Welcome to the
U.S. Center for World Mission!
A note from Ralph Winter
Founder of the USCWM
At the USCWM you will find many wonderful people that God has led to come and help us mobilize workers and resources for 
the unreached peoples—one of the "frontiers" of the mission effort.
Surprisingly, mobilizing for missions is just as important as field mission work, and is always a larger activity. The fields will suffer if for every missionary on the field there are not at least four people at home who are equally dedicated and hard at work keeping mission vision alive and focused on the remaining task.
I would be back on the field if I was not convinced that the biggest task is that of extending mission vision to the American Church. Right now only two percent of the people in our congregations have that vision.
That's right. Only two percent of the American congregations are alive in any very meaningful sense to "Declaring His Glory among the Nations." If you are wondering what would be the most powerful impact your life could have in the Cause of Christ, you may do well to consider the mission task a cause and not merely a possible "career" for you.
If it is just a career you seek, you may not stop to think about the overall cause and where
your life could make the most significant contribution. If it is the cause, the completion of the task must be considered. Then the decision to be a follower of Christ becomes much more complicated—and exciting!
Someone has observed that "God cannot lead you on the basis of facts you do not have." Here you can hear daily about the incredible things God is doing throughout the world and where you might fit in most strategically. Come and see. Check out our current service opportunities.
The Vision
Our Basic Purpose:
Viable Churches among ALL Unreached Peoples!
Could "staying home" do more to accomplish that than going to the field?
Missionaries do all kinds of good things, but the truly unique task of missions is not "winning more souls." (We will always have the job of evangelism.) Neither is it social involvement. (Life and culture will always be under attack.) The unique task of missions is to establish a viable growing church movement among every tribe, tongue, people and nation on the earth.
Until we are sure there is a strong church movement within every one of the people groups, our task is not finished.
Yes, until a people group has a rugged, believing fellowship within its culture, it is unfair to expect very many individuals to make a truly meaningful decision about Christ and His claims. Until individuals in every group can see how their "new life" relates to their culture-as it has in thousands of others throughout history-they will not feel comfortable or have the fellowship necessary to be reproductive followers of Christ.
That is why the U.S. Center for World Mission exists. We realize there are many other good things Christians can do to further the spread of the gospel and confront the sin of today. But we believe that the greatest need in our day is to have biblical disciple-makers inside every people group (Matthew 28:19-20).
That's why many of us at the USCWM are "staying home" specifically to mobilize the resources for the unfinished task. We are asking God and working together, in conjunction with many other ministries all over the world, to call out people from His Church to focus on the unreached peoples of the world.
Understanding the monumental task of reaching the unreached reveals how crucial it is for some people to "stay home."
Mobilization means getting other people involved. |
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| This man could have gone out alone to rescue one or two drowning men. Instead he is alerting (mobilizing) others to become part of his rescue force. |
If you see a sinking ship, which is better: plunging in yourself to save a few people (and maybe becoming a hero), or "mobilizing" others that many more might be saved?
As obvious as that may seem, most people think that if you are really "sold out to Christ" you must go to the "front lines." But about four out of every five who are totally willing to go "wherever" must stay home or the vision of the Church will die and those on the field will be unable to stay.
We invite you to be a mobilizer or support a mobilizer you know with both prayer and finances.
Join with us in this task. Together it can be completed.
The History
Before the U.S. Center for World Mission was established, God was moving in the hearts of Ralph and Roberta Winter.
While teaching other missionaries, the Winters gained keen insight into the task of world evangelization. They realized that even if every Christian in the world witnessed to everyone in his or her own culture, only half of the world's population would hear the gospel. Because of barriers of culture and language, the rest of the world was sealed off from the Gospel in people groups without a viable, indigenous, evangelizing church.
To establish a church among every unreached people group is the driving vision and burden of the U.S. Center for World Mission. As the Center was getting started, many other ministries were formed along the way.
Even before the Center began, the need to make mission resources more available led to the founding of the William Carey Library Publishers. Because of WCL, valuable mission books, DVDs and videos are published and distributed no matter what the quantity.
In 1974, the Institute of International Studies arose out of a need not only to train people as missionaries but also to provide an intensive foundation on what is happening in the world and what needs to happen. Now called the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, with over 80,000 alumni in the U.S., plus many others around the world, the course covers information crucial to any person interested in God's global purposes.
Building on these ministries, the Winters took a radical step by founding an organization in 1976 focused on pulling people together to concentrate on the plight of the unreached peoples.
Threatened for 11 years by huge property payments, the U.S. Center for World Mission nevertheless concentrated on spreading the vision for the unreached. The financial struggles themselves became a soapbox from which to proclaim the vision. The Center hoped to motivate thousands who could then build a movement that would bring tens of thousands in touch with God's heart for the unreached. The teamwork and prayer of the staff and thousands around the country helped to thrust this movement forward, building a network that is yet to be fully utilized.
Years earlier, during their service in Guatemala, the Winters realized that pastors in little churches all over the world would never be able to receive the training they needed while in ministry. In collaboration with other missionaries and leaders on the field, Theological Education by Extension (TEE) was born.
For many years, the vision of finishing the task was crystallized in the phrase, A Church for Every People by the Year 2000. This became the watchword of the Center (and of a global conference at Edinburgh) in 1980 to set a realistic goal to aim for as the Student Volunteers did just one century before.
Now, as we move into the 21st Century and have seen God's faithfulness in paying off the USCWM's facility, we have greater opportunity than ever, and greater anticipation that we may live to see the completion of the Great Commission in our generation.
The Founders: Ralph and Roberta Winter
Ralph and Roberta Winter served as missionaries for ten years with a Mayan tribal group in Guatemala. For another ten years, Dr. Winter was on the faculty of the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary where he came alongside 1,000 missionaries to study their field situations in depth. Teaching and studying history led him to look at what God had done in the 4000 years since Abraham.
Dr. Winter thus began assembling facts and statistics about where the Gospel had penetrated—and where it had not. As he put the whole picture together, he saw a startling—and at first frightening—situation. Not only were most of the world's individuals without the Gospel, most of them were in Biblical 'nations' which no one was targeting. Thus, these individuals had little or no hope of hearing the Gospel, no matter how fast the Church grew where it was already established. So in 1976 the Winters founded the U.S. Center for World Mission—to emphasize the unfinished missionary task to reach the unreached peoples of the world.
Ralph and Roberta They have four married daughters (all missionaries) and 14 grandchildren.
Roberta died in 2001 from complications related to multiple myeloma, the same form
of cancer which Ralph now has.
In 2002 Ralph married Barbara Scotchmer. They make their home in Pasadena, CA near the campus.