Rob "Mags" Magwood, Canadian Director

The World Is Changing

Summer 2007

“The world is changing and so are the people...”  - Philip Armstrong, International Director

Over twenty-five years ago, Phil Armstrong hit the nail on the head - change had become a primary characteristic of our modern era, and it continues unabated today.

In those early 1980s, few would have foreseen the dissolution of the mighty Soviet Union, the devastation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, or the emergence of the Internet.  In 2007, waves of globalization, postmodernism, and technological development pound away at the shifting shores of Western culture, while people from all areas of the world establish sub-cultures across Europe and North America.  Around the world, ironically, the “modern Western culture” is both coveted and hated, and impacts other cultures with increasingly violent results.  Global change is still on the move.

The church has been part of these spectacular transformations.  As the Body in the post-Christian West struggles to be relevant and effective, the non-Western church (most notably in Africa and Asia) has been growing dramatically, often under the strain of great persecution.  These “younger” parts of the Body have not only expanded numerically, but increasingly contribute to theological reflection and provide a “conservative counter-balance” to liberal factions in the Western church.

The ways of “doing missions” have been changing, too.  Short-term missions have emerged (with all their strengths and weaknesses) to play a central role in North America’s program of world evangelism.  The missionary force sent out from the Western world has been eclipsed numerically by the non-Western sending nations. (The missionary force of Korea grew over 100 times in less than 25 years - from 93 in1979 to 10,442 in 2002!)  Countries that have traditionally “received” missionaries are now mobilizing to send out missionaries, even to North America!

As a mission agency in the midst of ongoing global change, SEND International remains committed to maintaining a delicate balance.  On one hand, our organization and methods must be flexible and responsive to new realities, both “at home” and in our receiving areas.  At the same time, we remain steadfastly committed to truth that will not change: we’ve been called to help reach this changing world.  We’ve been called to be salt and light (Mt. 5), called to be the fragrance of God (2 Cor. 2), and called to be His ambassadors (2 Cor. 5).

Thank you for sharing with us in this calling of faithful service until the Lord comes again.

Mags