What is really possible?

(taken via Kevin Turner of Strategic World Impact)

The evangelical churches of the United States now have about 127,000 (2010) career foreign missionaries. About 12,500 of these individuals are engaged in full-time evangelism, some in church starting evangelism. (Less than 1% of all foreign missionaries are specifically engaged in actively reaching the Unreached by Evangelism and church planting, 1,300 missionaries rough total.

How many would be needed to penetrate the dark half of the world, plant a gospel witness among every people and share the glorious liberating word of redemption with all mankind?

Estimates range from five to ten times that number. (6,500 to 13,000)
Perhaps we do not have a sufficient support base to put an adequate force into the field?

Please listen to this.
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Before the days of William Carey, the father of the modern Protestant missionary movement, the Moravians from Herrnhut considered a support base of four adequate to keep one missionary at the front. !!!!
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In such an atmosphere of spiritual vitality, we would need less than 52,000 evangelicals and the single state of Connecticut (79,800 evangelicals) could take care of evangelizing the world!

But perhaps this is unrealistic. In World War II it was said that fifteen personnel were needed to keep one man at the front. If this proved true in spiritual warfare, two million support “troops” should be adequate and the evangelicals of California could finish the task.

In point of fact, we are told there are not two but sixty-five million evangelicals in the United States.

We know that this support base is fully adequate, even at present levels of providing workers and finance.

At least a million have responded to the call to some form of full-time Christian ministry. If only ten (100,000) or twenty percent (200,000) of these already involved in Christian ministry were dispatched by the churches, the task of Unreached and un-evangelized could be accomplished.

But the truth is, less than one percent of full-time Christian workers are engaged in evangelistic ministry among the unevangelized of the world. Current estimates are .07%

Is this the way the Commander-in-Chief would assign His troops? Or is someone not listening?

While the U.S. still does send the largest total number of missionaries,compared to the 34,000 sent by No. 2-ranked Brazil,” the prize for the largest percentage per million Christians in the population goes to a contender that many will find surprising.

Palestine.

This country’s vibrant population of Christians send 3,401 missionaries for every million Christians. Palestine’s “followed by Ireland, Malta, and Samoa. (Interestingly, South Korea ranks No. 5 at 1,014 missionaries sent per million church members, a sign of the continued strength of its missions movement compared to the No. 9-ranked United States at 614 missionaries sent).”

ForgeFlower

What is really possible?