From the Unfinished Task to the Finishable Task

Ralph Winter’s list of “Twelve Frontiers of Perspective” shows the major shifts in his thinking since 1976 that “profoundly modified and molded” his “perception of the mission task." 

(1) Unreached Peoples

(2) The Great Commission and Abraham

(3) From the Unfinished Task to the Finishable Task

(4) Failure with the Large Groups and the Off-setting Trend to “Radical Contextualization”

(5) Reverse Contextualization, the Recontextualization of Our Own Tradition

(6) The Reclaiming of the Gospel of the Kingdom

(7) Beyond Christianity

(8) A Different Type of Recruitment

(9) A Trojan Horse

(10) Needed: a Revolution in Pastoral Training

(11) The Religion of Science

(12) The Challenge of the Evil One

Last week I found three books in Ralph Winter’s library with the phrase, “Unfinished Task,” in the title. I assume these authors, among others, influenced Winter’s thinking. Typically, he went beyond what others were saying; from talking about the “unfinished task,” to considering what it would mean to describe a “finishable task.”

1.

Neill, Stephen. 1957. The Unfinished Task. London: Edinburgh House Press.

This is a book of essays on missionary strategy delivered as the 1958 Duff Lectures in Scotland. Chapters include:

The Unfinished Church

Frontier Situations and Flexible Ministries

The Church and Changing Society

The Problem of a Christian Culture

The Unifinished Task in the Younger Churches

The Dynamic Minority

2.

Percy, J. O., ed. 1960. Facing the Unfinished Task. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

            This book is a series of messages delivered at the Congress on World Missions Sponsored by the Interdenominational Foreign Missions Association of North America (the IFMA, now merged with the former EFMA/Mission Exchange to be one organization, Missio Nexus). One chapter by G. Christian Weiss is entitled, “An Inquiry into the Obligation of Christians,” a deliberate play on William Carey’s famous pamphlet. As president of a small university named after William Carey, I resonate with Weiss’ statement on page 262: “One of our great obligations in many of these countries today as evangelical missionaries is to establish Christian schools on a college level for the training of native leadership in these lands.… That we need preachers and pastors is of course obvious; but we must also train native leaders for these countries who will be able to give direction to the course of their governments.”

3.

Barton, James L. 1908. The Unfinished Task of the Christian Church. New York: Laymen’s Missionary Movement.

            This book starts with a chapter titled, “The Obligation to Undertake the Task,” and ends with, ”Shall We Finish the Task?” In this last chapter he concludes with a list of “disqualifications” (including debt), and with “What Then, Constitutes a Call?”

If you’re interested in seeing one or more of these books, let me know (beth.snodderly@wciu.edu). We can work out an arrangement for you to read them in the Graduate Studies section of Latourette Library.

Ralph Winter’s Finishable Task Thinking:

            In his article, “Twelve Frontiers of Perspective,” Winter wrote, “We promote the idea that, relatively speaking, it is a finishable job to make at least a ‘missiological breakthrough’ into every people group on the planet. … This intermediate goal of initial penetration is relatively concrete and measurable, and it is a task that is relatively small, not hopelessly large! And in all mission strategy the breakthrough is the most difficult and crucial task.”

            Winter also commented in his article, “Analysis of a Movement,” “The really crazy thing is that we have all the information we need for the new outreaches for which we are prepared right now. The more we penetrate the pioneer peoples, the more we will know. We don’t really need to know more than we can digest right now.”

            These articles are from Winter’s compilation of his own writings, Frontiers in Mission, available from William Carey Library: http://missionbooks.org/williamcareylibrary/product.php?productid=546&cat=0&page=1.