“This is what is meant when we say that “crossing an ocean never made a missionary,” or “you can go 18,000 miles but it s the last 18 inches that count”. Geography is thus nearly irrelevant in such well known observations. But a brand new astonishing meaning for the same basic truth is the fact that the Christians who live next door to the Muslims in the Middle East, for example, may be the least likely to be effective missionaries to those Muslim people: it is the 18 inches that count, and if a person from afar can more easily cross that last 18 inches, then so be it, it has got to be arranged. In such cases there may be little strategy in waiting for local Christians to do the job.
The full weight of this presses down on us when we recall that the vast bulk ( say 80%) of the non-Christian world is at the E-2 and E-3 cultural distance form every existing Christian. This fact in turn has profound implications for concrete arrangements in strategy.”
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