by Jon Konnerup
I recently read of the term gospel inequality — the free access to the gospel that most people in the Western world enjoy but that billions in other places do not. It is estimated that of the seven billion people in the world, one in five is between the ages of 15 and 24. Eight out of 10 of these live in Africa and Asia. The historic and projected population numbers below prove this statement and the lack of missionaries should alarm us.
500-600 AD 200 million
1804 One billion
1927 Two billion
1960 Three billion
1974 Four billion
1987 Five billion
2000 Six billion
2011 Seven billion
2025 Estimated Eight billion
The rising world population prompts concerns for the BBFI as we rise to the challenge of evangelizing the world with a total of 841 missionaries. The age of our current missionary force is another challenge facing our BBFI churches. While our retention rate has remained steady over the years, it likely will begin to decline. The average age of our missionaries is 52, but the following statistics show that a number of these will soon retire.
From 1981-2012, 47 family units retired from the active mission force. Five of these servants have since passed on to glory leaving us with 42 retired family units. During the 80s, two couples retired (average one every five years). During the 90s, nine couples and one single retired (average one a year). During the first decade of 2000, 22 couples and one widow retired (average one every 5 • months). During 2010-2012, 11 couples and one widower retired (average one every three months)
Following are the demographics of our retired family units (family unit ages based on head of household):
|
Age |
Family Units Retired |
Percentage Retired |
|
90s |
2 | 100% |
|
80s |
21 | 64% |
|
70s |
17 | 25% |
|
60s |
2 (both are 69) | 7% (66 – 69 years of age) |
Among active missionaries, the probability increase of those who will retire doubles over the next ten years with as many as eight or nine family units a year (family unit ages based on head of household):
12 family units in their 80s
20 family units 75-79 years old
31 family units 70-74 years old
25 family units 66-69 years old
The solution to this situation is more missionaries. These new missionaries will only come from our churches. We need to be more diligent in our efforts to pray for more laborers, to challenge our youth, young adults, and couples to surrender to take the gospel into our world, and to invest our finances to accomplish this task given us by Jesus himself.