The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy
the devil’s work.
1John 3:8

How does this compare to three previous major projects?
Ralph D. Winter

In order to get some perspective on this new project, let me mention three earlier eras of intense activity in which I have been similarly involved.

Project One
I gave several years to developing, with others, the global movement called Theological Education by Extension, which has been aimed at the plight of at least two million “functional pastors” in mission lands being neglected while 4000 mission schools train young, untried youth to replace them.

Project Two
I gave a hunk of time to developing, with others, the U.S. Center for World Mission, a major center in Pasadena, CA designed to focus on the frontiers of missions, that is, to discover and to tackle major dimensions of need in the mission movement. The most prominent need we recognized was to refocus missions from working in countries to work specifically with “peoples.”

A second need was to reclaim in people’s minds the Old Testament as the starting point of missions, the Abrahamic Covenant to be seen as the beginning of the Great Commission. A spin-off of that idea has been the now large network for the course called the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.

Basic to this period was not only the establishment of the Center and the acquisition of related property but the founding of the Frontier Mission Fellowship, a mission society which would be the owner and operator of the entire project—now a highly dedicated community of 56 units, in some ways more important than the Center itself.

Project Three
Once the Center in Pasadena was established my next ten years were mostly invested, with others, in establishing the William Carey International University, and in the rewriting of the content of the entire liberal arts and seminary curricula into a single, integrated 4,000 year story. This novel new curriculum employs 100 textbooks and numerous additional chapters and articles, but is essentially a single picture putting together the jigsaw puzzle pieces of what is otherwise a long list of “courses” which are un-integrated fragments of that picture. This new way of being educated, designed to be a more efficient way forward for national leaders around the world is now in use by various colleges and universities in this country and abroad as an M.A. degree, as an upper division major, and in a reduced form as a first college year, known as INSIGHT. Very exciting!

Okay, what’s next? Anything as large and compelling and as significant? Perhaps more in every way, but adding to and enhancing the impact of these first three projects.