By Dr. Jerry Rankin
I can recall world maps distributed by the
Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention posted on
bulletin boards in churches. Countries were colored red where
missionaries were serving, leaving the impression that that country was
now being evangelized because there was a missionary presence. There was
a display at mission headquarters that highlighted new fields entered
each year.
Following World War II there was a vast expansion of
new countries and nations colored on the map, but vast areas of the
world were still white. Missionaries were restricted to countries that
were open to a Christian witness, so that left many others untouched in
the communist block of Eastern Europe and those predominantly Muslim. In
order to reach the whole world, creative access strategies have emerged
that are bringing down those barriers, but that is another topic.
Missionaries
of my generation realized deploying a handful of personnel to a new
nation was far from evangelizing populations numbering in the millions.
But that carried the conviction that once the gospel was planted,
believers and churches would eventually multiply to touch the whole
country.
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