Global Mission's concern and the General Conference's priority to reach the 10/40 window1 often does not receive much notice in local churches. Wrapped up in local concerns, many churches show no particular concern for this most unevangelized section of the world. Nobody has written it off, but most—especially in the first world— know little about it.
In my seminary class "Mission to the World," I had a young pastor frankly tell me, "I can't remember saying anything to my churches about cross-cultural missions, much less the 10/40 window." I'm afraid he may be representative of hundreds of others. Preoccupied with the constant daily struggle to minister to the local arena in which they have been placed, it is easy to let concern for faraway places slip into the background.
Caring for the 10/40 window
Contrary to the opinion of some, I believe that stimulating interest in mission to the 10/40 window will not only help fulfill God's call to reach every "nation, kindred, tongue, and people" (Rev. 14:6), but will also profoundly change local churches and make them more healthy and evangelistic. Concern for the 10/40 window and its people will make local churches better! Let me give you some reasons.
1. World mission consciousness enhances Adventist identity and combats obsessive navel gazing.
The problems and concerns of the local church and its surrounding area often seem overwhelming. Many see the world and the church as a macrocosm of what they are experiencing locally. Nothing could be further from the truth. Seeing the deep needs of oth ers can help us count our blessings. Beginning to reach others far away, as well as near, expands our vision and can help us forget some of the local problems we face. Besides, understanding the global nature of our church as it attempts to reach all the world—even the hard-to-reach parts—is a helpful thing. A sense of being part of a world movement with a global vision gives a larger, more compelling picture of who we are and what our task is. We become part of our worldwide family in ways that a narrow local picture can never give us.
2. 10/40 window concern corrects overly opti mistic views of the success of Christian mission.
One reason we see less cross-cultural mis sion emphasis in first world churches is that many have believed overly optimistic portrayals of what we have accomplished. Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying we have failed in our mission. Much has been accomplished. Adventists are in 205 out of 230 countries. The Christian missionary movement as a whole has made great strides. That, however, is only one side of the picture.
About two billion people in the world will be untouched by the gospel unless someone crosses a cultural boundary to reach them. Quick evangelistic forays into Jamaica, the Philippines, parts of Africa south of the Sahara, and Papua New Guinea are not the answer. These are the very areas where evangelism is most easily done by local people. Visiting these areas gives a false picture of easy success and a completed work.
Trips to such areas must be balanced by a serious look at places like India, China, Thailand, Albania, North Africa, and Turkey. The list could go on. These are the places where the truly stouthearted pioneers of the gospel could work. That is the reason our church's attention is being focused there. I believe people respond to need. The 10/40 window is the core of true need and the home of the major non-Christian religions. Clearly interest in the Church's cross-cultural mission.
3. Cross-cultural mission emphasis and experience feeds local evangelistic efforts.
Some fear that an emphasis on cross-cultural mission will drain funds and personnel away from crying local needs. These fears have proven to be unfounded. The truth is that local church involvement in 10/40 mission actually promotes and enhances local area evangelism. True concern for unreached Muslims and Buddhists will in fact enhance local evangelistic efforts.
Witness the young student missionaries as they return from overseas. Because of their experience abroad, they reach out with new vigor to win friends and neighbors. Surveys of short-term evangelical missions2 show that returned missionaries increase their home mission activities an aver age of 64 percent upon completion of their cross-cultural work.
"To show a liberal self-denying spirit for the success of foreign missions is a sure way to advance home missionary work; for the prosperity of the home work depends largely, under God, upon the reflex influence of the evangelical work done in countries afar off."3 If we take such a view seriously, we will begin to support mission not only because we care about the 10/40 window, but because we also are deeply concerned about the lost who are on our own doorsteps.
4. Awakening to cross-cultural mission in the 10/40 window awakens us to the 10/40 in our own area.
Many followers of Christ suffer from "people blindness." Since they live in their own culture and are so used to life with their own kind, they do not notice people of other cultures and religions who live near them. Being awakened to the crying need of the 10/40 window can alert us to those around us who have come from the 10/40 window. How many of us know anything about the foreign students, recent immigrants, and cultural groups who live near us?
Many countries of the world are like the United States. People from a multitude of nations reside in North America for various reasons from education to job opportunities to the desire for freedom. According to the 1990 census, 25 percent of New York City is foreign born. Fifty thousand Chinese immigrate to the U.S. each year. At least 200,000 Arabs live in Detroit, which has the largest Muslim population in the U.S.
When we sense the tremendous challenge of reaching Muslims with the Christian message in the 10/40 window, it can raise our consciousness in countries like the United States to reach out to the Muslims who are near us. Working directly for Muslims in Saudi Arabia is not normally possible, but in Detroit we are free to do so. How much have we done?
Beginning to have a heart that cries out for the need of the unreached far away can help to give us eyes to see and a heart to help the culturally diverse living and working beside us.
5. Understanding the challenges of the 10/40 window can help us see evangelism near us in a new light.
Adventism arose in the milieu of North America and from the beginning saw itself as a reforming movement in the Christian world. As such our doctrinal formulations and evangelistic methods developed with an eye to defending and explaining our beliefs to other Christians. Both personal and public evangelism methods were forged that explained and defended Adventist distinctives with the Western, Christian world in mind.
Evangelism to the 10/40 window is mission to non-Christians. When one attempts to share Jesus Christ with tribal religions, Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists, one simply cannot use the same approaches and methods that may have worked for Western Christians. This means Bible studies, sermons, and our total approach must be examined and recast if we expect to get a hearing.
More than a few of my students at the seminary have begun to think creatively about evangelism on the home front after beginning to see the challenge that we face in sharing the message of Christ and the Adventist distinctives with non-Christians in the third world.
The truth is that in principle, very similar challenges are being faced in our evangelistic outreach in the West, as are being faced in other less Christian cultures. While many in the first world (especially America) still believe in God, the forces of secular ism, materialism, Eastern philosophy, and the ideas of the New Age have progressively led people away from their former Christian roots.
Creative approaches are needed to fit the new cultural situation. A concern for evangelism in the 10/40 window can give birth to fervency and to new ideas for evangelistic out reach at home.
Conclusion
For all these reasons and others, local churches all over the world need to take seriously the challenge of the 10/40 window. We need to do this for the sake of the lost, for our own health and progress, and in obedience to the call of the three angels of Revelation 14. It is past time for those who care about God and His kingdom to sound the trumpet and awaken to the need there is for our help in the battle raging for the hearts of human beings all over the world.
1 A shorthand term for the roughly rectangular area of the world from 10 degrees to 40 degrees north of the equator. This least evangelized area of the world covers North Africa, the Middle East, and the bulk of Asia.
2 "Is Short-term Mission Reaily Worth the Time and Money?" STEM Ministries Inc., Minneapolis.
3 Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1948), 465. See also Testimonies for the Church (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press® Pub. Assn., 1948), 6:27.
