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Reviews:"on The Countdown Has Begun" The Countdown Has Begun
Reviewed by Nan Owens
The Countdown Has Begun is our second "countdown" book of the year, but it is vastly different from Countdown to 1900. Though we were touched by the countdown to 1900 and wished for a different ending, we could do nothing. In the present countdown, we must do something. In the former countdown, only a few folk had the vision. In the present countdown, over 2,000 separate plans relate to world evangelism, the largest of these being the Catholics' Evangelization 2000. Thus, many people and denominations have centered their evangelization goals on the year 2000.
How did it happen that over 300 people from Anglican, ecumenical, evangelical, Catholic, charismatic, Third World indigenous, and Pentecostal persuasions gathered in Singapore on January 5 8, 1989, in a global consultation on evangelism? No denomination or other group sponsored the meeting. No one commissioned the Program Planning Task Force. The answer seems to be that the Holy Spirit moved among men just as surely as He did on the Day of Pentecost.
Read Jay Gary's "Personal Reflections" and see if you don't agree. Not being one of the planners, but one to facilitate what was planned, he writes from two viewpointsthe insider's and the observer's. He includes failures as well as successes. Seeing through his eyes what happened to produce such a gathering and program makes the reader feel that she was there.
By the time the reader reaches Part 2, the consultation addresses, she is mentally and spiritually prepared for what the speakers present. One's spirit soars at the oneness among the Great Commission Christians, not only from the addresses, but also from the interactions among Christians from such diverse backgrounds.
When asked why other efforts had failed over the years, one participant said that it happened because each group was unwilling to cooperate with the others; each group wanted the glory of saying its plan succeeded.
Such did not seem to be the spirit at this global consultation. Participants did not ask, "Can we do it?" but "Will we do it?"Questions: 1. Trace the role of Southern Baptists in GCOWE 2000 (Global Consultation on World Evangelization) by AD 2000 and Beyond). 2. Why is the term Great Commission Christians important? 3. How do you feel about this statement: "Christians cannot blame external circumstances for their 2000-year failure to complete the evangelization of the world"? Respond. 4. Discuss the pros and cons of the dissolution of the steering committee at the end of GCOWE. 5. In the light of GCOWE 2000, how does any controversy we may have among ourselves look? 6. Discuss the ways suggested for participating in AD 2000. Will you commit yourself to participate? 7. Evaluate the attitudes of the media leaders discussed in chapter 19. 8. How does Campus Crusade fit into the picture? 9. Obtain information on Lausanne II and check for references to AD 2000. 10. Would you say that all the missiology books read this year find their fulfillment in this one? Nan Owens is a schoolteacher and former missionary to Nigeria. This review is reprinted from the September 1990 issue of Royal Service Magazine, page 23, published by the Woman's Missionary Union, Southern Baptist Convention, Birmingham, Alabama. To purchase The Countdown Has Begun by credit card, call 719-636-2000 or use the order form to fax or send your order in. |
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