Ralph D. Winter
| Ralph D. Winter | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 8, 1924 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Died | May 20, 2009 (aged 84) Pasadena, California, United States |
| Education |
California Institute of Technology, B.S. in Civil Engineering Columbia University, M.A. in TESL Princeton Theological Seminary, B.Div. Cornell University, Ph.D. in Linguistics, Anthropology, Mathematical Statistics |
| Occupation | Missiologist, scholar, professor |
| Spouse(s) | Roberta Helm Barbara Scotchmer |
| Parent(s) | Hugo H. Winter (civil engineer) and Hazel Patterson |
Ralph Dana Winter (December 8, 1924 – May 20, 2009) was an American missiologist and Presbyterian missionary who helped pioneer Theological Education by Extension, raised the debate about the role of the church and mission structures and became well known as the advocate for pioneer outreach among unreached people groups. He was the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission (USCWM), William Carey International University, and the International Society for Frontier Missiology.
His 1974 presentation at the Congress for World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland - an event organized by American evangelist Billy Graham - was a watershed moment for global mission.
It was during this presentation that Winter shifted global mission strategy from a focus on political boundaries to a focus on distinct people groups. Winter argued that instead of targeting countries, mission agencies needed to target the thousands of people groups worldwide, over half of which have not been reached with the gospel message.
Billy Graham once wrote: “Ralph Winter has not only helped promote evangelism among many mission boards around the world, but by his research, training and publishing he has accelerated world evangelization.”
In 2005, Winter was named by Time magazine as one of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. Dr. Ray Tallman, shortly after Winter's death, described him as "perhaps the most influential person in missions of the last 50 years and has influenced missions globally more than anyone I can think of."
Winter grew up in the Los Angeles area. His father, Hugo, was a self-trained engineer who ended up leading a division of the L.A. planning department with 1,200 engineers under his leadership and was instrumental in the development of the greater L.A. Freeway system. When World War II broke out, Ralph was too young to enlist, so he studied for just two and a half years at Caltech and earned his B.S. degree, in order to join the U.S. Navy’s pilot training program. Before he finished that training, the war ended and he was discharged, but his service in the Navy helped pay for his further education. He then went on to earn his M.A. at Columbia University, and Ph.D. at Cornell University, and then a B.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary. With childhood friend Dan Fuller (son of revival preacher Charles E. Fuller), he also studied at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., the first semester the school was open in 1946. He would later teach there.
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