End of U.S. Missions?

Posted on | May 18, 2006 | 2 Comments

Who thinks the missionary movement in the U.S. is coming to an end? Raise your hand.

I know this is not a positive attitude. Being that I work at a mission sending agency and labor every day to support the discovery, sending and support of American missionaries, you would think I might cheer the matra "America, we can do it" a little louder.

But I can’t.

I can’t ignore the trends I see. Churches in the ’50s gave 10% to missions; churches today give 1.5%. Across the board, missionaries on the field are aging with the baby boomers. Blah, blah, blah. I’m not raising the question because of what I see in America, because every inch of this planet is a mess.

But. What I see in Asian churches and African churches COMPARED to the US makes me consider that the future of Christian missions in the 21st century will be the story of Asians and Africans, not Americans, just as it is no longer Europeans.

I believe we will begin to see Asian missionaries planting churches in our neighborhoods and African missionaries doing youth ministry in our public schools. They will struggle against the secularism of the US, like missionaries in Europe struggle against the great wall of secularism there.

I believe we are seeing an end of our influence as a mission sending country. I hope I am dead wrong.

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