UNREACHED PEOPLES AND DEFINING THE TASK
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Every Christian should live life with an open Bible and an open map.
Ignorance is bliss but it can also be deadly. One of the most dangerous misuses of Christian phrases I’ve heard recently is the overuse of the phrase, “unreached people group.” I’ve heard people use that phrase to talk about efforts to reach college campuses, friends, clubs, and neighborhoods. It is a term that has been used more and more in the Christian subculture to validate missional status quo rather than raise the alarm for people groups who are entirely cut off from the gospel.
Every Christian should live life with an open Bible and an open map.
The term "unreached" was made popular by mission leaders seeking to prioritize ethnic people groups with little or no exposure to the Gospel. Today, the term has become a catchword used by all kinds of ministries that do not necessarily focus on unreached people groups.
Ignorance is bliss but it can also be deadly. One of the most dangerous misuses of Christian phrases I’ve heard recently is the overuse of the phrase, “unreached people group.” I’ve heard people use that phrase to talk about efforts to reach college campuses, friends, clubs, and neighborhoods. It is a term that has been used more and more in the Christian subculture to validate missional status quo rather than raise the alarm for people groups who are entirely cut off from the gospel.
Josh Cooper, in this excerpt from his book Hold Fast, talks about God's plan to include all peoples in His plan of redemption.
Take a look at this religion profile about the People's Republic of China by International Students, Inc.
Don't know much about Hinduism? Read this short overview of the complexities of the Hindu beliefs.
What happens to those that never hear the gospel? Find compelling biblical answers to those questions.
What happens to sincere Muslims, Buddhist and Hindus and why do Christians believe that Jesus is the exclusive means for the salvation of all people.
If everyone is a missionary and everything we do is missions, everyone that is unreached will remain unreached.
There is something infinitely significant about the time in which we live, so we’d best keep tuned to the big picture of what God is doing. We can catch a glimpse of that big picture by keeping up with the latest global trends in the harvest force and the harvest fields.
We took an article by John Mott from 100 years ago about the technology and resources of the church to reach the world and compared it with that is available today.
Christianity is the single fastest growing religion in the world. For example, in AD 100 there were 360 non-believers for every believer. Today, there are only nine non-believers for every believer, and only four of those non-believers are from unreached people groups.
The world is growing at a rate of 1.31 percent per year and took just 12 years to add the last billion people. This is the shortest period of time in the history of the world for a billion people to be added to our population.
The top five most persecuted countries in the world according to Open Doors International are North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Maldives, and Bhutan.
According to Todd M. Johnson and the World Christian Encyclopedia, from AD33 to 1914 24 million Christians died for their faith. Just since AD1915 an additional 45 million Christians died for their faith in Christ. This means that more Christians were martyred in the 1900s than all the previous centuries combined.
The Global South: Ever Heard of Lafricasia? Despite what it may sound like, Lafricasia is not a disease. Instead, it is a term that describes the location of the world’s most Christianized area – Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Over the next 20 years, these continents will contain the largest Christian communities in the world.
The issue is not whether we have sufficient people or resources. The issue is where we choose to invest them. Will the Church continue to invest the vast majority of it’s resources inward? Or will we choose to obey, direct our resources and people toward God’s purposes for all nations?
One out of every five persons living on the earth is a Muslim. Perhaps more significantly, about 35% of all unreached people groups are dominantly Muslim.
When God gives you a task, it is infinitely important that you know the definition of the task. God has promised to reach all the nations of the earth and commissioned us as His ambassadors in that work. In order to be good stewards of this mission we must have a firm grip on the extent of the task, which, in the work of world missions, brings us to look closely at the terms that the Bible uses for the task. Namely, what does it mean to reach the nations?
This is a brief summary of the five major world religions and why they are unreached with the gospel.
If the command given by Jesus is to make disciples of all nations (or ethnic groups), then common sense would tell us our job is to find those nations (ethnic groups) that have not been discipled (taught to be followers of Christ). The vast majority of these unreached people live in an area of the world nicknamed the "10/40 window."
Multiply yourself as a mobilizer by teaching this simple tool to others.
Learn how to put a missions-conference-worth of material into a few simple illustrations for others.
Learn how to cast vision for the global harvest and explain the need for more laborers.
What happens to those that never hear the gospel? Find compelling biblical answers to those questions.