According to Patrick Johnstone’s OperationWorld, there were 84.5 million evangelicals in the world in 1960. By 2000 their number had grown to 420 million, an increase from 2.8% to 6.9% of the world’s population.
What accounted for this phenomenal growth?
“The post-war surge of evangelical missions was an astonishing success story,” he writes, “but most of the subsequent growth came from a new generation of indigenous evangelical movements around the world.”
What are “indigenous missions?” Definitions may vary. According to Dr. Bob Finley, founder and CEO of Christian Aid, indigenous missions are “native to the land.” So by definition “indigenous” missionaries serve among their own people groups in their own countries. For example, a Nepali such as Prem Pradhan found the Lord away from home, went back to his homeland to preach the gospel among his own people, and the ripple effect started a hundred churches. Another Nepali, Resham Raj Poudel, a Hindu Brahmin priest, embraced Christ and began trekking the length and breadth of the land, personally preaching in 73 of the country’s 75 districts. He subsequently organized a Bible correspondence course since requested by more than 256,000 persons. By the end of 2002, 24,191 enrollees had completed the three-year instruction while thousands more were waiting for materials to be printed.
In practice, indigenous missionaries may actually be cross-cultural missionaries within their own country. For example, many mission leaders pioneering works in North India are Malayalays from Kerala. P.M. Thomas left a comfortable teaching position in Kerala to pioneer a work in Jammu-Kashmir in 1963. That work has planted hundreds of churches, and a dozen of its disciples have spun off other mission organizations that now have over 3000 missionaries on the field.
One of these, P.G. Vargis, a soldier from Kerala, accepted Christ while attending a gospel meeting in Thomas’s church in Kashmir in 1971. The Lord lit his torch, and he soon left Thomas’s ministry to start his own. Today the Indian Evangelical Team has over 2000 missionaries from and to people groups all across northern India.
Whether these “indigenous” missionaries are reaching members of their own or another people group within their country, several factors remain in their favor:
1. They are citizens in the country where they serve and their work can never be disrupted by the expiration or cancellation of visas. If wars or political instability develop, they stay on. They generally avoid the stigma of “foreigner.”
2. Many already know the language of the target people group. Others are adept at learning a sister language. They already know the mores of the culture, having been brought up in it. The native missionary eats and drinks the local food, a practice that would wipe out the typical Caucasian missionary.
3. The native missionary essentially lives at the same economic level as the people among whom he ministers. His living allowance typically runs between $30 and $50 monthly, though some in urban areas may need more. He hardly ever takes a furlough, and doesn’t have to buy airfare to and from America.
With these advantages and a high cost-effectiveness ratio, it is no wonder that over 130 mission agencies have arisen in the U.S. to advocate and assist indigenous missions. Some 30 exist in Canada. The Consultation on the Support of Indigenous Ministries, begun in 1996, is a “fellowship of evangelical organizations with a common interest in the support and development of Two-Thirds World ministries.” They accomplish their mission through “networking, training, and publication—with emphasis on partnerships between North American and Two-Thirds World missions,” according to a statement issued from COSIM’s office in Atlanta.
Many of these 130 mission agencies are smaller “mom and pop” organizations that may have been thrilled to hear a Third-World missionary and decided to back his work. Three major organizations promoting the work of indigenous missions are Gospel for Asia in Carrollton, Texas; Partners International in Spokane, Washington, and Christian Aid in Charlottesville, Virginia. Like P.M. Thomas of India, Christian Aid has spawned a number of daughter agencies.
Other ministries emphasize training for leadership. For 40 years the Haggai Institute in Atlanta has been training indigenous Christian leaders. So far it has trained 44,000 alumni from 165 nations. The Overseas Council International started out as a Bible seminary in Seoul in 1974 and now offers 90 leadership training programs in over 50 countries.
Yet support of indigenous missions is not limited to groups founded for that purpose. Many traditional missionary-sending agencies now have departments that relate to and assist indigenous movements.
Wycliffe, for example, relates to as many as two-dozen National Bible Translation organizations. Two of these, Translators Association of the Philippines and Bible Translators Association of Papua New Guinea, are supported by Christian Aid. Through Wycliffe, indigenous translators are trained and facilitated to translate books of the Bible into some of the languages with fewer native speakers.