A Review of American History to Understand America s Current Cultural Status and The Implications for Evangelization Par

1. A Review of American History to Understand America�s Current Cultural Status and The Implications for Evangelization(Part 1)A Condensed Edition for SAM�s AGMs Original Edition Prepared For: NAMB�s 2006 Leadership Summit Current Revision Prepared For: SBC State Convention Directors of Mission & Missouri, Oklahoma & South Carolina Staff Meetings in 2007 Prepared by: Dr. James B. Slack, Missiologist of IMB, SBC

2. The Aim and Context of this Ethnic Immigration History Presentation The aim of this presentation is to explore and present a history of immigration into the USA from 1775 to the present with a view to exposing major implications concerning church planting then and now.

3. Section 1: Biblical Backgroundfor Evangelizers

4. Context of This Presentation God promised Abraham and us through Abraham that He would make of Abraham a great �nation� (ethnic people group) through whom (Israel-the people of God) He would engage and bless not only every ethnic group but also every tribe (phulagi�translated as tribe and family that follows within the lineage of a clan, a tribe, an ethnic group). Throughout God�s developing of His ethnic people group Israel, God continually pleaded that Israel put Him first, clean up their life--personal and national-- and ultimately take His hope of salvation to the �panta ta ethne� (each and every ethnic group). All of this history from Abraham in Genesis is summarized in Christ�s Great Commission (Matthew 28:19 & 20).

5. Context of Presentation For Israel from its beginning in Abraham unto spiritual Israel now (each Christian and each Church), the �panta ta ethne� was and is the focus of �making disciples.� The �panta ta ethne� obligation can be seen in the Old Testament in the �stranger in thy home,� the �stranger (ethnic) in thy midst.� On occasion in the O.T., as with Jonah, God called individual witnesses to take His message to other ethnic groups. In Jonah�s eyes, Nineveh was a major enemy of Israel, deserving to be damned forever. In God�s eyes the people of Nineveh were a �lost� ethne to be �evangelized.� And, God worked to make him go.

6. Context of Title & Presentation In the last two years, Acts 1:8 has been a major theme of the SBC and the focus of many SBC events. Southern Baptists could have no more biblical nor historically appropriate theme at this time in its history. However, many fail to interpret Acts 1:8 in the context of the �panta ta ethne� in Matthew 28:19 & 20 which is telling the new Christian believers that they are to be conscious of, identify, engage and evangelize every ethnic group (panta ta ethne) in one�s Jerusalem; every ethnic group in one�s Judea; every ethnic group in one�s Samaria; and every ethnic group in one�s uttermost. This connection is much easier to grasp when one reads Matthew 28:19 & 20 followed immediately by Acts 1 and the illustration of the �panta ta ethne� in their Jerusalem in Acts 2. My thanks goes out to my fellow presenters during this NAMB leaders summit for parts of their presentations that have laid the foundation for this topic. (Remember or notice that the first edition of this presentation was first developed and presented during a leadership summit of NAMB when multiple presenters preceded this presentation.)

7. Echoing a Pleading of God about His �ta ethne� Focus Given to Israel & Christians The Great Commission�s �panta ta ethne� mandate is: to engage every ethnolinguistic group in the world to engage each ethne in their heart language, and to engage them at their worldview belief, habits, values and living level--a paramount obligation for every Christian in the Great Commission and elsewhere in the Scriptures. At the same time, a people group focus does not rule out engaging society according to other groupings such as students, the classes, etc., as long as the primary commitment is that of engaging every ethnic group in one�s midst.

8. The Main Question To Ask! Are we sleeping like Israel slept in times when God asked Israel to move beyond an almost single focus on �their own kind� of God-chosen people, in order to engage and evangelize the �ta ethne� among them? Or, are we taking note of every ethnic group who moves among us, and are we taking steps to evangelize them?

9. A Historical Look at the Status, Engagement and Implications of Immigrants (the Ta Ethne) in the United States from 1775 to 2006 A Version Designed for the NAMB Leadership Summit and Significantly Updated for SBC State ConventionStaffs & for Directors of Mission & Others

10. Section 2: A Look At Immigration in the USA from 1775 to 1940s

11. Will Herberg�s & Oscar Handlin�s Research Findings Oscar Handlin said in the 1950s: �Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history� The Uprooted, The Epic Story of the Great Migrations that Made the American People. (p. 3. Little Brown, 1957) (Handlin�s Pulitzer Prize work.) This is the most significant and critical reality for America and American Christians to understand, then and now. We will explore the �then� first, followed by a look at the �now� in parts 2 and 3 of this document. America is a nation of immigrants.

12. A Look At 1775 to 1950�America, A Nation of �Panta ta ethne� Immigrants America was founded, grew and flourished in terms of immigrant ethnic peoples, immigrant religious adherents and the churches they planted in the emerging nation. We will explore those categories. Herberg described America following 1607 saying: �The colonists who came to these shores from the time of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to the outbreak of the Revolution were mostly of English and Scottish stock, augmented by a considerable number of settlers of Dutch, Swedish, German, and Irish origin.� Handlin and Herberg said often: Almost all came from Christian background roots.

13. A Look At 1775 to 1950�America, A Nation of �Panta ta ethne� Immigrants By the time the great migrations were past, the British-Protestant element had been reduced to less than half the population, and Americans had become linguistically and ethnically the most diverse people on earth.� (Herberg and Handlin). However, even by 1950, there were only a small percentage of the US population who did not come from Christian background settings. (Herberg, Handlin & Hansen). Obviously, the late coming Catholics figured into the mix.

14. A Look At 1775 to 1950�America, A Nation of �Panta ta ethne� Immigrants The melding force was a combination of the frontier, economics and the continuing waves of ethnic immigrant arrivals from 1775 to 1924. Immigrants found plenty of opportunities to work on the Westward moving frontier and came in waves seeking frontier jobs & land. It is important to note that the flow of most of the immigrants to the frontier meant minimal settling by them in their own ethnic enclaves. The frontier caused their coming and their melding, their assimilation.

15. A Look At 1775 to 1950�America, A Nation of �Panta ta ethne� Immigrants This flow of a majority of the immigrants who came in waves seeking frontier jobs, played the major role in shaping America linguistically and culturally. Again, the frontier was the assimilating factor and force. Their basic desire was to live in their own ethnic enclaves and not assimilate. As successive waves of immigrants came to the US over 100 years, the �push� of each wave contributed to the rising of first generation immigrants from menial frontier jobs to climb to middle class manager/ business status on and just behind the frontier�s leading edge. Second generation ethnics replaced the first generation as the manual laborers. The shaping and melding of America was in gear and in process.

16. A Look At 1775 to 1950�America, A Nation of �Panta ta ethne� Immigrants Foundationally, it is very important to understand that it was: the freedom in America, the emerging democracy in America, the vast Western frontier of the Continent, the letters from friends and family telling them to come and join them on the vast frontier, the Western push of the people to experience freedom, own land, and prayerfully have a much brighter future, The poverty, the hopelessness, and the peasant status of the immigrants in Europe That lured them to America and its vast Frontier that caused them to assimilate and meld to a degree.

17. The Shaping of A New �Nation� It is very important to notice in this history that: �The lure and fact of the frontier that brought the immigrants by the millions caused the assimilation, the melding, of the immigrants.� Non-assimilation was not a choice and would not have been their choice by many ethnic groups. Historically, the immigrants would liked to have settled in among their �own kind of people� and produced ethnic enclaves within the USA The mass of immigrants and the fact of the frontier minimized the peoples� choice and forced assimilation over a 150-year period of time

18. A Look At 1775 to 1950�America, A Nation of �Panta ta ethne� Immigrants In this shaping process, the second generation of immigrants assumed the jobs of the vacated first generation immigrants who moved up the job ladder. As the frontier moved farther westward and as new waves of immigrants came to America, the movement from menial to managerial jobs continued and the appearance of educational opportunities on the frontier increased its occurrence and the varied status in US. Though the US frontier was not near 50% literate, schools tended to follow the frontier westward. The push of the frontier and education in English language in schools minimized wholesale settlement of immigrants within ethnic enclaves, except where enclaves developed in a few cities.

19. A Look At 1775 to 1950�America, A Nation of �Panta ta ethne� Immigrants Thus, the Americanization process did produce in the somewhat melded population a fairly common English language among the ethnics. In order to �move up the ladder� socially and economically, each wave of immigrant ethnics had to push their ethnic language into the home and family, while publicaly adopting English as the language of the workplace and society. Many ethnic languages did persist in the family for 100 years. Traces of them exist today. For instance, it was the late 1970s before Swedish Baptists in the US renamed themselves Baptist General Conference.

20. A Look At 1775 to 1950�America, A Nation of �Panta ta ethne� Immigrants Americanization of the various European ethnics: Even though they learned English for economic reasons, this language melding did not erase all of their ethnic identities. Illustrations abound and persist even today of this fact. A major, a key, fact of the immigrants and the frontier was that language melding did not erase their religious identity from the old country. Of all their ethnic qualities, their religious identity came over from the old country, and came to the fore. As public ethnic language use was stripped from them, they tended to hold on to and underline their religious heritage. For many, their original ethnic language persisted. Many Catholic parishes were established along ethnic language lines. This was not as common among Protestants.

21. In Retrospect In the years following 1900, for the first time, immigrants began coming from southern and eastern Europe. Of all the immigrants coming during that post-1900 era, those from southern and eastern Europe were in the majority. Many of these immigrants were Jewish and Catholic, in contrast to the predominantly Protestant groups that settled in the United States prior to 1900.

22. The Religious Change from 1775 to 1950: A Religious Perspective of History This section looks at the status of Christianity in 1775 and the charted changes within the population in light of what happened within Christianity until 1950.

23. This Period of Change from 1775 to 1950: A Religious Perspective It is clear in early immigrant documents that the main migratory people were Protestant and that they migrated to the New World primarily for religious reasons and in search of religious freedom. The percent of Christians, counted from the perspective of recognized church members in the colonies in 1775 was about 12% and a large majority of those were Protestants. Most people in the colonies beyond the 12% would say they were Christians.

24. The Period of Change from 1775 to 1950: A Religious Perspective American religious denominations, beginning in 1775 and continuing until 1950, also underwent classic changes which were only minimally caused and marked by theology. In the American religious landscape Protestantism dominated from the 1700s to the 1900s.

25. A Look At The Six (6) Leading Church Groups in the Colonies in 1780 Congregational (745 churches) Anglican/Episcopal (405 churches) Presbyterian (490 churches) Lutheran (235 churches) Methodist (Less than 200 churches) Baptist (About 200 churches) Note: Catholics are not included in this comparison for they were a minority until the 1900s.

26. The Six (6) Leading Church Groups in the USA in 1850 Methodist Baptist Presbyterian Lutheran Congregational Episcopal (See Neil Braun�s Laity Mobilized Master�s Thesis for more discussion of this dynamic within US history.)

27. The Six (6) Leading Church Groups in the USA in 1950 Baptist was first Methodist Lutheran Presbyterian Episcopal Congregational was last (See Jim Slack�s and Jim Maroney�s IMB study and book of the principles and practices of church planting for documentation sources.)

28. Discerning The Lay of the Land In fact, the order of the six leading denominations in 1775 were exactly reversed by 1950. By 1850 Methodists were the largest Protestant denomination in the USA and Baptists were second. By 1950 Baptists were the largest of the original groups and Methodists were second. A count of Southern Baptists alone in 1950 would have shown them close to being largest Protestant denomination.

29. Discerning �The Lay of the Land� It is very informative from a historic evangelization and missiological perspective to follow and compare the growth dynamics among the 6 largest Protestant denominations in 1775 with the 6 largest Protestant denominations in 1950. Baptists in 1775, who had not yet divided into two major Baptist groups (Northern and Southern), were the smallest of all seven Protestant denominations. Methodists were next to last. What happened that caused this reversal?

30. How did Methodists become First in 1850 and Remain Second by 1950? Methodists had a strategy, a carefully defined and carefully managed geographic circuit-rider plan that fitted them for the frontier. Their plan was the �method� found in the word �Methodist.� That plan, designed by Wesley for England, which was only partially accepted there, was a perfect fit for the US frontier, at least until about 1900.

31. How did Methodists become First in 1850 and Remain Second in 1950? A Quote: �When the rigors of circuit riding in the early days, as the Church moved over the country, are brought before the mind and imagination, the question is frequently asked, �How did they stand it?� The answer is: �They didn�t.� They died under it. No group of men ever lived up more fully to the truth, �He that looseth his life shall find it.� (pp. 42-43, Halford E. Luccock, Endless Line of Splendor. The Advance for Christ and His Church of The Methodist Church publisher, Chicago, Illinois, 1950)

32. How did Methodists become First in 1850 and Remain Second in 1950? A Quote: �They died, most of them, before their careers were much more than begun.� Of the 650 preachers who had joined the Methodist itinerancy by the opening of the 19th century, about 500 had to �locate,� a term that was used for those too worn-out to travel further. Many of the rest had to take periods for recuperation. Others located not because of health, but by reason of lack of support and the desire to marry and establish a home.� (Luccock)

33. How did Methodists become First in 1850 and Remain Second in 1950? Of the first 737 circuit riders of the Conferences to die�that is, all who died up to 1847 203 were between 25 and 35 years of age 121 between 35 and 45. Nearly half died before they were 30 years old. Of 672 of those first preachers whose records fully exist, two-thirds died before they had been able to render 12 years of service. Just one less than 200 died within the first five years. (Luccock)

34. How did Methodists become First in 1850 and Remain Second by 1950? A Quote: �Many circuits were from 300 to 600 miles in length�For instance, in 1791, Freeborn Garrettson was assigned to a circuit which included almost half of what is now the state of New York�In 1814 James B. Finley, on the Cross Creek Circuit, Ohio, had a circuit covering more than two counties, and preached 32 times on every round. The salary schedule has an eloquence of its own. Cash was almost unknown. In 1821 Benjamin T. Crouch records receiving only $38 toward his year�s allowance. The same year Peter Cartwright received the highest salary in the Kentucky Conference--$238. But when he moved, with his wife and six children, to the Sangamon Circuit, Illinois, he received $40, all told, for the year.� (pp. 44-45, Luccock)

35. How did Baptists become Second in 1850 and Grow to First by 1950? �Methodism grew fast until after 1850, but Baptist growth from 1800 to 1960 is unparalleled. From a little over 100,000 in 1800, Baptists were approaching 20 million by 1960.� (Gaustad: 1962 as quoted by Neil Braun) The basic reason is that Baptist theology and polity fitted them better for the frontier than any other denomination of churches.

36. Growth Characteristics of Baptists Each local church was autonomous Churches were congregational in polity Lay, rarely educated, Baptist church members going west were encouraged to plant a church at sites where they settled if no Baptist church existed there Churches that did emerge met in homes, saloons, hardware stores, barns, stables, school rooms, under trees, etc.

37. Growth Characteristics of Baptists Local churches found their pastor within the maturing believers in their emerging new church body Local churches recognized and ordained their own pastors Often the settler who started a new church ended up being �called� by the emerging new church to be their pastor. Many laymen became pastors that way. Laymen who did become pastors tended to itinerate, pastoring 2-4 churches

38. Growth Characteristics of Baptists As churches were planted, laymen within those churches with a burden for the lost tended to emerge who preached in the outlying areas wherever a group of people lived Consequently, lay evangelists were common in Baptist churches and this trend persisted well into the early to mid-1900s As frontier towns settled in and grew, a few churches sought pastors from more settled frontier towns to the east

39. Growth Characteristics of Baptists By the mid to late 1800s, requests for training arose among frontier pastors who settled in for a longer tenure in the more settled, �behind� the frontier�s leading edge, towns As pastors saw their churches increase in membership size and stability, and as they faced more complex pastoral duties, they called for training assistance This led to Baptist schools being started from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. This is why and how the many Baptist colleges and SBC seminaries started. These were on-demand schools. Local churches started them and paid for them. Subsidy was an unknown habit on the frontier for over 100 hundred years. Subsidy was less among Baptists than among Methodists and Methodist subsidy, as seen earlier, was very meager when it was provided.

40. The Most Common Growth Reasons Sweet, Herberg, Latourette, Braun and multiple other social and religious historians said that the three most common growth factors were: 1) the starting of churches in homes where land and building for a church was not a condition for having and being a church; 2) lay preachers and pastors, almost every one of whom were bi-vocational; and 3) a congregational polity that allowed local churches to start and function autonomously without approval from a leadership hierarchy.

41. The Major Concern of the Immigrants by the 1900s �Their big concern was the preservation of their way of life; above all, the transplanting of their churches.� (pp. 10-11, Herberg.) In his footnotes Herberg quotes Marcus L. Hansen�s research in The Problem of the Third Generation Immigrant (Augustana Historical Society, Rock Island, Ill., 1938, p. 15 who said: �The church was the first, the most important, and the most significant institution that the immigrants established.� Their churches went to the frontier with them. Those churches that fit the frontier and that were comfortable on the frontier won the frontier.

42. By 1950, Who Was an American? By the early 1900s being an �American� came out of a degree of melding of three generations of ethnic groups into being �Americans�--Anglos Herberg�s research discovered that by the 1930s, A �Triple Melting Pot� situation in the US had developed as the norm. Ethnic migration saw their language and some of their culture receed somewhat to the background. English had become a practical acquisition of most ethnics, but their religion persisted to become the ethnics major identity.

43. The USA Religious Scene in 1950 In 1775 church members were from 10 to 12% of the US population By 1910 church members had grown to 43% By 1960 church members had grown to 60% (pp.33-34, Herberg) Beyond the category of �church members� at least 75-80% of all Americans said they were adherents of Christianity By the 1950s denominationalism had developed, was clearly established, active and very strong in term of loyalties and influence in America Evidences of denominational solidarity follow:

44. Religion in USA in the 1950s: A Consideration of Conversions Burke�s article, a survey by the American Institute of Public Opinion (a Gallup poll) in 1955 indicated that of an adult population of 96,000,000, only about 4 per cent no longer belonged to the religious community of their birth; of these: 1,400,000 were Protestants who had originally been Catholics, and 1,400,000 were Catholics who had originally been Protestants, and about 1,000,000 had made changes of some other kind. See also John A. O�Brien, You Too Can Win Souls (Macmillan, 1955).� (Cited in Herberg�s footnotes on pages 170-171.)

45. Religion in America from 1945-1960 Even beneath the surface of the American �melting pot� one could still see the persistence of ethnic identities when studying marriage and church affiliations. On the surface citizens in the USA were Americans, known as Anglo-Saxons, but beneath the surface their ethne had not been totally erased. Notice the following data.

46. The Consequences of this Religious Environment It was beginning to be true in the late 1930s, increased as being true in the 1940s, throughout the 1950s and into the early1960s that, to be elected to a significant state and national office in the USA, the candidate had to represent, or make the public think they represented, Judeo-Christian values or he or she would seldom ever be elected to a significant political office. This was especially true in the Bible Belt of the USA. And, except in pervasively Catholic areas, it was difficult for a Roman Catholic to be elected to a national office. Religious credentials were important for business leaders, salesmen and community leaders.

47. The Consequences of this Religious Environment Pastors, Rabbis and Priests were at the top of the list of the most respected persons in American life. Those Judeo-Christian values that can be seen in the background of the US Constitution, had emerged as the broad American ideal by the mid-1800s and were commonly taught and nourished in the US public schools from the 1800s to the early 1970s. Prayers were said in the schools, prior to the beginning of any sports events, Ten Commandments posted in public places, and prayers to God for blessings habitually offered by politicians. It was the 1960s before the USA elected a Catholic as president for fear that a Catholic president would allow the Pope in Rome to influence American political decisions in ways unfavorable to Protestants and Protestant values. Also, until Reagan, no divorcee had ever been elected as President of the USA.

48. The Consequences of this Religious Environment Southern Baptists, by 1950, not only emerged as the largest and most influential Protestant denomination in the USA, they existed predominantly in the �Bible Belt.� Methodists and Southern Baptists were the major denominations that produced the �Bible Belt� with Presbyterians following some distance behind them. The people who produced the Methodist and Baptist denominations and the Bible Belt were migrant peoples, mostly from Europe, mostly northern Europe. Most of these had fled Europe looking for religious freedom, while the others came to the colonies looking for decent work, land, a say in political matters, a vote and a better lifestyle which spelled �freedom.�

49. The Consequences of this Religious Environment Southern Baptist evangelism and church planting methods, or approaches, tended to develop in the midst of this highly religious identification and historical period. It was upon this base of Judeo-Christian values that the post-World War II years, especially the1950s, rested. Those Judeo-Christian values were assumed to exist by an overwhelming majority of the citizens in the USA. These Judeo-Christian values permeated the justice and legal system of the USA and were assumed to be the best rules to live and do business by in the USA. (See Herberg�s book Protestant, Catholic, and Jew for multiple quotes documenting this.)

50. The Lay of the Land Discerned Consequently, Southern Baptists, and other evangelical denominations, and Para-church agencies such as Post-WWII Navigators, Campus Crusades, Inter-Varsity, and others, understood and established themselves and their Christian groups upon these assumptions and aspirations of typical Americans in the USA during this era. This was the situation just prior to the next stage of immigration and history in the USA.

51. The Lay of the Land Discerned A study of Christian materials, and especially witnessing presentations, in the period between 1945 and 1965 reveals the assumption that an American had enough background knowledge and beliefs about God and Christianity such that those basics would not have to be covered during witnessing sessions. It was also assumed that an American accepted the Bible as authoritative and that it was to be respected.

52. Looking Back on this Period from 1945 to 1960 We now look back on the period from 1945 to 1960 as the most formative and significant religious ingathering period in American history. This does not minimize the affects and the magnitude of the Great Awakenings in the 1700s, or the Great Prayer Revival in 1850. However, the growth of religious denominations, agencies and institutions within this period speaks for itself. Southern Baptists grew by 100% in this period. (Herberg)

53. Looking Back on SBC Growth from 1950 to 1960 Southern Baptist Convention Stats in 1960 (The Largest Protestant Denomination) 32,281 churches 9,731,591 members (302 Avg. Mbs. Church) 386,409 baptisms for year (11.9 A. Bap. Ch.) 7,382,550 Sunday School (75.8% of mbs.) $480,608,972 Total of Receipts in Churches

54. A Troubling Reality of the Most Homogeneous and Religious Era Herberg�s Quote: �This is at least part of the picture presented by religion in contemporary America. Christians flocking to church, yet forgetting all about Christ when it comes to naming the most significant events in history; men and women valuing the Bible as revelation, purchasing and distributing it by the millions, yet apparently seldom reading it themselves. Every aspect of contemporary religious life reflects this paradox�pervasive secularism amid mounting religiosity, �the strengthening of the religious structure in spite of increasing secularism�America seems to be at once the most religious and the most secular of nations� can there be much doubt that, by and large, the religion which actually prevails among Americans today has lost much of its authentic Christian (or Jewish) content.� (p. 2-3, Herberg)

55. Major Missiological Issues to Notice Programs, methods, approaches, whatever one wants to call them, became more and more generic. They were copied and used successfully in many different regions and locations in the US. This was especially the case with Southern Baptists who were mainly in the Bible Belt; Consequently Southern Baptists came to believe that �one size, meaning one model, fits all.� And to a great degree then, especially in the Bible Belt, one size did work quite well in many places among many people, because of homogeneous values that existed in America at that time;

56. Major Missiological Issues to Notice In those cases in the 1950s when Baptists �hit the road� and took their evangelism teams to the Northeast, to the Midwest and to the Northwest, they tended to attract primarily transplanted Southerners who had a firm Christian base with strong Judeo-Christian values. In the 1950s, when Baptists went out of the Protestant Bible Belt and into Catholic territories they met the �we don�t swap religions� ethnic identity that was characteristic of America and Americans of that era. Protestants and Baptists grew better among unchurched & relatives than among Catholics & Jews.

57. Major Missiological Issues to Notice Those transplanted churches beyond the Bible Belt with mostly southern members were soon sealed off from the locals. For, when the few locals who did come to see what church was all about, they saw �foreign folks,� heard sermons that assumed evangelical, Christian values & assumptions with southern Bible Belt terms. Most locals did not stay and join those non-local, southern churches, for a significant number did not hold the southern worldview values. Fifty years later, most of those churches are as they were then, or smaller.

59. The Period of American History: 1960-Present saw Post-Modernism come from Europe to Canada and into the USA began experiencing a type of ethnic immigration that, with the possible exception of the ethnics coming from Latin America, is coming from very different linguistic, worldview and world religion sources; such that: Generic is no longer a characteristic in USA, even among Anglos. Pluralism exists within �ethnes� and even in denominations and churches in this era.

60. The Period of American History: 1960-Present The most homogeneous era in US history and the most religious period in US history soon: experienced immigrant ethnics who want the American dream but who do not want to assimilate into American culture to the point of giving up language, culture and religion; yet, who want all of the rights of any traditional American citizen; and who soon met Christians who do not see them as, or relate to them as, Jesus� �panta ta ethne.�

61. A Summary of Immigration into US from 1820 to 2000 A.D. From 1820 through 1924 = 35,999,402 From 1925 through 1960 = 5,841,559 From 1961 through 2000 = 24,248,470 From 1820 through 2003 = 69,869,450 In 2000 A.D. the projection prior to the Census was 26,800,000 foreign-born persons in the US in July of 2000 Actual foreign-born enumerated in 2000 Census was 31,100,000 persons

62. Consequences of Immigrants in USfrom 1960 to the Present English will functionally face other competitors, especially in local ethnic communities where other languages dominate The issue of worldview will loom larger and larger in more and more settings in the USA Local ethnic Radio and TV stations and programs will likely proliferate within the USA Marketing will become more pluralistic in catering to multiple ethnic groups in order to engage and sell to the increasing pluralistic market setting in USA �Niche marketing� already exists in USA

63. Consequences of Immigrants in USfrom 1960 to the Present Foreign marketers will increase to join and compete with already present and powerful foreign businesses such as Toyota, Samsung, British Petroleum, Shell, and many others. Language use in the USA will become more varied and will increase within specific languages yearly, if not more often. Evangelicals focus evangelistically mainly on Anglos with only a minor focus on ethnics.

64. Consequences of Immigrants in USfrom 1960 to the Present However, at present, evangelical methods of engagement and evangelization are mostly replicas and renditions of methods used in the 1950s when religion was commonly in vogue, based upon Biblical values, and given attention and a hearing by most citizens. Today, none of those assumptions exist in a pluralistic America. The definition of an American becomes more difficult and pluralistic every day.

65. Illegal Immigrants into the USA �In addition to the nearly 1 million legal immigrants who arrive in the United States each year, hundreds of thousands of people enter the country without permission�The Immigrant and Naturalization Service (INS) estimates the number at close to 300,000 a year.� (The Newest Americans, p. 13.)

66. The Most Sobering Reality The setting in America today better fits the Great Commission�s �panta ta ethne� mandate of Christ than any other era in American history. It seems that God has brought the �uttermost� to our individual �Jerusalems.� Never in the history of America has ethnic, heart language, worldview sensitive been so appropriate and required than today.

67. Concluding Slide of �A Look At The Historical Periods of Immigration into the USA from 1775-2006�

68. Prepared by: Dr. James Slack Ethnographer, Missiologist, Growth Analyst and Field Assessments Consultant of SBC�s IMB Global Research Department of OOO January 16, 2006 Edition: Previous Edition This Edition 22 October 2007