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Here is the problem: In 1900, 879 million people (56% of the world’s population of 1.6 billion) had never heard of Christ, Christianity or the Gospel. They were unevangelized. They could not get access to the Gospel very easily. They had no churches, no preachers, no evangelists, no Scriptures, no books and so on. What they did have: 15,000 cross-cultural missionaries (of all traditions) working among them.
One hundred years later, in 2000, the number of unevangelized people had grown to 1.6 billion—26% of the world’s 6 billion. Just 10,000 missionaries were working among them.
The percentage of the world that is unreached declined (56% to 26%). But, because the world’s population has grown incredibly, the total number of people who are unevangelized doubled (879 million to 1.6 billion). Meanwhile, the number of missionaries working to reach them declined (from 15,000 to 10,000—see the July 2006 issue of Momentum for a full discussion.)
If the task to evangelize the world could not be completed in 1900 by 15,000 workers, surely 10,000 workers are unlikely to finish it either. Clearly we need more. But how many more?
History is scattered with dedicated servants of God who were used to evangelize hundreds of thousands of people. I offer the following examples of single men or small teams (and am not making a judgment, either for or against, their theology). These individuals did not depend on technology like radio and television, which can reach audiences of hundreds of millions of people. They include:
Israel, AD 33. Jesus himself evangelized the whole of Palestine in three years, thus impacting about 800,000 people.
Antioch, AD 39. Evangelized largely through believers that fled persecution in Jerusalem, then later by Paul and Barnabas. Antioch had a population of about 130,000, and became the sending base for mission to the Gentiles.
Iran, AD 49. Judas (Lebbaeus) and Simon the Zealot had about 100,000 converts; far more must have been evangelized despite immense hostility from Iran’s priestly caste.
Asia, AD 55. The Roman province of Asia has been completely evangelized: 500 cities reached in 2 years by Paul and related missionary teams.
Ireland, AD 435. Patrick planted over 200 churches and baptized over 100,000 converts. He created very effective mission structures to extend this work.
Europe, AD 1399. Catalan Dominican preacher Vincent Ferrer wandered through Europe, evangelizing and bringing revival; saw 25,000 converts, preached 6,000 sermons.
Russia, AD 1712. Filofei Leszczynski, an Orthodox missionary, baptized over 40,000 and planted over 300 new churches.
USA, AD 1735. George Whitfield preached in public 18,000 times to 18 million hearers in crowds of up to 30,000, and was heard by up to 80% of the entire population of the United States.
Britain, AD 1739. John Wesley traveled up to 8,000 miles per year on average, preached 40,000 sermons, made 140,000 converts, created a vast network of churches and societies.
Alaska, AD 1792. A Russian Orthodox mission team on Kodiak island baptized 2,500 shamanist Eskimos in 2 years, and 10,000 in 1795.
USA, AD 1800s, the age of mass evangelism. Charles Finney’s preaching led to the conversion of over 500,000 people. D. L. Moody preached to over 100 million (before television) and personally brought 750,000 people to Christ. Billy Sunday became a nationally known evangelist who had over 200,000 converts.
AD 1900s. Billy Graham preached to 50 million in 229 crusades by 1976, with 1.5 million decisions; to 104 million by 1984 (apart from television audiences). By 2005 through media, he has preached to 2 billion people.
AD 1910, Liberia. William Wade Harris, a Liberian activist, preached across Ivory Coast and baptized 100,000 converts.
AD 1920, Africa. Simon Kimbangu, sometimes called “The People’s Prophet,” had a brief but powerful ministry that inspired faith in Central Africa. Imprisoned for stirring up the Congolese people, Kimbangu became the catalyst for Africa’s largest independent church.
These examples seem to say a called, gifted, trained and equipped evangelistic team (composed of multiple individuals) can impact hundreds of thousands of people—if not millions—over the space of a few years.
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