excuse #2

here's excuse #2 (click here for my post on excuse #1) in the "why you should go to the mission field" article by keith green:

"But God needs people to stay here to be a witness to those lost in America. There's enough need right here!"

and keith's response:

It is true that God has called some people to stay right where they are to be witnesses for Jesus in their daily lives and professions. But again, God is merciful and just. Since America has only about 5% of the world's population, then only about 5% of the believers would really be called to stay in this country as a witness (that's only about 1 out of 20) while the rest of us should go into the parts of the world where there are almost 0% believers. (In Albania, for instance, there are only "a handful" of known believers in the whole country of 2.7 million people - less than 1/2 of 1/1000th percent!!)

now, i realize that these stats are from the late 70's but do you really think they've had a massive enough shift to make this an invalid argument? hardly. the argument that there is great need here in the USA is true - more so today than ever. but comparatives still are tremendously out of balance - the USA still has far more Christian ministry going on per capita than the vast majority of the world - and there's no way that this is how it should be.