Ralph D. Winter, 78,
mission frontiersman,
extended reach of gospel
The Layman, May 29, 2009
Dr. Ralph D. Winter, who broke new frontiers by convincing missionaries to take the Gospel to unconverted people groups in remote places, died May 20 at his home in Pasadena, Calif. He was 78.
Dr. Ralph D. Winter
The global impact of his mission experience, teaching, writing and cajoling was enormous. He took a literal view of the great commission. He believed it was a call to go beyond the political boundaries of nations and deep into their regions populated by indigenous people who had never heard of Jesus.
Today, much of Africa and other regions of the world bear the mark of his work and ability to convince others, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), to reshape their mission priorities. An ordained minister of the PCUSA, he established Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship and a partnership with the PCUSA to send evangelical missionaries into the frontiers. That ministry has continued strong while the PCUSA’s overall missionary commitment has declined sharply.
“He liked to shake people up,” said the Rev. Bill Young, the executive director of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship. “He was a very humble man. He didn’t want you making a fuss over him. But he was very driven, in a good sense.”
Young lists himself among those whose lives have been impacted by Winter, whose writings Young read while he was in seminary in the 1970s. “He was brilliant,” he said.
Winter was also well-educated. By age 19, he had an engineering degree. He trained to become a carrier fighter pilot, but World War II ended before he had to use that skill. At age 23, while studying at Princeton Theological Seminary, he organized sending a team of tentmakers to Afghanistan to teach English. He earned a Ph.D. in linguistics and a master of divinity degree.
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Winter forged a lifetime friendship with the late Dr. Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ and took the kind of global mission assignment that Winter himself might have written. Bright’s recruits traveled from village to village in Africa using a gas generator to run a movie projector. The film was about the life of Christ. Thousands – maybe millions – were converted.
In 2005, Winter and Bright were named by Time magazine as one of the 25 more influential evangelicals in America.
Winter never made it to Afghanistan as an English teacher. He did a 10-year stint as a missionary in Guatemala, then turned his energy, mind and spirit to teaching and organizing mission movements. His lectern became worldwide.
He taught at Fuller Theological Seminary. He founded William Carey International University, named in honor of the 19th century Baptist who had become known as the “father of modern missions.” Winter inherited Carey’s role, if not the title.
He served varying terms – when needed – as president and chairman of the university.
He also established the U.S. Center for World Mission and Mission Frontiers Bulletin, for which he served as editor and prolific contributor.
Young said Winter was so driven by his commitment to the Gospel that he paid little heed to himself. He wore rumpled suits that appeared to have come “from second-hand stores,” Young said, adding that he believes Winter wore suits only to satisfy those who expected him to.
Robert Winegartner, executive director of the Presbyterian Outreach Foundation, which, like Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship, also underwrites evangelical missionaries for the PCUSA, explained Winter’s commitment to people groups rather than just nations.
“He helped to give birth to the whole frontier mission movement,” Winegartner said. “Even though the Gospel had gone to all nations, it had not reached all the peoples. He reshaped how the church does missions.”
He described Winter as “a bit of the iconoclast. He was so focused on the vision of God that he was willing to challenge the status quo.” He called Winter a prophet.
Winter is survived by his second wife, Barbara (his first wife of 50 years and fellow missionary, Roberta, died in 2001); daughters Elizabeth Gill, Rebecca Lewis, Linda Dorr and Patricia Johnson; 14 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and two brothers, Paul, a structural engineer, and David, president of Westmont College in Santa Barbara.
A memorial service for is scheduled June 28 at Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena.