This is one reason why America’s young people will not become the missionary force of the future; they will be paying off their student loans until they are middle-aged.,,,Today the epicenter of Christianity is found in the “Global South.” Today, the Christianity of the Global South is expanding while the Christianity of the West is receding like a bad hair transplant.

Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few (Matt. 9:37). They’re about to be fewer workers. There is coming a crisis in American missions. It is coming because the “Baby Boom” generation is quickly approaching retirement age. Obviously, other professions in America will experience the same Baby Boom retirement phenomenon. But they will see retirees being replaced by younger people. Not so with American missions. Why not?

When I entered the state university in the fall of 1969, my tuition was $132.50. I graduated in 1973 not owing anybody a nickel. Recently, I went to the web site of the same state university and saw that today the tuition for one semester is $3,400. Some American college kids who attend a private Christian college they told me they pay $34,000 a year for room, board, and tuition. And this is one reason why America’s young people will not become the missionary force of the future; they will be paying off their student loans until they are middle-aged.

“Mission trips,” so popular today, will never do the work of long-term missions. In Genesis 11, God confused the languages of the nations. Cross-cultural ministry means long-term ministry; it takes time to learn a language and a culture in order to transmit the gospel in a manner appropriate to that culture. It takes time to develop relationships of mutual trust, respect, and understanding. This cannot be done in a one or two-week trip.

I disagree with the practice of sending promising young Africans to American Bible colleges and seminaries to train for ministry. There are several hundred theological institutions across the continent of Africa. They are much more affordable. My late wife and I both received our Doctor of Theology degrees at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. The tuition for both of us together for one year was less than the cost of one person taking one graduate course in the USA. Plus, Africans on student visas in the USA have a tendency to stay rather than return to Africa where they are needed.

Western missionaries went forth, preached the gospel, and the message was received. Along the way, western missionaries fought slavery, foot – binding in China, suttee (widow burning) in India, and female circumcision in Africa. They built hospitals and schools. Today the epicenter of Christianity is found in the “Global South.” Today, the Christianity of the Global South is expanding while the Christianity of the West is receding like a bad hair transplant. Read Philip Jenkins‘ The Next Christianity.

I speak to Americans who have been on a “mission trip,” and I have read the testimonies they have written. Typically, one will say, “I will never forget the look in little Maria’s soft brown eyes as I handed her the cookie.” That’s very sweet, but that is not how the Great Commission will be completed. The Great Commission will be completed by the “Majority World” pastor who must serve 15 or 20 “prayer houses” or “preaching points” with a bicycle and $40 a month. The Great Commission will be completed by the “Majority World” evangelist who just got released from prison, because his government didn’t like his evangelistic activities.

African Bible College, and institutions like it, hold an important key. Students training at ABC go on “mission trips” to villages where they already speak the language and know the culture. These institutions are training the future leaders of world Christianity, and I urge the evangelical churches of the USA to get behind and support them.

Larry Brown is a minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a member of Central South Presbytery, and serves as Professor of church history, world history, hermeneutics and missions at the African Bible College in Lilongwe, Malawi