Serving Simple Churches to Reach the Ends of the Earth
Reaching Unreached People Groups
Why the Unreached?
It is our mandate! Acts 1:8 says: "But
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will
be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the
ends of the earth."
It is at the ends of the earth
that we find the unreached people groups who still do not have access
to the gospel. Up to this point in missions history, we have left this
task to the institutional church and missions organizations. It is time
for change!
What does Acts 1:8 mean in regards to where we do mission?
- Jerusalem = Our own culture and community
- Judea & Samaria = Cultures and communities that are our neighbors.
- Ends of the Earth = Cultures and communities in which we must learn their language and culture in order for them to understand us and for us to relate to them.
Mathew 24:14 - "And
this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
The word nations in this verse does not mean a political nation, it means ethnic groups or tribal groups - that is how God sees the world.
This verse should direct us towards the most strategic areas in which to take the gospel of the kingdom – those ethnic groups who have not had the gospel of the kingdom preached to them as a testimony!
We are called to finsish the task by making disciples of all
nations.
There are currently 11,259 people groups in the world. 6,530 of them are unreached.
What does unreached mean?
An unreached people group is a people group or ethnic group, within which there is no viable indigenous church or churches with sufficient strength, resources, and commitment to sustain and ensure the continuous multiplication of churches. In other words they are out of reach of the church to bring the gospel to them!
Most of the unreached live withing what is known as the 10/40 window. But this is rapidly changing as ethnic people groups from these regions are moving here to the USA as well as other open nations.
Visit House2Harvest Network's Researching Unreached People Groups Page to learn more about the unreached.
