Ralph Winter dies at 84

Ralph Winter was set free from cancer the night of May 20. He was 84.

I never met Ralph Winter but he still managed to profoundly affect my life. I have only heard him teach once via mp3 but he was still ultimately responsible for shaping a huge part of my worldview. How can these things be? To understand this, you have to know who he was.

Dr. Winter dedicated his life to missions. He had an above-average passion to see the unreached peoples reached and evangelized. To this end he founded the US Center for World Missions. Many great programs fall under the USCWM, but the one most that I am most thankful for is Perspectives.

Perspectives on the World Christin Movement is a nondenominational missions training and instruction course that teaches what missionaries and missions agencies are doing around the world, mission history, biblical foundations for missions, and then how to actually apply your passion. Most class sessions are taught by missionaries or agency representatives. The course book he compiled and contributed to is one of the most amazing books you could read on missions. It is a collection of articles written by many, many scholars and theologian and is even used for a lot of seminary mission courses. You can buy it used at Amazon.com for cheap.

God has laid a strong burden for missions on my heart but I really had no idea what opportunities there were or what was actually involved. Quick, what do you think a missionary is and what their life is like? What do they actually do? Can you work in missions without being a missionary? Is there a difference between evangelism and missions? Why should we go overseas when people are just as messed up here? How do you actually present the Gospel accurately to unreached people? The questions go on and on. When you really stop and think about it, most of us really don't know that much about missions. Perspectives serves to answer your questions and give a strong biblical foundation for making the Great Commission a high, if not the highest, priority in your life. You cannot take this class and not be changed.

Anyone that knows me knows that I will ramble on and on about Perspectives. This class would not exist if it was not for Ralph Winter. Now, his contributions to this world and missions is FAR more than just Perspective but that is just the way I was most directly influenced. He is well known for his presentation at Lausanne in 1974, served as a missionary, founded mission centers, and taught seminary. Below I've put some links that you can follow to find out more about him frompeople much better at writing than me. I have also added a few videos of him being interviewed. Although I am glad that he is no longer suffering the pain of his cancer, it is sad to know that he is no longer with us. I have no doubt, however, that his influence will be felt far into the future. It is sad to me that this great man died and so many Christians didn't even know he lived. My prayers are for his family and friends.

Ralph Winter's site

Wikipedia Page

John Piper's Tribute

The Christian Post






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