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Gen
Xers in the Last Frontier:
Last Generation of Missions?
By
Erich Bridges
Generation
X is coming of age just as Christian missions is waking up to the full
challenge and potential of reaching unreached peoples.
Coincidence?
Not likely, if missions history is any guide.
“The
young people of this generation do not apologize for worldwide missions...They
believe in it as has no preceding generation of young people...Let us
rise and resolve that, at whatever cost of self-denial, that live or die,
we shall live or die for the evangelization of the world in our day.”
John
R. Mott said that—in 1901. Mott led the Student Volunteer Movement, launched
in 1886, which helped spur the “second wave” of modern missions: the spread
inland from coastal cities by missionaries searching out the lost.
Church
historian Kenneth Scott Latourette describes Mott as possessing “a simple
faith...a complete commitment to Christ ...(and) worldwide vision.” That
pretty well describes, too, many young people today spreading the gospel
among unreached peoples of The Last Frontier— the “third wave” of missions.
The
Southern Baptist International Mission Board has a “whole crew of people
that are literally willing to die for their people group,” says Jim Riddell,
associate director of IMB mission personnel selection. “These are people
who have bought into this image of living on the edge, this goal of ‘all
peoples, nothing less,’ and they want to do what it takes to reach their
people group. This is largely a Buster and Generation X group.”
“They’re
possibility thinkers,” says Lloyd Atkinson, IMB associate vice president
for mission personnel. “They honestly believe every people in the world
can be reached for Christ, and that this might be the last generation
of missionaries. They want to be a part of that. That’s why I don’t think
a lot of them are interested in just maintaining something someone else
started.”
Students
don’t just accept challenging assignments; they ask for them. “They say,
I want to go to a place where nobody else wants to serve, and I’m willing
to do what it takes for me to get there,’” explains Mike Lopez, IMB student
section chief. “For the most part, they raise their own money...”
Raised
in a tumultuous American society, comfortable with multiple cultures and
surfing the Internet, Xers “can live with chaos,” observes David Garrison,
IMB strategy and mobilization leader and a pioneer in targeting unreached
peoples. And more and more of them come to the task well-informed about
the thousands of ethnic-linguistic peoples untouched by the gospel.
Xers
with a taste of The Last Frontier like to sit up all night trading stories
about how close they came to the edge while sharing the gospel. They go
into unreached villages, make friends quickly and share their faith— and
sometimes get pulled into police stations for questioning or sent packing.
“We
used to see that as a sign of failure,” Garrison says. “They see it as
a sign of success.”
Not
too many years ago, Garrison found little interest in unreached peoples
when he talked to students on college and seminary campuses. Now, he says,
they seek him out and declare, “I want my life to make a difference. I
want a cause worth dying for.”
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