Foreign Missions: 3Rd World Nations Vs

MISSIOLOGY LECTURE 28 THE THIRD WORLD

Third World missions… What is this? Well, it is missionary efforts focused on countries that are in ‘underdeveloped’, poverty stricken, weak government areas of the world. The following is information that will help us to understand what sections of the world are ‘underdeveloped’, i.e. ‘third world’.

The United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) rankings for 2008.

0.950 and over 0.900–0.949 0.700–0.749 0.650–0.699 0.450–0.499 0.400–0.449 0.850–0.899 0.800–0.849 0.600–0.649 0.550–0.599 0.350–0.399 under 0.350 Data 0.750–0.799 0.500–0.549 unavailable

Where is God leading you to go serve Him? Is it in the dark green zones????! How about the red zones?! Who will go there? How many Missionaries do you know that are serving in Africa?

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The new term for ‘Third World Nations’ is: Non-Western World. This ‘world’ consists of the countries of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The Non-Western World (AfAsLa) is under-evangelized, but it is the most ripe of all parts of the earth for the gospel. There has been a startling growth of non-Western (AfAsLA) Evangelicals in the latter half of the 20th Century. It may be that in 2025, 83% of the world’s Evangelicals could be in the non-Western world! The unprecedented harvest being won in Africa, Asia and Latin America (AfAsLA) in contrast to the stagnation in North America and the Pacific, and the decline in Europe (EuNAPa), is startling. Though Chrstianity’s percentage in the world population has changed little, the proportions between EuNAPa and AfAsLA have changed dramatically. There is an astonishing shift of the centre of gravity of Christianity to the non- Western world. Note the growth in proportions of each megabloc in AfAsLA: Christians in AfAsLA as percentage of all Christians 1900 1960 2000 Protestant (P) 5.4 19.1 57.3 Independent (I) 2.6 3.5 74.0 Anglican (A) 3.9 9.6 48.8 Catholic (C) 26.9 40.7 65.6 Orthodox (O) 9.2 13.7 25.8 Marginal (M) 61.4 26.5 58.2 All Christians 16.7 35.6 59.4

Christianity is now truly a global religion once more — a status it lost 12 centuries ago. 1 Even though living conditions might be a great detractor, ripeness for the gospel should make the non-Western world the number one choice for ‘Foreign Missionaries’!

South Korea is a land of Christian superlatives — the largest Christian gatherings ever held, the world’s largest congregations of Pentecostals, Presbyterians and Methodists, the largest theological seminaries and the largest non-Western missionary-sending nation! All this in a land that only opened up for the gospel just over a century ago.

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For the first time in history, half of the world’s population lives in or near a city. By 2000, there were 20 cities of over 10 million, 60 over 4 million and 402 over one million. The majority of these cities are in the non-Western world and are non- Christian. The great surge of missions outreach in the late 20th Century largely passed by the burgeoning urban population of the non-Western world. Christianity is being marginalized in many, if not most, of the world’s largest cities. This will be one of the biggest challenges for missions in the 21st Century when, by its close, 90% of people will be living in urban areas.

The focus needs to be on the non-Western world’s large urban areas. The table below has the largest urban areas that are Third World ‘boldfaced’. We should be strategizing for Missionaries to go to these over other urban areas.

Population Metropolitan Area Density Rank Country Population area (km2) (People/km2)

1 Tokyo Japan 32,450,000 8,014 4,049

2 Seoul South Korea 20,550,000 5,076 4,048 3 Mexico City [3] Mexico 20,450,000 7,346 2,784 4 New York City [4] United States 19,750,000 17,884 1,104

5 Mumbai India 19,200,000 2,350 8,170

6 Jakarta Indonesia 18,900,000 5,100 3,706

7 São Paulo Brazil 18,850,000 8,479 2,223

8 Delhi India 18,600,000 3,182 5,845 Osaka-Kobe- 9 17,375,000 6,930 2,507 Kyoto Japan

10 Shanghai People's 16,650,000 5,177 3,216 Republic of China 11 Metro Manila Philippines 16,300,000 2,521 6,466

Hong Kong- People's 12 [5] 15,800,000 3,051 5,179 Shenzhen Republic of China 13 Los Angeles United States 15,250,000 10,780 1,415

14 Kolkata India 15,100,000 1,785 8,459

15 Moscow Russia 15,000,000 14,925 1,005

16 Greater Cairo Egypt 14,450,000 1,600 9,031 17 Buenos Aires Argentina 13,170,000 10,888 1,210

18 London United 12,875,000 11,391 1,130 Kingdom

19 Beijing People's 12,500,000 6,562 1,905 Republic of China

20 Karachi Pakistan 11,800,000 1,100 10,727

**************************************************************************************************** Most of the people groups still unreached by the gospel live in places stretching across the maps of northern Africa and Asia. Christian missions strategist Luis Bush started calling this rectangular area or band: "the 10/40 window." He used that easy- to-remember name because it lies across Africa and Asia from 10 degrees latitude north of the equator to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator.

2 World evangelism statistics: Of the 55 least evangelized countries, 97% of their population lives within the 10/40 Window. Unless something changes soon, most of these unreached people will never hear the Gospel. Why? Well, Bryant Myers of World Vision has estimated that only about one and a quarter percent ( 1.25% ) of Christian mission giving is going to missions work in the 10/40 Window. Open evangelism is difficult and even impossible because of governmental restrictions in many 10/40 nations. And, supposedly, churches are not wanting (willing) to support Missions where the gospel is not legal to go out. But, I believe this to be blatantly against scripture; for Paul and Jesus preached the gospel in cities where they were arrested for such activity… and they kept on doing it. All the apostles but one died for preaching the gospel.

Missions statistics in the 10/40 Window: Center of population:Two-thirds of the world's population -- more than 4.4 billion people -- live in the 10/40 Window. Unreached and unevangelized: 90% of the people living in the 10/40 Window are unevangelized. Many have never heard the Gospel message even once. There are either no Christians or not enough of a Christian movement in many cultures of the 10/40 Window to carry out vibrant near-neighbor evangelism. If those groups are to be evangelized, believers will need to leave their own culture and enter another one where they will seek to plant the gospel, perhaps even learning a new language in order to communicate. Such cross-cultural evangelism is required because there are people groups with no church movements that are understandable or relevant to them.

Good news: There's a difference between unreached and unreachable. In 1989 there were only four known Christians living in Mongolia. That country now has an estimated 10,000 indigenous believers. Also, Christian television programming can now be received in many closed 10/40 Window nations.

Poverty: Eighty-five percent of those living in the 10/40 window are the poorest of the world's poor. World religions: Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are centered within the 10/40 Window. Least evangelized cities: Half of the world's least evangelized cities are in this window.

These underdeveloped Third World countries desperately need the focus being on them for Missions rather than the Developed, safer, more economically stable, friendlier, more Christian nations!

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3 There is a great discrepancy in missions giving to underdeveloped vs. developed nations. The fault is clearly with the churches on this. But, also, may be due to a lack of Missionaries going to those less-appreciated countries.

World “A” : Unreached people -- 24% of the world's population -- receive 1/2 of 1% of dollars given to Christian missions

World “B” : Unevangelized World -- 43% of the world's population – receives 5% of dollars given to Christian missions

World “C” : Christian World -- 33% of the world's population -- receives 94.5% of dollars given to Christian missions

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MISSIONARY FACT SUMMARY WORK SHEET FIRSTBIBLE INTERNATIONAL DR. CHARLES KEEN, GENERAL DIRECTOR PREPARED BY GIL ANGERS, 2004 Number of U.S. Missionary Families in foreign fields………………..……2628 Number of Fundamental Boards Surveyed……………………….…………...23 Number of nations without any U.S. Missionaries…………………………....72 Nation with most US Missionaries………………………………………….…253 POPULATION and NUMBER OF MISSIONARIES BY AREA AFRICA Population……………………………………………………….737,000,000 Number of Countries……………………………………………………….56 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries…………………………401 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary…………….….…20 Ratio……………………………………………………………1 per 184,000 AMERICAS (Minus U.S.A.) Population…………………………………………………….....551,000,000 Number of Countries……………………………………………………….47 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries…………………..…...1071 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary………….…….…..7 Ratio……………………………………………………………..1 per 51,000 ASIA/PACIFIC Population……………………………………………………..3,241,000,000 Number of Countries……………………………………………………….43 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries…………………………565 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary………….…….…11 Ratio………………………………………………………….1 per 5,600,000 EUROPE Population…………………………………………………….....728,000,000 Number of Countries……………………………………………………….48 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries…………………………577 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary……………….…15 Ratio……………………………………………………………1 per 126,000 MIDDLE EAST Population…………………………………………………….....545,000,000 Number of Countries……………………………………………………….28 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries……………………..……14 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary………….…….…19 Ratio…………………………………….……….………….1 per 39,000,000

4 The most ‘needy’ countries for Missionaries are the most ‘underdeveloped’ countries. Most of the Middle East is underdeveloped; all of Africa is underdeveloped. An American Missionary considering going to a ‘foreign field’ should heavily weigh the areas of most need in his decision making. If they would do this, it would help change these ratios to more ‘even’ numbers. The median ratio for all of these is 1 Missionary per 2,207,000 people in ‘foreign fields’.

The top 5 reached foreign countries are: Brazil @ 253, Mexico @ 206, U.K. @ 112, Philippines @ 118, and Canada @ 104. This amounts to 30% of all Fundamental Baptist missionaries being ‘called’ to just 5 countries. This is hard to believe when we know that there are 72 countries that do not have 1 !!! Did God forget about these?! Also, these 5 countries are all considered non-Third world nations. It is clear that the focus of ‘American churches’ is on developed (or developing) countries; also, it may be clear that Missionaries are focusing on the developed nations also. Who wants to live in abject poverty, anyways!?! Why would a Missionary want to bring his lovely wife and dear little children to a Third World country?!

If a man feels called of God to start a church somewhere other than his native country of America, he is pursuing what is called ‘foreign missions’. He will become a foreign missionary (though he is American). I believe that the average independent Baptist foreign missionary will eventually decide on a ‘field’ (country) by maybe 2 main indices: 1) need for gospel and a good church; 2) how close the culture might be to how he and his family are living in America. Obviously, there are some Missionaries that will go to the underdeveloped nations, and praise the Lord for them! But, this 2nd indice I believe is a real, and major factor in the other’s decision making. They surely don’t publicize it usually. Those with families really have to weigh all this out. But, it might be that God is calling many, many more men to the Third World countries than is realized, and that He wants them to go 2 by 2 , leaving their families back home! As best as I can tell, this is the scriptural mandate, or at least ‘model’. Not everyone is called to these countries, but surely there are many that have been called, but have chosen more developed nations instead! Just my somewhat-humble opinion….