Lausanne World Pulse – Learning from Ants: A Look at Evangelists and Cross-cultural Missionaries

June 2007

By Justin and Heidi Long

Here is the problem: In 1900, 879 million people (fifty-six percent of the world’s population of 1.6 billion people) had never heard of Christ, Christianity or the gospel. They were unevangelized. They could not get access to the gospel very easily. They had no churches, no preachers, no evangelists, no scriptures, etc. What they did have was fifteen thousand cross-cultural missionaries (of all traditions) working among them.

One hundred years later, in 2000, the number of unevangelized people had grown to 1.6 billion—twenty-six percent of the world’s six billion people. Sadly, only ten thousand missionaries were working among them.

The percentage of the world that is unreached declined from fifty-six to twenty-six percent. However, because the world’s population has grown incredibly, the total number of people who are unevangelized doubled (879 million to 1.6 billion). Meanwhile, the number of missionaries working to reach them declined (see the July 2006 issue of Momentum for a full discussion). If the task of evangelizing the world could not be completed in 1900 by fifteen thousand workers, surely ten thousand workers are unlikely to finish it. We need more workers. But how many more?

History is scattered with dedicated servants of God who were used to evangelize hundreds of thousands of people. Below are examples of some of these persons or small teams:

  • Jesus. Israel, AD 33. Jesus himself evangelized the whole of Palestine in three years, thus impacting about 800,000 people.
  • Believers who fled persecution in Jerusalem. Antioch, AD 39. The population of 130,000 in Antioch was evangelized largely through believers who fled persecution in Jerusalem, then later by Paul and Barnabas.
  • Judas (Lebbaeus) and Simon the Zealot. Iran, AD 49. Judas (Lebbaeus) and Simon the Zealot had about 100,000 converts; far more must have been evangelized despite immense hostility from Iran’s priestly caste.
  • Paul and related missionary teams. Asia, AD 55. The Roman province of Asia was completely evangelized. Five hundred cities were reached in two years by Paul and related missionary teams.
  • Patrick. Ireland, AD 435. Patrick planted over two hundred churches and baptized over 100,000 converts. He created the effective Celtic monastic mission structure to extend this work.
  • Vincent Ferrer. Europe, AD 1399. Catalan Dominican preacher Ferrer wandered throughout Europe, evangelizing and bringing revival. He saw twenty-five thousand converts and preached six thousand sermons.
  • Filofei Leszczynski. Russia, AD 1712. Leszczynski, an Orthodox missionary, baptized over forty thousand people and planted over three hundred new churches.
  • George Whitefield. USA, AD 1735. Whitefield preached in public eighteen thousand times to eighteen million hearers in crowds of up to thirty thousand people. He was heard by up to eighty percent of the people in the United States.
  • John Wesley. Britain, AD 1739. Wesley traveled up to eight thousand miles per year on average, preached forty thousand sermons, made 140,000 converts and created a vast network of churches and societies.
  • A Russian Orthodox mission team on Kodiak Island. Alaska (USA), AD 1792. A Russian Orthodox mission team on Kodiak Island baptized 2,500 shamanist Eskimos in two years, and ten thousand in 1795 alone.
  • Charles Finney. USA, AD 1800s. Finney’s preaching led to the conversion of over 500,000 people.
  • D. L. Moody. USA, AD 1800s. Moody preached to over 100 million people and personally brought 750,000 people to Christ.
  • Billy Sunday. USA, AD 1800s. Sunday became a nationally known evangelist who had over 200,000 converts.
  • Billy Graham. AD 1900s. Graham preached to fifty million people in 229 crusades by 1976, with 1.5 million decisions; by 1984, there were 104 million registered decisions (apart from television audiences). By 2005, through media, he had preached to two billion people.
  • William Wade Harris. Liberia, AD 1910. Harris, a Liberian activist, preached across Ivory Coast and baptized 100,000 converts.
  • Simon Kimbangu. Africa, AD 1920. Kimbangu, sometimes called “The People’s Prophet,” had a brief but powerful ministry that inspired faith in Central Africa. Imprisoned for stirring up the Congolese people, Kimbangu became the catalyst for Africa’s largest independent church.