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The problem of unequal distribution
The case for initiating a properly balanced sharing of the church's evangelistic offers across the Globe
Global Diagram 49
Disciple-opportunities offered daily to persons in 3 worlds
in 6 modes by means of 17 ministries
| Type | Total people involved |
Globe | World A | World B | World C |
| Personal Words | |||||
| Christians (all kinds) | 1,800 mln | 895 mln | 26,000 | 45 mln | 850 mln |
| Great Commission Christians | 530 mln | 529 mln | 20,000 | 37 mln | 492 mln |
| Proclaimed Words | |||||
| Full-time workers | 4.2 mln | 21 mln | 147,000 | 1 mln | 20 mln |
| Foreign missionaries | 295,000 | 14 mln | 168,000 | 1.2 mln | 12.6 mln |
| Evangelists | 700,000 | 70 mln | 1.4 mln | 6.3 mln | 62.3 mln |
| Written words (Scripture) | Copies per day | ||||
| Bibles | 140,800 | 137 mln | 959,000 | 41 mln | 95 mln |
| New Testaments | 210,700 | 31 mln | 310,000 | 11.5 mln | 19.2 mln |
| Portions (Gospels) | 328,800 | 1.6 mln | 24,000 | 640,000 | 936,000 |
| Selections | 3 mln | 400,000 | 6,400 | 140,000 | 253,600 |
| Printed words | |||||
| Christian books | 8.2 mln | 55 mln | 110,000 | 550,000 | 54.3 mln |
| Christian periodicals | 2.7 mln | 27 mln | 270,000 | 1.8 mln | 24.9 mln |
| Tracts | 10.9 mln | 1.1 mln | 3,300 | 49,500 | 1 mln |
| Visual Words (audiovisuals) | (showings per day) | ||||
| "JESUS" Film (200 languages) | 2,460 | 310,000 | 3,100 | 24,800 | 282,100 |
| Other Bible/Christian films | 54,800 | 8.2 mln | 8,200 | 164,000 | 8 mln |
| Electronic words | |||||
| Christian radio programs | 1,000 | 50.05 mln | 5,000 | 45,000 | 50 mln |
| Christian TV programs | 400 | 40 mln | 0 | 40,000 | 40 mln |
| Christian-owned computers | 125 mln | 2.7 mln | 0 | 27,000 | 2.7 mln |
In a nutshell, the problem of unequal distribution has two aspects: the first satisfactory, the second unsatisfactory. These are (1) the church worldwide is evangelizing--spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ--far and wide, creating every day the startlingly high total of over one billion offers or opportunities for others to become Christ's disciples. But, (2) 99.7% of all this effort is directed only at people who have already been evangelized, including 91.7% at people who are Christians and so already are disciples.
How should one assess these findings? There is a close parallel with the problem of world hunger today. Enough food is produced every day to feed the whole world. Yet 1.8 billion persons across the globe are undernourished, 950 million go hungry every night, and 400 million live on the verge of starvation. Agencies distributing food cannot supply every need, but must reach a balance involving need, priorities, adequate supply, equal opportunities, fair shares. Of course, it goes without saying that one would not expect food agencies to give food to well-fed Westerners.
Likewise, our diagram shows that the average Christian in World C receives every day 400 times more invitations than an unevangelized non-Christian in World A. This is clearly an unbalanced situation. Proper balance must mean that at least as much attention is given to the individual in World A as in Worlds B and C.
What is a "fair share" for the inhabitants of World A? Numerically, it should be one quarter of the global whole. This would be some 310 million offers a day given to World A--91 times its present share--resulting in one offer being made every four days for every individual on Earth.
Any serious solution to this problem will depend on deliberate attempts by agenices to increase the abysmally small figures in column 6. Already, some results are being seen. The Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, for example, has over a period of years increased its % deployment to World A from 2% in the mid-1980s to 16% today, and has committed half of all future resources to World A. We hope that other mission agencies will follow in their example.