Protestantism's

By Richard N. Ostling

In countless trips through the African bush, Missionaries Doug and Evelyn Knapp have, between them, survived hepatitis, malaria, typhoid fever, other tropical maladies and even an encounter with spear-wielding assailants. Their trials have not been in vain. In the past decade, a revival led by the Knapps in Tanzania has resulted in the baptism of 40,212 converts, 14,409 of them in the past year.

The energetic Knapps, agriculturalists sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention, are among the record total of 39,309 U.S. and Canadian Protestants engaged in overseas mission careers. Adding "short-term" workers, who usually put in stints of less than a year, the North American Protestant foreign legion numbers 67,242 (in contrast to 9,124 Roman Catholics). It is sponsored by 764 mission boards (of which the Knapps' is the largest), with a combined income -- largely from donations -- of $1.3 billion a year.

These statistics and many others are contained in the new Mission Handbook, an authoritative volume of data and analysis to be issued this month by a subunit of World Vision, a major evangelical relief agency based in Monrovia, Calif. The data show sizable increases in activity since the last Handbook, published eight years ago.

The remarkable interest in low-paying mission work seems to contradict studies indicating that high school and college graduates increasingly opt for high-status, high-paying jobs. But it is no surprise to the Rev. John Kyle of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in Madison, Wis., which sponsors evangelical groups at 800 secular campuses. Every third year, Kyle's organization sponsors missionary conventions at the University of Illinois, where North American collegians gather to consider overseas work. At the last meeting, in 1984, 4,683 students filed written pledges that they would go overseas, and 10,153 more vowed to pray about taking the step, double the commitments at the 1981 gathering. Says Kyle: "The reservoir of potential missionary candidates on the college campuses is astounding."

The escalation does not extend to all branches of Protestantism. Until World War II, mission endeavor was ruled by boards of such "mainline" denominations, affiliated with the National Council of Churches and Canadian Council of Churches, as the United Methodist and Presbyterian churches. But these groups have lately suffered a "precipitous decline" in overseas staffs, the Handbook reports, to less than half the total in the late 1960s. Since then, the expanding Evangelical and Fundamentalist boards, mostly independent of denominational control, have all but taken over.

The Rev. James Cogswell, head of the National Council of Churches, overseas division, says mainline denominations have consciously decided to send more cash and fewer people. "American missionaries overseas cost a lot of money," he explains, and it is "far better" to send support to workers in indigenous churches. Cogswell also stresses that quality is more important than quantity, charging that the conservatives often "brainwash" people with a "very American interpretation" of the Gospel.

The Evangelicals, of course, reject that characterization and, moreover, insist that no Protestant church has an excuse for pulling back when vast numbers of people are untouched by missionary work. Says Robert T. Coote of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in Ventnor, N.J., who wrote the main Handbook article: "The Christian Gospel is unique and needs to be known, and everyone has a right to hear it."

CHART: TEXT NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: TIME Chart by Joe Lertola.

CAPTION: SPIRITUAL SHIFT U.S. and Canadian Protestant career missionaries working abroad.

DESCRIPTION: Number of missionaries in 'Mainline' Churches, and Evangelicals and Independents on scale of 0 to 40,000 for the years 1953 to 1985, with background of man on steps of church preaching to people.

With reporting by JoAnn Lum/New York