The Need

The spiritual dynamism of Christians in Asia, Latin America, and Africa is resulting in powerful mission movements to yet unreached peoples in every part of the world. Only estimates of the total number of missionaries are available - all of those estimates are greater than the total number of missionaries from the traditional missionary-sending nations of the West. They come from all parts of society and from virtually every nation, with and without formal sponsorship.

As exciting as these grass roots missions movements are, they are facing stiff challenges.  These missionaries blend into their new settings, but they often struggle to understand how to communicate the Gospel effectively in new cultural settings. But leaders are working together to find creative ways to overcome this challenge and help their missionaries succeed and new churches grow.  The concept of the World Link Seminar is an expression of the passionate concern of Majority World mission leaders that these missionaries gain the best possible education to fulfill their calling.

 Globalization of Christian Mission

With the globalization of Christianity, there is no clear “mission field” today. The Global South is more “evangelized” than the “Global North.”  When it comes to countries where there are large numbers of non-Christians, America ranks third highest in the world!   In fact, the mission fields today are places like Australia (where only 2% of the population are evangelical).

Missionaries from these new centers (like Africa and Mainland China) cannot operate in the same way as missions from the West.  In the last 150 years, Western missions have developed on a base of financial affluence under an umbrella of national power. Individual donors have often given from excess income to missions. This not only affects support structures but also the kinds of projects in which they engage overseas.  Many new emerging missions are trying to follow in their pattern – and go to the West to raise their funds. But these funds are not only shrinking, but often come with implicit, invisible control. So for the emerging mission movements, models of power dominance and affluence fortunately will simply not work.

The goal of the World Link Seminar is to encourage and develop more appropriate and biblical patterns of mission, with special focus outside the Western world.