Venture Center

The Venture Center is a collaborative mission base located on a 17-acre campus in Pasadena, California. The Venture Center currently functions around seven hubs of frontier mission focus, which include prayer, research, innovation, media, education, strategy, and mobilization with a continued focus on unreached people groups. The U.S. Center for World Mission archives reside at the Venture Center’s Latourette Library and house collections by Ralph D. Winter and Donald McGavran. Many ministries had their genesis at the center or have been resident for a season before moving on to new locations throughout the world.[1]

Founders

The Center was founded by Ralph D. Winter (1924-2009) and his wife Roberta Winter (1930-2001) , who served as Presbyterian missionaries to a Mayan tribal group called the Mam people in Guatemala for 10 years. In 1967, Ralph served as professor at the School of World Mission (or SWM, now called School of Intercultural Studies) at Fuller Theological Seminary for 10 years. In 1976 Dr. Winter founded the U.S. Center for World Mission, now called Venture Center on the former Nazarene University campus in Pasadena. This was also the site for the Pacific Bible College and Pasadena College (1897-1976).[2]

The Venture Center, and its affiliated ministries, is run by members of Frontier Ventures which was founded by Ralph D Winter.

History

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", or "Perspectives" for short. With over 100,000 alumni in North America alone, the course covers information crucial to any person interested in "God's global purposes" and has said to be a "life changing experience" for many who have taken it.

Building on these ministries, the Winters founded the U.S. Center for World Mission in 1976 in a few rented offices on the 17-acre campus of Pasadena Nazarene College. Their purpose was to pull people together to concentrate on the unreached people. The U.S. Center went on to purchase the campus which was up for sale at that time. The money came primarily through small gifts of individual Christians around the country, and through the tireless efforts of televangelist Dr. William Davis who not only promoted the project on national television, but also traveled across the country to meet personally with wealthy Christian donors. The final payment for the campus was made in 1988.

The efforts to establish the U.S. Center have also led to the development of a wide-ranging movement to the frontiers of mission that now involves thousands of people and hundreds of missions organizations. The Center seeks to serve this growing movement with resources, information, and strategic insights that can help the movement grow and effectively reach all the unreached peoples.[3] In 2015, the US Center was renamed the Venture Center.[4]

Unreached People Groups

Originally called "hidden people groups", mission leaders later agreed to change the name to unreached to better capture the image that the Gospel had yet to reach these people in their own language and culture. An unreached people group is one where there is no viable, indigenous, evangelizing church movement.

In 1976, when the USCWM was founded, there were an estimated 17,000 unreached people groups. The latest figure as of 2009 places the number of unreached people groups at about 7,000, but some of that decrease is from a better understanding of the situation "on the ground" in any given people group.

Venture Center Ministries
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See also

Notes
  1. Winter, Roberta H. (2003). I Will Do a New Thing: The 'U.S. Center for World Mission -- And Beyond. Pasadena, California, USA: William Carey Library Pub. ISBN 0-87808-448-7.
  2. Preachers, Pastors Pay Tribute to Dr. Ralph D. Winter
  3. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement
  4. Wood, Rick. "Frontier Ventures" Mission Frontiers (March–April, 2015)
  5. Mission Frontiers magazine
  6. Mission Frontiers Online
  7. Global Prayer Digest
  8. Global Prayer Digest Online
  9. Joshua Project
  10. Roberta Winter Institute
  11. Roberta Winter Institute website
  12. Insight
  13. Insight, - INtensive Study of Integrated Global History and Theology website
  14. International Journal of Frontier Missiology
  15. International Journal of Frontier Missiology website
  16. Perspectives Global
  17. Perspectives Global Website
  18. Prime
  19. William Carey Library Publishers
  20. Perspectives

Further reading
  • Parsons, Greg H. (2012) "Ralph D. Winter: Early Life and Core Missiology". Pasadena, California, USA: WCIU Press, 2012. (A published PhD from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David)
  • Winter, Roberta H. (2003) I Will Do a New Thing: The U.S. Center for World Mission – And Beyond. Pasadena, California, USA: William Carey Library, 1987.
  • Winter, Ralph D. "Frontiers In Mission". Pasadena, California, USA: William Carey Library 2005
  • Winter, Ralph D. (1966) "This Seminary Goes to the Student". World Vision Magazine. Monrovia, World Vision, Inc.
  • Winter, Ralph D. (1969a) "The Reluctant Missionary". World Vision Magazine. Monrovia, World Vision Inc.
  • Winter, Ralph D. (1969b) "The Seminary That Became a Movement". World Vision Magazine. Monrovia, World Vision, Inc.
  • Winter, Ralph D. (1970) "The Acron that Exploded". World Vision Magazine. Monrovia, World Vision, Inc.
  • Winter, Ralph D. (1972) "The Extension Model in Theological Education: What It Is and What It Can Do". Pasadena, Fuller Theological Seminary.
  • Winter, Ralph D. (1992) "Defining the Frontiers: A Response". International Journal for Frontier Missions, 9, 9-11
  • Winter, Ralph D. (2003b) "Eleven Frontiers of Perspective (Part 2)". International Journal for Frontier Missions, 20, 135-144
  • Winter, Ralph D. and Hawthorne, Stephen C. (2009) "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: a Reader". Pasadena, William Carey Library
  • Winter, R. D. and Latourette, K. S. (1970) "The twenty-five unbelievable years, 1945 to 1969". South Pasadena, William Carey Library
  • Winter, R. D. and Winter, R. H. (1968) "When School is Half a World Away". World Vision Magazine. Monrovia, World Vision, Inc
  • Winter, R. D. (1975) The Highest Priority: Cross-cultural Evangelism. In Douglas, J. D. (Ed.) Let the Earth Hear His Voice. Minneapolis, World Wide Publications
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