The Young and the Anointed

Four hundred years ago much of the world viewed America as a mission field, never dreaming it would one day become a nation that would send thousands of missionaries around the world. But as God worked, that's exactly what happened.

At the renowned Urbana Missions conference, Americans have answered the call to spread the gospel for over 200 years. In the beginning, the Mission field was the rapidly expanding western frontier of the U.S.

But then, a series of revivals, known as the Great Awakening, broke out. That led missionary pioneers like Adoniram and Nancy Judson to cast their vision overseas.

"In the first 12 years of his ministry in Burma he performed more funerals for family members and for colleagues than he did baptisms for young believers," said Rev. Doug Birdsall. "But today, there are over 5 million believers in that country and virtually all would trace their spiritual heritage to that one man and his wife."

The Judsons and others paved the way for an incredible worldwide movement in the late 1800s.

Birdsall said, "The Civil War was behind, the economy was growing and so the interest of the country began to turn to other parts of the world."

It started when 200 college students met for a month at Mt. Hermon in Massachusetts. Their goal was to evangelize the world in their generation. Two years later came the birth of the student volunteer movement, which would become one of the all-time great mission recruitment vehicles.

"Within five years there were 6,000 young people that had volunteered to go on the mission fields," said Dr. Vinson Synan, church historian.

Over the next 50 years, that force grew to 20,000. These students came from the finest schools-- Princeton, Dartmouth, and Yale. And their mission was nothing short of extraordinary: to reach the world for christ by 1900.

"These young people were so idealistic," Synan said. "They felt so called of God, they felt such an anointing and were willing to sacrifice everything."

For many, that meant a one-way ticket and literally packing their belongings in a coffin, knowing they might never return. Today, their impact is still felt in so many countries, such as Korea. Less than two percent of the people there were Christian when Henry Appenzeller, a Methodist, and Horace Underwood, a Presbyterian, reached the country.

Synan said, "Today there are probably 2 million Methodists in South Korea and maybe up to 5 million Presbyterians from these two very young college students. By the early 1900s, the student movement was in full force. Over a thousand missionaries gathered at an Edinburgh conference in 1910 to further plans for world-wide evangelism. "

Those plans were cut short by World War I, and a post-war distrust of Western culture and American missionaries. Who could have guessed that World War II would actually pave the way for another missions miracle?

During the 1940s in World War II, American GI's served across Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Most were seeing the world for the first time, and many returned home with a new heart for missions.

"The American economy was growing, people had the opportunity to go to college like never before because of the G-I bill and you had hundreds of thousands of people who had been given a vision for the world--and then you had a few key people," Birdsall said.

People like Bill Bright had such a vision. Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ at UCLA in 1951. Since then, Campus Crusade has exposed millions to the Gospel and led thousands of students to Christ every year. In 1953, Bob Pierce began world vision to help Korean War orphans.

Today, World Vision helps 70 million people a year in its quest to end poverty and transform lives. That brings us back to the Urbana Missions Conference. Since 1946, it has successfully challenged more than 200,000 young people to commit to missions.

"In a short time from the U.S. After WWII you would have over 100,000 missionaries of all denominations all over the earth," Synan said.

Today, mission leaders are looking to students again as the new face of missions. There's even a student volunteer movement that they say may indeed make the history books--and bring even more into the Kingdom of Heaven.