The memorial service for Dr. Ralph D. Winter has been scheduled for Sunday, June 28, in the main sanctuary of Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, Calif.

The service had been given a tentative June 27 date after the influential missiologist’s death this past Wednesday but was confirmed for June 28 on Friday.

News of Winter’s passing has been trickling steadily to believers across the world and among the thousands who were inspired enough by his visions to contribute toward the establishment of the U.S. Center for World Mission.

“His vision of the advance of the gospel was breathtaking,” recalled pastor and author John Piper, who had Winter as a professor during his time at Fuller Seminary.

Winter, who founded USCWM and William Carey International University, is widely regarded as one of the key factors behind the major shift of perspective in the mission movement – a shift from going to countries and individuals to penetrating “unreached peoples,” or those who have been bypassed.

He was named by Time magazine in 2005 as one of America’s 25 most influential Evangelicals and founded and served several organizations, including the International Society for Frontier Missiology and the Frontier Mission Fellowship, among others.

Late last year, Winter received the Lifetime of Service Award at the North American Mission Leaders Conference, a major annual mission gathering co-sponsored by The Mission Exchange and CrossGlobal Link.