News & Stories

Alliance Friend Ralph Winter Dies

May 22, 2009

Ralph Winter, founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, developer of the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement study program, and long-time Alliance partner in missions and friend died at his home in Pasadena, California, Wednesday, May 20. He was 84.  Winter, who battled with cancer, was surrounded by family and friends at the time of his passing.

 Winter’s relationship with The Alliance dates back to the 1960s, when he recognized The Alliance as one of the few mission agencies encouraging missionary work by overseas churches, and doing it right. His groundbreaking academic on missions, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, is required curriculum for Ministerial Study Program students in the C&MA’s Church Leadership Academy .  

 A “modern day William Carey and Hudson Taylor,” as described by one friend, Winter lived his entire life to bring the gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God to every last people group on the planet. In his admiration for The Alliance, Winter said, “In the United States in the last half-century, no one denominational mission board has a better record in starting mission-minded overseas churches than The Christian and Missionary Alliance.”