Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Leaders to Gather 18-19 October 2006 for Important Conference on MAF’s Landmark “Operation ACCESS!” Study
October 2006
Key leaders from the world’s international missions organizations will be gathering at Mission Aviation Fellowship’s (MAF) new headquarters in Nampa, Idaho, USA 18-19 October to determine how to work together to effectively use the results of MAF’s recent landmark study “Operation ACCESS!” for global missions.
The Operation ACCESS! study, released in June, focuses on pockets of people who are forgotten or unreachable. It identifies areas where transportation, communications and technology barriers prevent or impede access to the gospel, or to sustained resources needed to enable community development, healthcare and education services. It also assesses the nature and significance of the barriers and the degree of any ministry taking place. There are also suggestions as to how the barriers can be overcome.
The five-year global research project provides critical, unprecedented information that will shape international evangelism, ministry and humanitarian strategies for the next twenty years. The potential impact of Operation ACCESS! has been likened to the “10/40 Window” strategy promoted by missions strategist Luis Bush.
Partnering Together
According to Dave Bochman, MAF chief operating officer and conference organizer, the Operation ACCESS! conference will be a “working meeting” of key decision makers from missions organizations, denominations and Christian non-governmental organizations from around the world. “
MAF’s aim is to partner with other organizations to use the study data to overcome barriers and reach the lost,” he said. “But we also want to facilitate other organizations working together and the development of collaborative strategies.”
Phil Butler, president of visionSynegy, an Edmonds, Washington, USA-based organization that develops strategic international Christian networks focusing on high impact opportunities for world evangelism, will facilitate the Operation ACCESS! conference.
Butler said Operation ACCESS! has the potential to shape worldwide evangelism strategies for the next ten years. “The issues facing us are on such a scale that they cannot be tackled by any individual or organization alone,” he said. “The Church must collaborate and work together.”
Kevin Swanson, MAF president, said research shows that despite the extraordinary missions efforts of the Church, three out of four people alive on the earth today still have not heard the gospel.
The Apostle Paul in Romans 10:14-15 talked about the need to send preachers. But preachers can’t be sent unless the barriers that prevent their access and sustainability are overcome,” said Swanson. “Operation ACCESS! is a strategic roadmap to accomplish this God-appointed task.”
Dr. Ralph Winter, founder of the US Center for World Missions, said, “MAF’s foundational re-analysis of its work and of mission work in general has produced a breathtaking new analysis of the challenge before us.”