....THE GREAT
by Phill Butler
R ecently a study was complet ed which probed a t t i t u d e s among college s t u d e n t s to ward missions and missionaries. It indicated that 84% of the stu dents responding felt that theU.S. Government’s Peace Corps pro gram was more relevant to the needs of the people where it served than was the work of evan gelical missions in those same countries. This study was taken on the campuses of Christian colleges. The students’ background was ex posure to Sunday school, church- related missions emphasis, and the repeated opportunity to get to know missionaries personally. Our c ommu n i c a t i o n in the church with the current genera tion often leaves much to be de sired. This study made by Inter national Christian Organization points up the misunderstanding of
centage are involved in direct evangelism. This total number of 45-46.000 people includes doctors, linguists, pilots, educators, radio and television technicians, admin istrators, etc. The thing which must bring us to face the stark reality of our Sunday school responsibility is that this situation simply need not be. There is increasing evi dence that young people are most affected in their total development and life direction during their early years. This makes critical the role which teachers, superin tendents and assistants must take. Here are two examples of the basic issue which lies at the root of the problem: On every hand there is a prevalent attitude of pessimism within the ranks of our churches. Few really believe that the world can be reached for Christ in our generation. This at-
missions by college students. It is felt by many that more Christian young people are sign ing up for secular occupations than are signing their names “on the line” in service for Christ. There are approximately 45- 46.000 Protestant missionaries in the world today. Of these some 28- 29.000 are from North America. Now if you divide these mission aries into the world population, excluding North America, you come up with an assignment for each missionary of over three- quarters of a million people! The sad reality is that this number of missionaries is declin ing. While the world population is increasing at a staggering rate, the actual count of missionaries on the field is going down. More important is the fact that of those who are now serving Christ in ternationally, only a small per
FEBRUARY, 1970
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