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At Urbana ’70 the keynote address was “Student Power in World Evangelism.” It was a historical summary of how God has so often used students to awaken the entire church to its responsibility to worldwide mission outreach. Several student leaders from earlier generations were recognized on the platform during the address. It was a challenge to the present student generation to learn from their great heritage and respond anew to how God could use them.

After the convention one student wrote to protest the use of history in this way. He said that the keynote address was a fine historical summary, but then added, “But I don’t believe that God leads us through history. He is more interested in the present than in the past.” This student was part of the “Now” generation of that period.

This was a tragic misunderstanding of how God, from the beginning of time, has revealed himself through historical references. The entire first half of the Old Testament from Genesis to Esther is primarily historic in nature. Many of the psalms are also historical. The same is true of the four gospels and the book of Acts, which comprise about half of the New Testament. In all of these books God is telling us how he has worked among his people to bring redemption to the world. Bible references abound with a call to remember what God has done in the past.

After Urbana ’70 another person, an InterVarsity staff member who liked to think of himself as very much “with it” and up to date on student trends, referring to the keynote address warned InterVarsity “Don’t risk it in ’73.” In other words, the students of 1973 will not accept a historical approach to missions.

What a sad and limited understanding of how God builds on the foundations laid in the past. Our mission societies today need to keep before our members and our constituency the great heritage which we enjoy. Mission leaders, of course, must evaluate the present and plan aggressively for the future. Unless this is done, the future of any agency is in jeopardy and even its existence uncertain.

However, unless the past is understood, it is impossible to evaluate the present and plan properly for the future. The original vision given by God to the founders of any organization must be kept in mind. Even when new directions are taken, they should be linked to the heritage that God originally gave.

When Mike Berg became president of Latin America Mission in 1976, the mission had recently turned over to national leadership all of the ministries originally born in the mission. This included a seminar, a hospital, a Bible institute, a publishing house, radio stations, bookstores, an orphanage, child care, a camp, student outreach and other entities. Wondering what the ministry of LAM should be now, Mike Berg went back to the founders’ vision-continent-wide evangelization.

The original name of the LAM had been “The Latin American Evangelization Campaign.” As he evaluated that vision in the present context, Berg saw the exploding urban centers as a major target for a new type of pioneer work. Out of this grew the concept of Christ for the City, which was born in the LAM, but which eventually matured enough to become another independent ministry.

Linking the past to the present and future of our mission served to renew the original calling and to expand the ministry into new and creative outreach based on contemporary and future needs. Today the LAM, under the aggressive leadership of David Befus, is renewing another aspect of the founding vision-social and physical outreach to needy children and others through micro-enterprise development.

To ignore the history of any mission society can be detrimental, even fatal, to its existence.

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years…He humbled you, causing you to hunger, and then feeding you with manna…” (Dt. 8:2-3).

David Howard served as missionary to Costa Rica and Colombia and as missions director for InterVarsity.