One of my heroes died last week. Ralph Winter was 84. Cancer.

I never met him, but his ideas changed my life. I know we hear the “changed my life” line all the time these days—but it’s really true this time.

Who was Ralph Winter? I get tired just thinking about all the man did in his lifetime. The short list of his accomplishments makes me feel lazy.

– husband, father, grandfather, missionary, missiologist, scholar, radical

– he coined the phrase “unreached people groups” in his epic address during the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974—changing forever the way we look at our world and do missions

– civil engineering degree from Cal Tech, M.A. from Columbia University in teaching English as a second language, Ph.D. in structural linguistics from Cornell University, and a theological degree from Princeton Seminary

– ordained Presbyterian minister

– founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, Frontier Mission Fellowship, William Carey International University, International Society for Frontier Missiology, Theological Education by Extension (TEE), Institute for the Study of the Origins of Disease

– developed the 15-week Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course—over 70,000 have taken the Perspectives course

– missionary to Guatemala for 10 years

– the first professor at Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Mission, now the School of Intercultural Studies.

Winter’s Mission Frontiers Magazine was one of the few Christian publications that I actually read cover to cover for years.

Amazing man. Thousands went to the mission field, millions heard the gospel, and multitudes will be in heaven because of his lifework.

So, what are you doing with your life besides Facebooking and watching American Idol?