“Reaching the Most Unreached”
K.P. Yohannan, a native of India, was called to win souls at the age of 16 due to the fervent and ongoing prayers of his mother. Since responding to that call, Yohannan has tirelessly labored during a transformative time in soul winning, one that seems likely to fulfill what Christians call the Great Commission.
Revolution in World Missions was first published in 1986 and has been updated several times since to reflect what the Holy Spirit has been doing in the hearts and minds of people in India and around the world. Yohannan’s message is clear: followers of Jesus Christ are in a battle to win souls, but soul-winning is coming primarily through the work of native believers who are visiting remote Asian villages where the name of Jesus is unknown.
Missionary Waves
Importantly, unlike the first wave of world missions where the apostles were sent out, or in the more recent second wave where people like Hudson Taylor brought the gospel to the Chinese, this third wave shows a growing partnership between the poor churches of the East and the wealthy churches of the west.
But that transformation is not happening without conflict. As Yohannan describes it, the mind-set of many Western missionary groups remains stuck in the past, and has proven fruitless since World War II ended and with it the age of neo-colonialism. Indeed, most people in what Yohannan repeatedly calls the “two-thirds world” will not listen to light-skinned westerners, eying them with mistrust.
As a result, most of these countries no longer permit new missionary groups while those who remain are largely providing social services and are not directly involved in soul-winning.
Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality. (2 Corinthians 8:13-14 | NIV)
Native Missionaries
Yohannan outlines what he believes to be the best method for reaching the lost and that is through native missionaries, but with the western church providing critically-needed financial backing. Strong cultural and historical differences prevail so that when evangelizing the words of a native evangelist are fruitful while the words of the western missionary largely falls to the ground.
And, the native missionary has an advantage in another area too: cost. Whereas it can cost at least $60,000 or more annually to support a Western missionary and his family overseas, natives continue to live the life of poverty and are able to live amongst their own people. That means a fully funded native family can be supported for just two or three thousand dollars annually, allowing more people to reach tens of thousands of unreached villages through the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
Western Thinking
Sadly, a number of influential missionary organizations have not been supportive of native-led missions, or they have sought to exert control over these activities. Yohannan shared one account where a well financed evangelist proposed partnering with his organization, Gospel for Asia (GCF), but they wanted their materials translated into native languages and propagated among the people.
However, some of the materials to be translated addressed an unidentified western problem, one that India was not experiencing. Because that evangelist was rigid in his thinking and not in touch with what the people of India needed, no place could be found for the two organizations to work together.
Sometimes missionary boards have adjusted their missionary thrust to support native evangelists, but as pointed out by Yohannan many seemed determined to continue supporting activities that met many of the social needs of people while failing to win converts. Yohannan stressed that people’s spiritual condition takes precedence over their needs, reputing the idea advocated by some that a sinner’s physical needs have to be met first before they can hear the gospel.
He went on to explain that in India many people come to know the Lord without promise of having their needs met. Not that Yohannan is against helping people socially, but he does believe that doing that first is putting “the cart before the horse.”
Personal Life
Yohannan has seen the providential hand of the Lord move in his own life from the moment he responded to God’s call. In the early 1970s he met a German woman whose heart was for the Indian people. That woman, Gisela, was not like many of the other western missionaries, as she wore a sari and worked among the people of the nation. Eventually, Yohannan married Gisela with the couple soon relocating to the US so that he could finish his Biblical training. The couple’s two children, Daniel and Sarah, are now active in missions following their training through GFA’s seminary.
By 1981, GFA was launched, one of the charter members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). GFA is unusual in that monies donated to support missionaries goes 100 percent to that missionary. Other funds are tapped to pay for ministry expenses, but your designated donation will not be diluted by overhead.
What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. (James 2:14-17 | NASB)
The Call
Is there a place for westerners to work in closed countries if they are able to get in? Yohannan says yes as God will sometimes call someone to work with cross-culturally adding, “This is what is important—each one of us is responsible for how we obey what He has said and follow Him alone.” Very few of us are called to the mission fields of the two-thirds world, but through intercessory prayer and financial giving, we can support the work that needs to be done, fulfilling the Great Commission as the return of Jesus Christ nears.
Revolution in World Missions is a clarion call to the church, particularly those of us who live in the affluent west. Most certainly, times have been difficult of late, but God’s work remains urgent and His resources have not been diminished.
Millions are going to hell daily because no one is bringing the gospel message to them. If the Holy Spirit has given you a burden for the lost, GCF could be the partnership opportunity allowing you to help reach many through the work of native missions in India and beyond. Please visit the Gospel for Asia website for more information or click here to order your copy of the book.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. (Matthew 28:18-20 | AKJV)
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Yet I also know that millions of people around the world do without one or more meals daily, not by choice but by happenstance. If it were up to them, they would never want nor would they need to see their children suffer. It is difficult enough to go without food yourself, but when your children are starving nothing else matters.
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)
