the world's population in the year 2000 will be living in cities, and 60 percent of the population will be Asian. In other words, if we are to reach the unreached, the Church of Jesus Christ must not only be alert to the growth of the world's population as a whole, but also to the importance of urban centers and the Asian population in particular.

The second trend which characterizes the context of the 21st century mission is the increasing inaccessibility of nations and people groups to purely evangelistic missionaries.

In 1974, Ed Dayton of MARC said, "Thirty two countries with a population of (almost 2 billion) permit no foreign missionaries of any type or greatly restrict (the activities of cross-cultural) evangelists within their borders.

These "Missionary Off Limits" countries are often under totalitarian regimes. Today, 65 percent of the world's population is living in partly or fully restricted countries.

The 1985 edition of Freedom in the World by Freedom House of New York takes note of the advance of Soviet communism during the last decade in Southeast Asia after the fall of South Vietnam, in South Yemen, Ethiopia, the former Portuguese colonies of Africa, and in Nicaragua. While Western Europe has experienced some gains for democracy, the net result has been a decrease in the number of countries and people groups accessible to purely evangelistic missionary outreach.

So: God's special envoys must be alert to the emerging mission context. That is, they must be alert I) to the exploding non.Christian population, and 2) to the increasing inaccessibility of people groups in need of hearing the gospel. (Ed.: While Yamamori sounds pessimistic at this point, the realities mentioned on pg. 26 under "Never Say Can't" ought to be taken into consideration.)

God's Special Envoys Must Be Equipped with Strategic Thinking

Strategically, there are two kinds of populations in the world today and two corresponding approaches to them. There are four factors that help to differentiate the two populations: hospitality.

The hospitality index refers to the degree to which a country, a social group within a country, or a people group is hospitable to Christianity. It refers especially to the quantity or quality of social sanctions placed upon gospel witness.

Sixty five percent of the world's population, as stated earlier, are living in limited access countries. Many such countries have policies prohibiting the entrance of evangelists and of limiting or totally forbidding the evangelistic activities of national Christians. These sanctions upon Christian witness and activity are placed upon the Christian community by the larger community of which they are a part. They are social limitations. I refer to them as indications of the hospitality of a group toward Christianity.

The evangelization index refers to the number of people within a population who have been evangelized, and the degree of their evangelization. Most basically: she there known Christians within the group, and if so, how do their numbers compare with those of the population as a whole?

The receptivity index gauges the degree of receptivity of a particular people to the gospel. Unlike the hospitality index, which refers to limiiatinns upon gospel witness created by the social context or the community, the receptivity index refers to the openness of individual members of the group to gospel witness. In communist China for instance, while the hospitality index might be a mere I or 2, the receptivity index would read 6 or 7 The government  the social setting  is antagonistic toward Christian witness; but the people as a whole are wide open to the gospel message. Receptivity is high; hospitality is low.

Population Analysis of China

Index

The development index seeks to measure the conditions of physical need in a target group. Peter McPherson of USAID tells us that 90 percent of the worlds population in the year 2000 will be living in developing countries. This means that more people than ever will be experiencing some form of acute physical need.

Using these indices as guides, we can now classify population groups into two ideal types  the top end and bottom end populations. The former is made up of countries or people groups that are most hospitable to Christianity, most evangelized, most receptive to the gospel, and most developed. The latter on the other hand consists of countries or people groups that are least hospitable to Christianity, least evangelized, least receptive to the gospel, and least developed.Obviously, there are countries and people groups that fall in between these two extremes, but research is the key to identify accurately who they are and where they fall.

The harvesting approach is proper in peoples and countries toward the top end of the scale. Where missionaries are allowed to enter and where there is an open receptivity to the gospel; where there ate many national Christians and where physical needs are not so great that they overwhelm all other concems the Word of God must be shared directly and aggressively.

The exploding non Christian population demands more, not fewer, traditional career missionaries. These missionaries need sound training in mission strategy and accurate knowledge of how, in fact, peoples of the world come to faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ. And, because of the rapid urbanization and Asianization of the world's population, many of these future missionaries must specialize in reaching specific people groups in cities and in Asia.

Population Analysis

Index

The preararory approach doing something now in the hope that people will respond to the gospel later  is more appropriate among populations on the bottom end of the scale. Where career missionaries are not permitted to enter, where people are least responsive to the gospel, where few or no known Christians are part of the population, where people are in need of food, basic health care, education, information on proper nutrition, appropriate technology, food production, etc., Gods special envoys can do little more than let their lights so shine before men and women that they may see their good works and glorify their Father who is in heaven (Mt. 5:16).

Often, building a one on one friendship works positively toward leading a person to Christ. The multiplication of this process may eventually create not one "Christ group," but many.

In inhospitable circumstances we may need to encourage some form of "underground" Christianity. The historic, traditional approach has been: if a person is not sincere enough to risk persecution for Christ's sake, then he is not really ready to become a Christian. Under some circumstances, I believe that is the correct position. But under others, I think that is incorrect.

God's special envoys, alert to the emerging mission context, must be equipped with strategic thinking to reach people who would, ordinarily, be unreachable.

God's Special Envoys Must Be Called From Diverse Sources

I can think of at least three main sources from which God's special envoys may come.

Bivocational (or "tentmaking")  missionaries. For the purpose of warning specific people group, these missionaries get secular jobs to support themselves white witnessing to the target population. Already trained for missionary work, they have, nevertheless, acquired additional skills to earn a living. One may teach English as a second language in China or a Muslim country. A nurse or doctor may work for an international health care agency and live in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, or Chad. The host government may hire qualified teachers in various disciplines on various levels of instruction.

Despite obvious limitations, one can find a wide range of possibilities for personal witnessing. In dealing with bottom end populations, we must believe in the principle of the "ripple effect" that we have seen at work in China, for instance. The ripple effect implies a spontaneous expansion of the Kingdom of God through the dynamic ~ messing of individual Christians. Gods special envoys, under some circumstances, may be able to multiply Christian groups. 2. Cross cultural lay witnesses, These are primarily lay persons, not especially trained for missionary service, but desiring to witness for Christ while serving overseas as employees of multi national corporations, secular international agencies, and governments of the United 'States and foreign countries.

A Western diplomat in a limited access country in East Africa has a group of Christians meeting in his home for Bible study. Scripture/tract distribution is one meaningful way to assist such an effort, These lay witnesses will welcome a short course in the essentials of personal witnessing and developing Christian fellowship groups in countries that are not so hospitable to Christianity.

3. Christian relief and development personnel. All mission agencies doing this type of work, and certainly evangelical organizations such as Food for the Hungry are in a unique position to work in countries where the explosion of the non Christian population is occurring and where traditional career missionaries are not allowed to enter. The residents of these countries are often, at the same time, in dire need of assistance which such relief and development agencies can provide. The fact is, the physically and spiritually hungry of the world are often found in the same places  they are awaiting the healing balm to be brought by those who believe that "man does not live by bread alone."

Food, or any other assistance provided by an aid agency, most not be used as a bribe to encourage recipients to become Christians. I am personally aware of numerous examples of Christian workers who have developed friendships with nonChristian nationals who later professed Christ and formed Christian worship, Bible study and mutual encouragement groups even in intensely anti Christian countries, Christian relief and development activities may be linked with Christian radio broadcast ministries in order to increase their effectiveness. Broadcasts which speak to felt needs and relevant issues are welcome and listened to attentively.

Agencies may, on occasion, provide transistor radios to groups in strategic locations. Christian broadcast agencies can then develop programs which deal with nutrition, health care, agricultural methods, water resources, and anything else related to improving the quality of life  including world news, biblical insights for Kingdom living, and Scripture readings (sometimes read slowly enough that hand transcriptions can be made).

What if some of the growing number of Third World missionaries were brought into this forte? Many of them must acquire special skills, but North American agencies would welcome the opportunity to work closely with missionary societies and churches from the Third World.

We are told that approximately 3,000 Third World missionaries were sent in 1973 by 210 Third World mission societies supported by Third World funds, By 1980, we had discovered still more, and the agencies we already knew about had also grown so that we knew of 13,000 Third World missionaries on the field, sent by 368 agencies. One missiologist predicts that there could be over 50,000 such personnel on the field by the year 2000. A portion of this number should be devoted to reaching the totally unreached peoples in our world, especially those who need to be approached through nontraditional means.

Let us remember always the world white far harvest. While some countries and some people groups are less open to the gospel at any given time, God is at work and will continue to work among them. And other groups at the same time may be more open than ever.

"Pray ...the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" so that "this gospel of the Kingdom (may) be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come" (Lk, 10:2, RSV; Mt. 24:14, NASB).

Dr. Yamamori is president of Food for the Hungry, Inc. international, evangelical relief and development agency. The above message is an edited version of the commencement address given at William Carey International University, May 19, 1985.