An important international council recently met in Ontario, Canada, to study the problems of Christian missions in the postwar world. Some vital conclusions were reached, and these we are endeavoring to share with our le,aders throughout the world field. Louis K. Dickson has written on the subject of administration, and this appears in this issue. J. I. Robison, one of the associate secretaries of the General Conference, has given us a contribution dealing with the particular racial problems as they are related to our foreign mission program. This is already in hand, and will appear next month. Other articles bringing features of finance and policy have been promised.
The world we face today, having emerged from the global war, is different from the world we once knew. Changed conditions confront our workers in almost every land of earth, and we must face these conditions realistically. Messages from our General Conference leaders, as they have appeared throughout the years in the columns of THE MINISTRY, have brought strength to our workers. But our brethren, returning from a survey of the countries which were largely cut off from contact with headquarters during the war years, bring fresh challenges to us.
God's workers in lonely outposts as well as those at the home bases must strive to understand the problems they face, and prepare themselves to meet the new issues. People once isolated have suddenly become neighbors of every nation of earth. Time and space have largely been annihilated, and in this postwar world boundaries are more psychological than national. In fact, many expressions have a new meaning for us. We may use the same basic words to convey our thoughts, but the same word today has, in many instances, an altogether larger connotation. The horizons of thought have been pushed back, and if we are going to meet the challenge of our time, we must present God's message in such clarity that, like on the day of Pentecost, men will hear the gospel in their own tongues. They will hear truth couched in the meaningful terms of these times.
R. A. A.
