Dr. Ralph D. Winter gives a watershed speech at the Lausanne Congress for World Evangelization, highlighting the reality of thousands of distinct people groups who were cut off from any forms of traditional evangelistic outreach. His speech helped to catalyze the modern frontier mission movement. Winter clearly showed that the call of Jesus to disciple all peoples (ethne) was far from complete and that a new form of cross cultural evangelism was essential to completing the task of world evangelization.
Dr. Ralph D. Winter purchased a 17-acre campus in Pasadena, CA in order to “awaken 1 million evangelicals” to the plight of these “hidden peoples.” The exciting historical saga that ensued has been recorded in the book I Will Do A New Thing by Roberta Winter.
Over the years that followed, the campus became a kind of germinating environment for new “prototypes, experiments, and movements” related to the frontiers. It was called the largest single property in the world dedicated to the cause of the unreached peoples, drawing people from a variety of evangelical denominations.
William Carey International University was established with a vision to train proven leaders to get at the roots of the human problems and to enable them to do so while remaining in their local contexts. The university became a place to see mission and international development come together.
Prayer, research, innovation, media, and engagement.
Office of the General Director: Dave Datema, Chong Kim, & Bruce Graham
The U.S. Center for World Mission and the Frontier Mission Fellowship were joined together again as one entity, known today as Frontier Ventures. The Pasadena based campus became known as The Venture Center.
As we transition into a new season for a new generation, we are inspired by the faith of our founder who famously said,
“Risks are not to be evaluated in terms of the probability of success, but in terms of the value of the goal.”
More ventures are needed to see the task of world evangelization complete. We continue to exist to serve that need, for the glory of God.
The Plural Leadership Model is reshaped to include a leadership team (Fran Patt, Chong Kim, Kerry Jones, Paul Dzubinski, Jim O'Neill, and Sue Patt) and a General Director, with Kevin Higgins being appointed as GD.