The Fourth Lausanne Congress, in the State of the Great Commission report, points out that world mission is in crisis today:

        Severe Global Shortfall in Resources Allocated to Mission – Only 3.2% (US$4.4 billion) of the US$130 billion annual offering of global churches is spent on cross-culture mission. Besides a lack of funding, there is also a lack of missionaries. However, the more serious problem is that an increasing number of missionaries are sent to places which already have access to the gospel (97% of the missionaries go to the reached peoples while only 3%, or about 13,000, go to unreached peoples). In other words, more missionaries are going to territories that already have churches while few or none goes to closed, poverty-stricken, backward and dangerous places.

        Christian Ratio Starts to Drop despite Christian Population Growth – It was not without reason that the Lausanne Congress has reiterated that churches must know the Great Commission. The global Christian population has in fact grown over the past century (from 0.61 billion in 1900 to 2.64 billion in 2025). Nevertheless, it is outgrown by the world population and its ratio to the world population has started to drop (from 34.5% in 1900 34.5% to 32.3% in 2025). Research organization Pew Research Center projects that over the next 30 years, 40 million people globally will be converted to Christ. Yet, during the same period, as much as 100 million may leave the Christian faith. As a result, not only will there be no breakthrough in the Christian population, but there will even be a decline. Meanwhile, it is also pointed out by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary that today, 86% of the Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus do not have a single Christian among them. How, then, can they believe in Christ? Churches worldwide are not sending missionaries either. How can they hear the gospel?

         The Heart of the Church’s Crisis: Discipleship Decoupled from the Great Commission – It is not enough even if we do have Christians in their midst. According to a survey in the State of the Great Commission report in 2024, more than half (52%) of Christians do not know what the Great Commission is. Even fewer (only 28%) consider themselves prepared and can share the gospel with others anytime.

         The Global Church’s Sole Reliance on Specialists – Now do we not have many theological seminaries which have trained up generation after generation of preachers? Have we not sent out batches and batches of missionaries? That has been a great effort, hasn’t it? The statistics reveal that every year, about 50,000 people graduate from theological seminaries worldwide. At the same time, as much as 47,000 missionaries leave the mission field. The shortage of human resources continues to widen.

         The Fourth Lausanne Congress has not only reiterated the importance of world mission, but it also suggests that churches cannot solely rely on “specialists” including pastors, missionaries and theologians. As such, the Congress exhorts churches to step up discipleship training. They must train up believers to engage in “global mission at the doorsteps” in the workplace, the community, and the family. This truly ties in with the name “Christian and Missionary Alliance” (i.e. an alliance of Christians and missionaries). Believers and pastors must work shoulder to shoulder to preach the gospel to hasten the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that the NPAC family and churches worldwide will actively nurture disciples who would steadfastly commit to the Great Commission and gladly preach the gospel, thus closing the gap between the church and the Great Commission.

(This is an excerpt from the “Feature Article” of the Mission Journal of this year.)