Projects

4K” – A New Vision to do World Missions

The 10/40 Window... The Lausanne Covenant...Unreached Peoples...AD 2000...All successful, God-breathed concepts designed to reach the world. But there remain 1.6 billion people in the 10/40 Window that have never heard the gospel. How can we inspire the emerging generation to finish the task?

How can we capture their imagination? “How can we look at the world in an integrated way?” asks Steve Goode, YWAM’s International Director of Mercy Ministries. “We want something that will be able to help us amove cohesively forward for the next ten, fifteen, twenty years.”

A few years ago, a Global Leadership Team (GLT) task force, chaired by Steve Goode, was given the challenge of evaluating YWAM’s vision and structure. This task force, after five years of research involving over 50 people, has developed a new framework for viewing the world. That framework for vision, called “4K,” was embraced by the GLT at their meeting in China in 2002, and launched in September of this year at Synergy in Singapore. The GLT’s hope is that 4K will provide direction and inspiration for every YWAMer in the next decade and beyond.

“Only time will tell,” says YWAM Chairman Jim Stier, “but this certainly feels like a historic jumping off point, brought about by the Holy Spirit. We are on the brink of more new initiatives than we have ever before produced out of our YWAM family.”

The A-B-Cs of 4K

4K is built upon two basic concepts. The first one is to look at geography in a new way, by breaking the world up into zones of similar population size. 4K does this not by creating new borders, but by using geopolitical divisions of the world that already exist: countries, states, districts. One 4K zone is the country of Jamaica. Another is the district of Yavatmal in the state of Maharashtra, India. Both have similar population size.
The second concept is to emphasize “unreachedness” when choosing divisions of the world. Jim Stier explains: “In the most reached world, these zones include a population of up to nine million. In the moderately reached world they will have up to six million and in the unreached world they will contain up to three million people.”

This creates proportionally more zones in the least-reached parts of the world. “Thus, we will give emphasis to the places where no help is available and where the need is greatest,” Jim Stier explains.

This emphasis on the least-reached places has been built into 4K using research done for the World Christian Encyclopedia. 4K incorporates their data on the unevangelized world, which the encyclopedia calls World A, the evangelized non-Christian world (World B) and the Christian world (World C).

Using these two concepts, the 4K team has come up with a worldwide total of 4,323 zones, called “Omega Zones.” The GLT is challenging YWAMers to establish some kind of YWAM ministry in every one of these 4K zones.

It’s a call to go into all the world that YWAMers have heard before, but not in exactly this way. “If you remember Loren’s first vision, he saw waves breaking on all the continents,” says David Hamilton, U of N International Associate Provost and lead researcher for 4K. “Then with Project 223 in the early 80s we said, ‘Let’s get people into every country.’” Now, 20 years later, 4K is again focusing YWAM on “all the world,” but looking at the world even more closely. Says David, “we’re at the next level.”
“Our vision is based not on where we are, but where we are not,” says David. “We could sit back and say, ‘We’re in 163 nations and we have thousands of staff and we’re one of the largest missions agencies,’ but it’s not about how big we get. When Jesus counted the sheep, he didn’t boast about the 99 and compare himself to the shepherd down the block who only has 67. He counts the 99 to discover what is missing, what is not, and goes out and gets the one.”

For YWAM, 4K can help us see what we’re still missing. “Let’s look at India,” says David. “It has approximately 650 4K zones and nearly 1,000 full time YWAMers in 112 locations. Those 112 locations are distributed among 53 of the 650 4K zones. That sounds like a lot, and praise God for it, but when you look at a 4K map of India, you see the colored areas where we have a permanent presence. But you’ll also see enormous white, untouched areas—that’s the focus on where we are not. So when established YWAMers and new DTS students say, ‘Hey, India’s already been pioneered,’ we can show them the 4K map, point to the multiple untouched zones and respond, ‘You can go here, you can there…’ and all of a sudden the world is an open place again.”

Providing a Place for Everyone

4K provides a place for everyone to fulfill the Great Commission, regardless of their interests and giftings. “What’s your area?” David asks. “Children at risk? What’s your passion? Agricultural or medical work? Drama or music? Look at the zones with no YWAM presence. Do what you do, but pray about doing it there. What we’re saying is that we want to have a YWAM expression in every one of these zones; that doesn’t mean a DTS in every one, or a church planting team, but at least one of our three expressions: evangelism, training or mercy ministry.”

At its meeting in Nanning, China in August of 2002, the GLT sensed a word from the Lord that confirmed this vision of 4K: God intends for YWAM to experience a global release of apostolic ministry. “I like that terminology, ‘global release of apostolic ministry,’” says Jeff Romack, Regional Director for Indochina and the Philippines, “because it’s global, it’s for everyone. It’s not just unreached people or evangelism. It’s not just mercy ministry or training focused, but it’s a global release of apostolic ministry of every kind.”
Some may wonder why YWAM needs a concept like 4K. Do we really need to change the way we look at the world? While there was a lot of enthusiasm in the room after the 4K presentation at Synergy, an Asian YWAMer said, “I think there’s not a whole lot of understanding about 4K even after having seen the presentation. This will take some time.”

Indeed, it may seem that 4K creates more questions than it answers. For example, why does YWAM want to go to all parts of the world, even to places where there is already a lot of other Christian activity? Todd Johnson, a YWAMer and co-editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia, says, “of course we want to collaborate with other mission agencies,” but, he adds, we shouldn’t refrain from embracing the “all” of 4K simply because there may be other Christian work in zones where there is no YWAM presence. “I think the only way we’re actually going to take responsibility,” asserts Todd, “is to acknowledge that God is telling us to go everywhere.”

Tracking Progress

4K isn’t just another program that looks good on paper but lacks functionality. The GLT 4K task force is working hard to ensure that it will be practical, measurable and workable. They are developing processes of implementation, monitoring and review to track YWAM’s 4K growth regularly for the next 15 years.
“We will eventually have a grid with over 160 demographic distinctions,” says David. “We’re plotting all unreached people groups into it, so we will know exactly where we stand and can get to whole new levels of specificity. You’ll be able to say, ‘I’m interested in reaching disadvantaged children in areas with low literacy rates among Muslim nations. What would be the 30 zones that would most conform to those characteristics?’ Eventually, you’ll be able to input that data into a 4K computer index and there will be a listing of areas that would show the youngest, most illiterate Muslim zones in the world.”

Creating New Pioneers

4K may take some time to understand, but those who have had the opportunity to learn more about it are enthusiastic. Beat Kipfer of YWAM Singapore says, “4K is a good strategy and a fresh way to look at the world, but whether it works to serve the goal of completing the Great Commission depends on our response to it. It could really work if it highlights the areas of least Christian activity, and we as the Church respond with prayer focus and ministry in these areas instead of concentrating our efforts on the already Christianized areas of a nation.”

And if there is any question that 4K is indeed the path for YWAM’s future, new president John Dawson says, “As we enter a new apostolic season, we need to feel that our individual sacrifice means something, that our efforts, though small, are contributing to something really big. 4K gives your life and mine a context—we can now see the big picture.”

John Matas of YWAM’s Procla-Media, was inspired by 4K while producing videos about it. He says, “I’m not the visionary pioneer with huge goals; I’m just the little guy who keeps doing the little job he’s been doing, but as I learn about 4K I think it really is for everybody. When I look at the map and see the huge areas of the world we haven’t touched, I realize I can become a pioneer myself in a new, unreached location. So 4K not only appeals to the pioneer—it has the potential to create new pioneers.”

By Stacey Jillson

Download the maps by clicking here