Making disciples of all peoples in our generation...  What's it going to take?
 
One hundred years ago, representatives of mission agencies from around the world gathered in Edinburgh, Scotland to assess the progress of world evangelization and make plans to finish the remaining task. One hundred years later, much progress has been made. But much remains unfinished.
 
In 1980, frontier missiologist Ralph D. Winter called for a second meeting to commemorate Edinburgh 1910. At this second Edinburgh gathering, the watchword "A church for every people by the year 2000" was launched. Many mission agencies were challenged to think what they might do over the next twenty years to contribute to this objective. Much was accomplished through this initiative, and many thousands of people groups were reached.
 
Thirty years later, we are in a position that the Church has never encountered in its history. The feasibility of engaging all remaining unreached peoples in the next decade is within reach if we all work together. But with the global thrust to bring the gospel to the final frontiers is there something we may be missing? Some missiologists think so.
 
Why after a hundred years of progress in many mission fields is the church being characterized as a "mile wide and an inch deep"? In other areas, the church has hardly grown at all despite receiving thousands of missionaries over the last century.
 
For this reason, the planning committee of Tokyo 2010, which is made up of a majority of non-western leaders, has chosen to focus on the theme of discipleship, while at the same time keeping the frontier focus of the previous two Edinburgh meetings. We will be looking inward and outward at the same time, and thinking through what it means to see disciple-making movements established among all peoples and cultural blocs throughout the world.
 
The purpose of Tokyo 2010 is to be a consultation-that is a time of listening to one another and working through difficult issues that are commonly shared. We are coming to hear what God is saying to all of us through one another, and to take this collective message back to the Church with one voice. This time, a non-western location has been chosen for the meeting in keeping with the reality that over 75% of evangelicals are now in the non-western world. The city of Tokyo has been chosen because Japan is now celebrating 150 years of Protestantism in their country.
 
In keeping with the pattern of Edinburgh 1910 and 1980, the majority of delegates are to come as representatives of sending mission agencies and churches.  We are therefore extending an open invitation to all mission structures around the world to appoint their own delegates. These representatives will both bring to the consultation the perspective of their agency and its work, as well as be responsible for reporting back to their group when they return from Tokyo.
 
Can our Lord's command to go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples be accomplished in our generation? We are close to the finish line in one dimension of that task-identifying the final frontiers. Our lists of unreached peoples are better now than ever before in history. But what do we do once we get there? This is the really crucial question before us today. After thirty years of the modern frontier missions movement, have we been effective according to the biblical standard? As we prepare to chart a course for the next ten to twenty years it is time to ask ourselves and measure our effectiveness by the standard which Jesus gave us: Are we making disciples, teaching them to obey everything Christ commanded?-Among Muslims? Among Hindus? Among Buddhists? And even amongst those who call themselves Christians?
 
For those whom God will call to represent the Body of Christ at Tokyo, this is the question before us. Come prepared to answer it, and to listen to what God will be saying to others from around the world.

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