The Current State and a Proposal of Missionary Training Program for the Frontier Missions in the 21st century - Concentrating on the 3 Missionary Training Centers -

Abstract

In 1990, among the whole population in the world, 2 billion 7000 of them were Christians and 1.1 billion being Muslims. However, over the past 20 years, the Muslim populations has risen steeply to fill the gap between Christians and Muslims. In 2010, the number of Christians was 2.1 billion 7000 and the number of Muslims was 1.6 billion. In addition, by 2050, the number of the two populations is expected to be parallel to 2.9 billion 7000 and 2.7 billion 6000. In the global era, strategic propaganda through immigration and marriage, polygamy and fertility in accordance with Islamic doctrine can be seen as the cause of Islamic growth. Andrea Williams, CEO of CCFON(Christian Concern For Our Nation), said “the churches and societies in Korea must change with the example of England.” His prophetic warning has already come to be reality in Korea. In the case of Korean Muslims, the Muslim population has grown at a rapid rate of about 30% over the past decade, from 2001 to 2011, and has increased by 177% over the past five years. Today, the Korean Muslim population is estimated to be about 150 to 160 thousand. As mentioned in the above statistics, Islam has already surpassed the growth of Christianity at a ferocious pace with active and aggressive missionary activities. Furthermore, with the oil power of the Middle East, Christian churches and Christian countries are being encroached rapidly by Islam. To make matters worse, since the end of the 20th century, religion has been prominently effected by postmodernism, rejecting the absoluteness and accompanying the convenience of extreme selfishness. Also, due to the effects of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the rapid development robots and artificial intelligence industries denied God’s existence and promoted scientism as a new idol, building up a new Tower of Babel. Under such circumstances, the Korean Church is in an absolute need to train missionaries who are equipped with mission strategies and tactics to meet the times, and to fight against the difficulties of the times. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide the necessary skills for modern missions in response to the needs of the times; to develop the values as a professional who can effectively convey the pure Gospel, and professional training programs (which I have investigated the current status of professional mission training programs, focusing on three professional mission training centers and identified the advantages and disadvantages of each mission training centers); and to propose an effective all-weather professional mission training program for the frontier mission in the 21st century.