Attendance at the Olympic stadium in Seoul, Korea, was less than expected that rainy evening in 1995--"only" 70,000 or so students and young professionals attended. Yet in the end, nearly all committed themselves either to go overseas as missionaries or to send others by supporting them financially.

That world vision, undergirded by a lifestyle of prayer, has become the mark of the Korean church. Thousands of Korean Christians pray at dawn five days a week. The country's hillsides are home to "prayer mountains" for an hour, a day or a weekend of extended time with the Lord. And Korea's church leaders talk of seeing half their country won to Christ and sending missionaries to other nations.

Their faith is based on what they have seen God do in their own country. Dr. Joon Gon Kim, for example, director of Campus Crusade for Christ in Korea since 1958, has helped introduce millions to Christ.

The Koreans, along with countless others, believe the Lord Jesus is speeding up completion of the task in our day. The "task," of course, commonly called the Great Commission, was given by the Master to His followers: Make disciples in all nations, and give everyone who lives a chance to hear of and embrace God's salvation through His Son. In one sense, the job will continue with each new birth. Yet in another sense, Christians from all parts of the globe are now saying, "We can finish the task--and soon."

Dozens of missions agencies and organizations, including Campus Crusade for Christ, have adopted the goal of "a church for every people and the gospel for every person by the year 2000," as spelled out by the interagency AD2000 and Beyond Movement.

But let's back up a moment--by the end of the year 2000? Is it feasible? How close are we to those goals after so many centuries of effort?

Closer than one might expect. Although only the Lord Himself knows the state of the harvest, several signposts give encouragement. They range from a dramatic increase in prayer to a different dynamic between Christians to technological breakthroughs.

Take prayer, for example. The AD2000 and Beyond Movement was born in 1989 to encourage networking between denominations and missions agencies committed to the Great Commission. Its prayer coordinators cite 24 international organizations widening the ripples of prayer in nation after nation. The Children's Global Prayer Movement, for example, numbers 1 million children in 30 countries who pray for their nations and worldwide evangelization.

This intercession is hardly the "bless the world" type. In October 1995, more than 30 million people prayed for the nations of the "10/40 Window," a geographical area ranging from 10 degrees north of the equator to 40 degrees north, and from West Africa to East Asia. Birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, the Window is home to nearly half of the world's population, including 97 percent of those least touched by the gospel.¹

The year-2000 goal has triggered tough questions on how to let these people, too, hear of the Savior--and soon. Increasingly, the answers offered involve God's people working together.

Certainly that has been true in Albania, once the most barricaded of the Communist-bloc countries and the world's only officially atheistic nation. After independence, few Albanians knew what religions such as Islam, Orthodoxy and Catholicism involved, only that their parents or grandparents had so believed.

Into that religious vacuum came Project AERO, staffed by short-term volunteers and full-time missionaries from Western Europe and North America. With more than 20 organizations and denominations participating or assisting, Project AERO's efforts intensify during the hot summer months, when Albanian university students form partnerships with visitors to take the message of Christ to their nation's remotest villages.

A helicopter provided by the Swiss Helimission hauls the teams and their "JESUS" film equipment to distant valleys within minutes, sparing them days of travel up rugged mountain paths. The teams then enter the villages, usually knowing no one, and almost always receive permission to show the evangelistic film and meet afterwards with interested villagers.

During the two years since Project AERO's launch, at least 48,000 Albanians have encountered the life and message of Christ. Church planting efforts in 60 villages have resulted. All involved credit working together as key to what has been accomplished.

Working together has accelerated results for other partnerships as well, including the CoMission. Founded in 1991 by more than 80 Christian groups, including Campus Crusade, CoMission workers train public-school teachers in the former Soviet Union to teach Christian principles to students.

A similar spirit of cooperation characterized the 1995 Global Consultation on World Evangelization (GCOWE) in Seoul, Korea. Nearly 4,000 church and missions leaders from 186 countries came not to talk theory about the Great Commission, but to discuss how to get the job done.

Another signpost of progress shows up in the increased involvement in the Great Commission by men and women from non-Western nations. Their churches not only pour thousands of new missionaries onto the field but support them financially as well.

In West Africa, for instance, church leaders have begun missions work among 50 formerly unreached people groups. Missionaries from Nigeria alone work in 30 countries and make up one-third of the nearly 13,000 Protestant missionaries from African nations.

Yet another signpost giving hope that we may indeed be nearing the fulfillment of the Great Commission is broader sowing of the gospel, often accelerated by new technology. Missionary radio, for example, which began in 1931 with broadcasts in two languages, now offers the gospel in 255 languages. Politically closed countries may block a seeker from talking to a Christian, but if he has a radio, he can hear the message.

Add to that greater access to God's written Word. In the last 45 years, more languages have received some Scripture than in all previous centuries put together. The New Testament is now available in 1,165 languages, serving 86 percent of the world's population.

Those involved in Bible translation hope to see an even greater acceleration in coming years. "Along with other technological advances," says Carol Dowsett, communications specialist with Wycliffe Bible Translators' Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), "computers contribute to decreasing a translation project by months, and sometimes years."

The "JESUS" film, too, contributes to the broad sowing of God's Word. Thus far, people speaking 349 different languages can watch the film and understand the words of Jesus. "I don't believe that anyone should have to learn another language to hear how he or she can go to heaven," comments Paul Eshleman, director of The JESUS Film Project. As a result, he and his team plan to eventually translate the evangelistic film into 1,156 languages, allowing 98 percent of the world's population to encounter the life and message of Christ in a language they can understand.

As Campus Crusade approaches the century's end, its New Life 2000 strategy builds on all that the ministry has been doing for the past 44 years. New Life 2000 divides the world's population into 5,000 areas of 1 million people.

The plan calls for each of these Million Population Target Areas (MPTAs) to have "JESUS" film teams, students and lay leaders committed to taking the gospel to the 1 million people. Campus Crusade currently works in 1,098 of these MPTAs. Denominations and other missions agencies are targeting still others.

The India Project, an active cooperation in India, shows the impact this plan can have. In 1994, 250 teams from 69 local churches and missions agencies showed "JESUS" to 4.5 million viewers. Of those, half a million indicated a decision to trust Christ and hundreds of new congregations were planted.

Despite all that has been accomplished, however, great challenges remain. A thousand or more ethnic groups still wait to read God's message in the language of their heart.²

In many nations, political hindrances block those who wish to know about Jesus. The Muslim world, for example, restricts the gospel, as does China, whose rapidly growing church still faces political restrictions and persecution.

And the churches and missions agencies committed to the immediacy of the task, though increasing, still form a small David faced with the Goliath of the world's population and complexity.

Yet what the Lord has already accomplished gives motivation to move ahead. "We now have more manpower, money and technology available to complete our Lord's Great Commission than ever in the history of the church," says Bill Bright, founder and president of Campus Crusade. "Also, there is unprecedented evidence that the hearts of believers are ready to accept responsibility for the Great Commission, and multitudes are open to receive Christ around the world."

Ralph Winter, of the U.S. Center for World Mission, agrees: "In our day, more can be done in five years' time than in 20 years back at the beginning of this century." He cites travel, which takes one-thirtieth of the time it did then; the telephone, which can connect across the world; and Billy Graham's 1994 crusade, televised on satellite and viewed by an estimated 1 billion people. Furthermore, widespread immigration has led to a massive shuffling and dispersion of language and ethnic groups, bringing increased contact with outsiders.³

Yet place all those factors next to the task that remains, and it is still clear that only the Lord of the harvest will ultimately pull this off. His desire to do so is clear. In His last days of earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus told His disciples: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world . . . , and then the end shall come" (Matthew 24:14).

"Those of us involved in world evangelization," says Victor Koh, director of Campus Crusade's ministries in East Asia, "dream of the day when the gospel can be presented to every person, and there will be a church for every people. We can never guarantee that everyone will understand or be receptive. But surely we can guarantee that they have an opportunity to hear the message if they want to."

As God's people pray and labor toward that objective, Ralph Winter reminds us that "our plans cannot even begin to predict or control revival fire. . . . It has been said that in a true revival God can do in 20 minutes what might otherwise take 20 years."

No one claims any magic about the year 2000, nor do those involved anticipate stopping work on January 1, 2001. Far from it, in fact: Bill Bright, for one, has said that his mind is full of ideas and plans for the first years of the 21st century. Yet the calendar goal serves as a timely target to work toward, in light not only of the world's uncertainties but also of the fact that millions still face eternity without the Savior.

Donna Bahler, communications coordinator with The JESUS Film Project, lives in Carmel, Ind., and has visited and written about the Lord's work in 30 countries.

1. Former Time magazine senior writer David Aikman, May 1995, in GCOWE press-briefing paper.
2. John Bendor-Samuel of Wycliffe Bible Translators and Dick Eastman of Every Home for Christ, during plenary report at GCOWE, May 1995.
3. Ralph D. Winter, preface to Thy Kingdom Come, [no publishing information, but distributed at GCOWE], p. 8.

Special thanks to the speakers at GCOWE for their many hours of labor. Much of the overview information presented here was drawn from their reports.