Twitter Updates

*Re-publishing this on the one-year anniversary of his passing. His thought still shapes my own, and the few times we met still leave a lasting impression.

If you’ve had a heart for missionary work overseas you may or may not have heard of the name “Ralph Winter”. Hands down, his was THE MOST influential voice in global mission in the past 50 years. While not the hagiographical superstar, his thought has subtly, yet profoundly influenced – no – charted the course of global Christianity and steered it toward new dimensions. Pop ideas like the 10 / 40 window would not be were it not for him, and those themes only scratch the surface of his ideas. Sadly, Ralph Winter passed away yesterday (5/20/09) at his home in Pasadena, after a long and courageous battle with Multiple Myeloma. He was well into his eighties.

i

What a legacy.

A brief memoriam is here.

I had the privilege of sitting with this man, shuttling him around in his last visit to Bellingham, garnering advice for some of my own future steps. That day he taught in Bellingham I thought he hit a home run for a new push towards a kind of optimistic eschatological worldview that involved social action as a form of spiritual warfare. In this sense he blended classic Christian perspectives with progressive social ideals. Man he was a tinkerer.

But his most influential idea – deconstructing the missiological perspective of “nations” into the subset of “peoples” – this changed everything for me, and affects all I do both globally and locally. So although he has passed, his influence will continue to be felt for a very long time, I think.

Do you have any memories or thoughts of the late Dr. Ralph Winter?

Like

Unlike