Source: Christian Headlines, July 5, 2022
According to The Traveling Team data cited by global evangelism ministry East-West, there are about 400,000 Christian missionaries worldwide. Among them, only 3.3 percent are focused on unreached people groups, otherwise identified as UPGs.
“When we say unreached, we’re not just talking about lostness; we’re talking about access. Unreached means that they don’t even have access to hear the gospel. There’s no church, no Christian, no Bible available … God has not just commanded us to make the gospel known among as many people as possible. He has commanded us to make the gospel known among all the peoples,” said pastor David Platt of McClean Bible Church in Washington DC, according to a blog posted to East-West’s website.
The Joshua Project, an organization that tracks evangelism efforts across the globe, states that people groups are categorized as unreached when less than 2 percent of those identify as evangelical Christian and less than 5 percent adhere to any form of Christianity.
While the earth currently has a population of over 7.7 billion people, about 3.2 billion are labeled unreached or least reached.
According to East-West, there are over 700,000 people groups, about 41.7 percent of the total population, labeled unreached.
The ministry also cited multiple reasons as to why these people groups remain unreached, such as physical, political, and cultural barriers.
Read the full article and/or a related article (Christian Post).
These claims and similar ones have been passed around for a while; do you find them helpful?
A few updates: The number of full-time foreign missionaries has increased to about 435,000 (per World Christian Database), plus a much higher number of national workers and who knows how many others could reasonably be counted as “laborers in the harvest.” We’ve not seen a good estimate for the number of tentmakers/BAM practitioners. Any idea? Let us know. Think the percentage focused on unreached would be the same? It may be difficult to measure.
A recent UN report projects world population will reach 8 billion in a few months. That report also says India is on course to surpass China as the most populous nation sometime in 2023. India is home to a larger unreached population than any other country (per Joshua Project). China’s in the top five, too, following Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. Of course, unreached people are found in nearly every country—probably including the one you live in.