This year, 1986, the world population reached 5 billion. That is more than 25 times as many people as were alive in the days of Christ and the apostle Paul. And five times as many as in the days of our church's pioneers. Of those 5 billion people, about three fifths are unaware of the power and the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there may be another billion people who have never heard with clarity the three angels' messages. These 4 billion people constitute the unreached, the target audience of Seventh-day Adventist mission.
The question now is How in the world can these people be reached with the everlasting gospel in this generation? Before addressing that issue, let us first make sure that we agree on the goal of our mission: reaching those 4 billion people who either have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ in general, or the Adventist message in particular. For not only is advance in mission proportionately related to the clarity of our goal, but mission strategies too are greatly deter mined by our objectives. When there is no clarity or unanimity regarding our goal and objectives, the mission suffers. That is one reason why we are not advancing as rapidly as we could.
One idea that is heard frequently these days is that God has a thousand ways of His own to reach those billions of people with the gospel. Why,. then, be so uptight about reaching them with the limited means available to this church? Another concept that is gaining prominence again is the notion that Adventist mission should see its goal primarily, if not exclusively, in what we traditionally have described as "calling the honest children of God out of Babylon." In the narrower sense of that term, this means proclaiming the first, second, and third angels' messages only to the 25 percent of the world population that is at least nominally Christian.
Both of these viewpoints have great merit and need to be taken seriously. The first starts from the biblical view that mission is the work of God. He initiated it. He paid the price for it. He will also accomplish it. And He will do so at His own time and in His own way. The main thing we need to do is make sure that we are on His side, and that we follow Him wherever He leads us. As we grow in Him and participate in His work, God's mission will be accomplished.
There is much comfort in this view. But taken by itself, it will accomplish very little for world mission. All mission is the work of God, but He has chosen human instrumentalities to accomplish His work. In fact, throughout the Scriptures woes are pronounced upon those who do not work for the accomplishment of God's mission as if the salvation of all humanity depended on their labors (see, for example, Eze. 3:18; 1 Cor. 9:16). Seventh-day Adventists hold to an inclusive view of mission. God has, indeed, many other ways and uses many different persons and organizations to evangelize the world. But we dare not leave to others what God, in His grace, has specifically entrusted to us. Not only our identity as a church, but our personal salvation as well, stands or falls with the commitment to share with others—some 5 billion of them—the joy, peace, and certainty of salvation in Christ, and the good news of His soon return.
The second viewpoint also has great merit. It is part of our heritage, and over the years has shaped our mission and determined our concepts and strategies of evangelism. But this narrow view of our mission must be complemented and corrected by recognition that in Scripture mission is always world mission. It embraces all people and shuts out none. The Bible makes it clear that God's love is so deep, so wide, so all-embracing, that it includes all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples. God commissioned this church to make disciples of all peoples, everywhere, and to teach them to obey everything the Lord has taught us.
It is all right for a group of believers to limit their mission to a smaller, clearly defined audience when it first emerges and is in the process of discovering its own identity. Such was true of the early Christians. But within a few years they saw their mission expand from Jerusalem to Judea, then to Samaria, and finally to the rest of the world (Acts 1:8). This was also the case with the early Adventist believers after 1844 when they gradually expanded their mission from the closed group of the "brethren of Laodicea" to the Christians of North America to the "honest children of God still in Babylon," everywhere.
But however attractive this view is, and however much part and parcel of our traditional way of thinking on mission and evangelism, it is too limited. The whole world is our parish, not only geographically but socially, religiously, and culturally as well. God has no favorites! His love embraces Christian and non-Christian alike, the Muslim and the Marxist, the sectarian and the secularist. They all have a right to hear the message, all 4 billion of them!
Two ways of mission
There are basically two ways of mission, each with its own forms of ministry and its own instruments of evangelism. Both are very biblical, and both are needed to accomplish the task. Though they are rather different, as they start from opposite premises and have an altogether different orientation, the two very much need each other and complement each other, as the left hand needs and complements the right hand. They also challenge each other and correct each other. Great harm is done to the advance of God's mission when only one way is followed, or when one way is greatly elevated above the other. One may be called the church-oriented mission, the other world-oriented. Of course, these two ways never occur totally isolated from each other.
Most mission work is a mixture of the two ways. Generally though, one takes precedence in determining the attitudes and approaches in mission, the methods and strategies followed in evangelism, and the kind of organization and instruments employed. As these determine to a large extent the missionary advance, it is helpful to contrast these two basic ways of mission and their consequences for the task of reaching the unreached.
Church-oriented mission
Church-oriented mission is an extension of the function of the church. All its activities find their source, focus, and goal in the church. Mission is more or less a synonym of church growth. Its aim is to add as many people as possible to the church, to expand and strengthen its organizational structures, and to establish institutions. All these give the church presence, stability, and continuity, arid make further mission possible.
The church-oriented mission centers on the work of specialists: ministers and evangelists, administrators and teachers, hospital workers and technicians. The members of the church are urged to do their share in the advance of mission. Their activities are usually determined and shaped by the specialists whom they are called to assist in the work of building up the church.
Commonly, in the church-oriented view, the church sees itself as "a divine fortress in a revolted world," "God's sacred bulwark in a world polluted by sin." There is little or nothing in that world that contributes to the advance of mission or has any salvific value. The task of mission is to call people out of this evil world, away from their secular activities, and to gather them within the safety of God's holy fortress. The terms used to describe that mission are illustrative of the concept behind it: crusade, campaign, soul winning. Usually such a fortress concept goes hand in hand with a hierarchical form of church organization and a strongly centralized form of government.
The church's particular message plays a powerful role in this mission. The message is also important in the world-oriented mission, except that in the latter the message is adapted to the circumstances and conditions of the people for whom it is intended. In the church-oriented way the message, once formulated and adopted by the church as the truth, tends to become a sacred tradition, a divinely inspired heritage that must be preserved exactly as it has been handed down, without changes in form or even methods of communicating it.
The church-oriented method of mission has enormous strengths. There is no question about the church's identity or its message. Specialists—evangelists, administrators, technicians—can be sent from one part of the globe to another, where they can present the same standard methods and administer the church's organizations and institutions. And when people accept the message, they find a good, functioning organization to receive them and to assist them as they grow in spirit and in truth.
The church-oriented method of mission has served the Seventh-day Adventist Church well. From a handful of believers, ridiculed and rejected by many, our church has grown into a worldwide organization, admired and imitated by other missionary bodies. From an America-based and an America-oriented denomination it has grown into a universal church, solidly planted in some 190 countries of the world. In fact, the Adventist Church today is the most widespread Protestant mission organization in the world, and has a consistent membership growth of 6 to 6.5 percent a year. This compares very favorably with the 2 percent annual growth rate of both Christendom in general and the global population.
From a church-oriented point of view, this growth of the Adventist Church and its expansion around the world is a great success. From a world-oriented view of mission, however, the picture looks quite different. And it is that view that is desperately needed now to complement and to correct the other if we are to reach the 4 billion people in our target group.
World-oriented mission
Central to world-oriented mission is not the church, but the world, its people, and their activities. And contrary to the church-oriented method of mission, mission in this view is not an extension of the church. It is the other way around! The church is a product of mission, and an instrument, a tool to reach the mission's goals and objectives. That goal is not in the first place soul winning, seeking at all cost to add more people to the church and expanding its organizations and institutions, but evangelization: presenting the person and the work of Jesus Christ in such a way that all people, everywhere, become acquainted with the gospel that forces them to decide for a life with or without Christ, with all the consequences for the here and the hereafter.
When Adventist missions began there were about 1 billion people in the world, some 30 percent of whom were Christian or under the direct influence of the gospel. Since then the number of people who have never heard the message of Christ and His work in the final phase of His ministry has quadrupled. And every year another 85 million people are being added to the world population, mostly in non-Christian areas. From a church-oriented view of mission, a consistent 6 percent annual growth is a tremendous advance. From a world-oriented point of view, it means only that the number of the unreached is increasing by the millions every year. If we are serious about our missionary goal to reach the unreached in this generation, our mainly church-oriented method must be complemented and corrected by the world-oriented method of mission.
That will require some rethinking on the nature of our church and mission, and a change in our attitude, actions, and priorities. From a world-oriented point of view, large institutions or a strong, centralized organization in mission may not always contribute much to reaching the unreached. In fact, ample evidence from mission-history—including our own—and from current research on mission testifies to the contrary.
Take our work in the People's Republic of China, for example. Reflecting on the lack of rapid advance in former years, David Lin, then secretary of the China Division, cited our church-oriented way of mission as the most detrimental factor. Our resources and personnel were spent on organizations and institutions, leaving very little room for a rapid advance of the message through the development of local congregations and the preparation of church members for their life and work as priests in the world. He concluded that we must make Christians before we build organizations and institutions. The present very rapid growth through a world-oriented way of mission in China lends credence to Lin's view.
By and large, church-oriented mission still determines our form of evangelism. When work in a new territory is begun, the church organization with its slate of officers and departments is often already in place before converts are made. When plans are developed to evangelize a new area, we send in a team of specialists: ministers under the direction of a powerful evangelist, aided by radio, television, and other church-sponsored programs. This method of mission has the most immediate results. But for a church to have a truly effective influence on the unreached billions, the church-oriented method needs to be complemented by the world-oriented method.
World-oriented mission begins with a different understanding of the world and the church's function in relation to the world, and it leads to different ways of communicating the message.
Once again, consider the reality of the goal in mission. In the church-oriented view, our real goal is soul winning, building up the church. Our activities and programs focus on the church and its growth. Soul winning is important in the world-oriented view, too, but as a result, not a primary objective, of our mission. In world-oriented mission, the church's primary objective is to reach people who have not been reached with its message. The goal is to give every person on earth the opportunity to hear with clarity the everlasting gospel, thereby calling for a decision concerning Jesus Christ and His work (Matt. 16:16). The person who accepts Christ is saved (Acts 16:31), and there is no condemnation for him (John 3:17, 18). However, those who after hearing the gospel do not receive Christ, but consciously reject Him as their Lord and Saviour, are thereby condemned already (John 3:16-19).
Mission in this view is not like a big political campaign trying to enlist more voters for our cause. Rather, it is participating with Christ in His work of judgment (Rev. 14:6-12). In the words of Christ, that work is accomplished when humans everywhere are powerfully persuaded to make a decision regarding the light that He, Christ, has brought into the world (John 3:16-21).
Our real task
Is not this the specific task for which the Adventist Church has been called into existence? Numerical growth comes as a result of this mission. But the advance of this mission is determined not just by the number of those whom we bring into the church, but by the number of those who really have become acquainted with the everlasting gospel and have been forced to make a definite decision between a life with Christ or a life without Him. When the gospel will have been proclaimed with such power as a testimony to all nations, then the end will come (Matt. 24:14).
To hasten the accomplishment of this task, the world-oriented view takes some different approaches in mission. Recognizing that the world is a colorful mosaic of different cultures and groups, each with its own particular value system, symbols, and ways of .communication, the missionary seeks to become one with those groups. He identifies with their interests and needs, participates in their secular affairs, and learns from them the way and the form in which the message of the gospel can best be communicated.
In this we should follow the example of the apostle Paul. Ellen White said Paul "varied his manner of labor, always shaping his message to the circumstances under which he was placed. . . . We also must learn to adapt our labors to the condition of the people, to meet men where they are" (Gospel Workers, [1892 ed.], pp. 300, 301). "Many efforts, though made at great expense, have been in a large measure unsuccessful because they did not meet the wants of the time or the place" (ibid., p. 297).
To use a term from advertising: the world-centered view of mission is not product-oriented, but target group-oriented. It sees much in every culture that is holy and good and profitable to advance the work of the gospel.
Who are the persons most suited to accomplish the evangelization of the world? Obviously those believers who already live and work in the world, who every day participate with others in their secular activities, and in whose lives the gospel has become a reality. The church-oriented method of mission is strongly programmatic and institutionalized. Public evangelism, radio, and television are mostly proclamational forms of ministry. The world-oriented method of mission is strongly incarnational. It also is an integrated form of mission, integrated in the totality of life, part and parcel of the believer's everyday existence. It does not need a special time or a special place. It occurs wherever a believer lives out the life of Christ. It occurs spontaneously, not programmatically. Especially in our urban, secularized societies this is the only form of mission possible.
There is one other way in which the goal of reaching the unreached is accomplished through the world-oriented view of mission. It sees God Himself powerfully at work in the world, and follows His leading. The church-oriented view tends to limit God's direct workings to the church. It also sees the gifts of the Spirit operating primarily within the church. By contrast, the world-oriented view sees the Spirit of the Lord constantly being poured out on the "heathen." It sees miracles of God's workings happening everywhere: the renewed interest in Bible reading in secular Europe, the enormous receptivity to the gospel in forms and symbols modem man can understand, the rise of people-movements toward Christ on all continents, and the emergence of messianic expectations everywhere. Because so many of these workings of the Spirit are appearing in forms other than those sanctioned in our church's tradition, the church-oriented view of mission often does not even recognize them as such. Yet they are God's way of finishing His work.
Accomplishing the task
Reaching the unreached: how, then, shall we go about it? Though world-oriented mission has enormous strengths, it also has its weaknesses. A world-centered mission without a strong church to guide and to direct it soon loses its identity. It becomes like salt that has lost its savor.
World-oriented mission may have the power of a wave, but without a strong institutional church it has no stability and no continuity. Specialized ministers are needed to assist the believers in their lives and their work of mission in the world. Converts need to be cared for and absorbed into the new community of the Spirit. All indicators given to us in Scripture and through careful research point to the fact that world-oriented mission needs church-oriented mission, and vice versa, in order for the goal of reaching the unreached to be accomplished. The two ways complement each other, challenge each other, and correct each other. But because our traditional approach to mission has been shaped mostly by the church-oriented view, we need to begin giving much greater emphasis to the world-oriented view, both in our thinking and in practice. For the immediate future of our work this means that:
1. We should give serious study to the different target audiences of Adventist mission worldwide, such as the thou sands of unreached people-groups, and develop the most suitable ways of reach ing them in their particular needs and possibilities.
2. We should pay much more atten tion to stimulating and equipping the lay members for their role in mission, not just patterned after the specialized min istries and programs of the church, but in accordance with their particular worldoriented functions and based on their special gifts of the Spirit (integrated evangelism, spontaneous witnessing, sharing and caring ministries, etc.).
3. We should make the reaching of the unreached our primary goal in mission and adjust all our other objec tives and activities accordingly.
4. We should develop a series of projects in churches to reach out in particular to the secularized people in the world.
5. We should consider the establish ment of an Adventist missionary council to guide the church in this new era of mission with its new challenges and opportunities.
