Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Preparing the Younger Generation for Missions in the 10/40 Window

By Bethany Newman
March 2007

Only three percent of missionaries are serving among unreached peoples in the 10/40 Window.

There is a small area of the world that extends from ten degrees to forty degrees north of the equator and stretches from North Africa to China. Two-thirds of the world’s population (nearly four billion people) live inside this rectangular-shaped band. Here you will find the largest population of non-Christians and ninety percent of the world’s poorest people. This area is known as the 10/40 Window.

Unfortunately, many Christians are not eager to go to this part of the world. Only three percent of missionaries are serving among unreached peoples; the other ninety-seven percent remain in areas where the gospel is readily accessible. God is not unmindful of the situation, however, and is raising up a new globally-minded generation. There are currently over one million students who are qualified to join the mission to the 10/40 Window.

The Beginnings of a Movement to the 10/40 Window
In 2000, Chuck Phillips was asked to help Passion Ministries put on an event in the United States called One-Day, where fifty thousand Christian college students gathered on a field to pray for their colleges, their nation and the world. Bent down, faces to the ground, these students pled for God to move across their land. As Phillips looked across the field, he realized that he was standing in the middle of the solution—an entire generation of fervent Christ-followers who could potentially complete the missional movement into the culturally-diverse, but spiritually-deceived, countries of the 10/40 Window.

Phillips immediately shared with his pastor what God was stirring in his heart. With the support of his church, he began traveling across the US to talk with Christian students. At each university, he prompted a student group to create a list of obstacles that prevented this missional movement from happening. The lists were almost identical across the nation: a lack of confidence, a lack of knowledge, a lack of support, cultural expectations and outdated methods of mobilization.

Students today desire to make a lasting difference. They want to change the world.

The missional life remains as mystical and abstract as heaven itself. More than any other time in history, students today desire to make a lasting difference. They want more than just a job that will pay the bills or provide an influential role; they want to change the world. This leads Christ-followers to missions, which usually leads them searching for short-term mission opportunities.

Short-term mission trips are a normalcy among this generation. Many people love short-term mission trips because they provide the experience without the commitment. In 2005, over two million short-term mission trips were taken by people in the US; half of the participants were under age 25. Initially, short-term trips were invented for the purpose of developing longer-term missionaries. Those who began the movement hoped that by providing a taste of missions, people would be led into full-time missionary service. Instead, the number of full-time missionaries has remained the same for the past twenty-five years.

Statistically, this generation could complete the Great Commission. However, according to Phillips, “We are very busy being concerned about the Great Commission, but we are not at all busy completing the Great Commission.”

Bethany Newman is a freelance writer based out of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She regularly writes for health and travel publications, as well as various nonprofit organizations in her area.