The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Author: S. Kent Parks and John Scott
Date: 05.07.2010
Category: World Faiths
Editor’s Note: This Cape Town 2010 Advance Paper has been written by S. Kent Parks (1) and John Scott as an overview of the topic to be discussed at the Multiplex session on “Missing Peoples: The Unserved ‘One-Fourth’ World.” Responses to this paper through the Lausanne Global Conversation will be fed back to the authors and others to help shape their final presentations at the Congress.
LOST SHEEP, LOST COINS, LOST PEOPLES
One day Jesus’ companions, the tax collectors and sinners, crowd around him to listen: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them… Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one…” (Luke 15). This crowd doesn’t have any trouble understanding Jesus. They know what it means to be lost.
Years later, in stunning visions revealed to him on the island of Patmos, the Apostle John sees a Lamb, looking as if it has been slain, standing in the center of the throne in heaven. Spontaneous worship breaks out: “You were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5).
The purchase price of blood has been paid, and in the heavenly vision Jesus is receiving the worship due him. The work is already done. Or is it?
How did Jesus intend for all these lost people, from every tribe, language, people and nation, to discover that He has already paid the price for them? In his stories about lost sheep and lost coins, Jesus reminds us that the most natural thing to do when something is lost is to go looking for it. Even if, in the case of sheep, it means leaving ninety-nine others behind to find the missing one. Jesus even tells us that the Shepherd is “happier about the one than about the 99 that have not strayed” (Matthew 18:13). Has that truth really gripped us?
The diversity of peoples around the heavenly throne in Revelation 5 compels us to ask:
When Jesus’ priorities for the lost and marginalized are ignored by His church, so are almost two billion people. Who is this forgotten fourth of the world’s population?
HIDDEN PEOPLES – THE FORGOTTEN FOURTH
At the historic 1974 Lausanne Congress, Ralph Winter shook the evangelical world by bringing the plight of “Hidden Peoples” to their attention:
Our exaltation about the fact that every country of the world has been penetrated has allowed many to suppose that every culture has by now been penetrated. This misunderstanding is a malady so widespread that it deserves a special name. Let us call it “people blindness”—that is, blindness to the existence of separate peoples within countries. (2)
These “separate peoples” are mostly Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist, and include significant urban populations. They have been described as unreached people groups, least-evangelized, least-reached peoples, and in what is possibly the most accurate and unsettling description of all, ignored peoples. Dr. Winter and others after him have tried to generate a global movement of the Church toward these peoples. Yet despite all the papers and discussions and conferences, today, 36 years later, this forgotten fourth without access to the gospel still makes up over 28% of the world’s population (3) and 41% of the individuals in the world are members of a people group with no viable church. (4)
To put this in perspective, Bill Gates had just graduated from high school and was about to enter Harvard University when Dr. Winter addressed the first Lausanne Congress in 1974. That same year the first advertisement for a personal computer appeared, with 1K of programmable memory, for $565. Today there may be as many as 2 billion computers in use, operated in the remotest of locations, with at least a million times as much memory as that first computer. Who could have imagined such staggering change back in 1974?
Why is it we have not seen a correspondingly dramatic change among Missing Peoples during this same period? What happened? Or more importantly, what did not happen? And why didn’t it happen?
CHALLENGES
Sadly we must admit that the primary reasons for this neglect lie within our global Christian community: we spend most of our time and resources on ourselves, we still suffer from “people blindness,” our priorities are elsewhere, and we are engaged in theological battles among ourselves. On top of this, the personal cost of ministry to these peoples is high, requiring workers to cross cultural, linguistic, sociological and religious barriers. And many of these peoples have been geographically distant as well. We’ll focus first on these and other external challenges.
External Challenges
Orality / Literacy: More than a billion adults in the world prefer to learn through oral means. Some have no other option. They continue to be isolated from the gospel, not by their ignorance, but by the Church’s continued insistence on the written word for evangelism and disciple-making.
Bible poverty: While the Church continues to focus on reaching majority populations that are similar to them, many people groups have yet to hear the good news of Jesus Christ in their own language. Language is not simply a matter of understanding—the identity of many people groups is wrapped up in their language. And where translations do exist, in various formats, distribution is often inadequate, especially outside the Global North.
Culture/Society: Resistance to outside influences helps insulate cultures from exposure to unhelpful intrusions, but also to the liberating truths of the gospel. Further, well-intentioned but poorly trained cross-cultural messengers sometimes end up inoculating their intended audience to the gospel by their methods. What appears to be resistance to the gospel may simply be a reaction to our approach rather than a rejection of Jesus.
And as churches we are o
ften blinded to our own cultural failings and injustices, focusing instead on the shortcomings of other nearby cultures. We are often unwilling to cross cultural barriers because of our conformity to our own culture, or our prejudice against communities who are different from us.
Political Isolation: Numerous governments restrict or forbid the evangelization of their citizens, and persecute believers inside the country. In one Middle Eastern nation, rewards are offered to anyone who exposes a prayer group. And workers are often unable to get to the peoples they wish to serve.
Religious isolation: Individual religious authorities or religious communities often do everything possible to prevent their members from being exposed to Christians and their message. Somali seekers put their lives in danger every time they listen to Christian radio broadcasts.
Geographical isolation: Many groups, e.g. Tibetans and nomads, live in remote locations, and have little communication with the outside world. This makes it difficult to send and support cross-cultural missionaries, and natural conditions like climate often prevent these missionaries from living in an area for an extended time.
Because the usual church mindset is focused on stationary facilities and programs, nomadic peoples pose a particular challenge. In the words of a Somali camel herder in Eastern Africa: “When you can put your Church on the back of my camel, then I’ll believe that Christianity is meant for us.”
Persecution and Terrorism: Terrorism and religious fundamentalism provide massive challenges to the spread of the gospel. Persecution of Christians results in the death of over 165,000 believers every year (500 a day). While many Christians are faithful to their Lord’s call in the face of such persecution, others back down out of fear.
Social Isolation: The caste system in South Asia is one example. Economic poverty is also a two-edged sword: the needs of the people can be overwhelming, and the extreme living conditions create personal challenges for Christian workers.
Migration: Today over 30 million political refugees (equal to the total population of Uganda or Peru) are displaced within their own countries, and over 100 million have fled to other countries. Economic refugees number in the millions.
Internal Challenges within the Body of Christ
In addition to these external challenges, and the internal ones noted above–“people blindness,” lack of priority given to Missing Peoples and the high personal cost of ministry–other powerful hindrances include:
Misuse of God’s resources. Christians still give only about 1% of our money to Christian causes. Of this money given to Christian causes, 95% is spent on the Church. Less than 1% is used to reach 28% of the world without access to the gospel. 90% of missionaries work among the 33% of the world that claims to be Christians. Only 2-4% of Christian cross-cultural witnesses serve this 28%.
Awareness is confused with progress: As the worldwide church has become increasing familiar with unreached peoples, the “10-40 window,” “World A” and date-oriented networks such as the AD 2000 movement, some have wrongly assumed that the needs of these peoples are already met. Others believe the numbers are exaggerated––there can’t be that many Missing Peoples. Still others have simply grown tired of the message and express a desire to move on to something else supposedly more relevant.
A Misunderstanding of “ethne”
Jesus tells us to make disciples of all ethne. The power of ethne (people group) imagery to focus people’s strategic thinking began to be used to re-define all kinds of strata of society as a “people group.” So young people, the disabled, prostitutes, or taxi drivers in certain cities (which are actually segments or a strata of society) began to be defined as a “people group.” But this definition is not really an ethne. A better understanding of the term ethne would correspond to an ethno-linguistic/ethno-cultural people group which includes the various strata of youth, urban, rural, rich, poor, disabled, etc.
“Christian” culture as opposed to Gospel truth
Many writers have illustrated the truth that lost people often reject our trappings for the gospel as opposed to rejecting Christ. Jesus is so hidden in our cultural and theological wrappings (including materialism, phariseeism, denominationalism, etc) that they don’t seem to have any chance to hear the basic gospel. One of the main challenges in reaching the unreached is being willing to let go of our ethnic and Christian cultural baggage as we struggle for a standard of only biblically necessary truth in sharing the gospel and seeking to make disciples of the unreached.
Theological battles among ourselves: Differing views about evangelism and eschatology have led to misunderstandings and divisions in the Christian community, draining off energy that could be going into ministry. Most mission practitioners agree that “word” and “works” must go hand in hand. (5) But in the absence of dialogue that might have led to mutual understanding, differing beliefs about what this should look like in practice have generated unhelpful caricatures (6) from all sides of the conversation.
What does it mean to bear witness to the Good News? Those focused on the urgency of presenting a verbal salvation message are often characterized as promoting an overly simplistic, truncated gospel. And those focused on the priority of justice and social renewal are seen as detracting from the chief task Jesus gave his followers to present the message of personal salvation.
Differing views on eschatology follow in the same vein. Some take Matthew 24:14 as their primary framework for building a theology and strategy of mission: “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.” For them the fundamental question is: What can we do to evangelize the world most quickly and hasten the Lord’s return? Others are wary of what appears to be shallowness in theology and ministry, questioning the belief that we can hasten the Lord’s return by our efforts. They also wonder whether big strategies to evangelize the world are led more by the Holy Spirit or by an entrepreneurial spirit. Some cannot imagine doing ministry without the correctives of theological reflection and contextualization, while others question whether all that theory ever results in action.
A WAY FORWARD
If urgency is only related to time and evangelism is restricted to verbal proclamation, surely it is inadequate. Or if urgency relates only to matters of justice and social concerns, and evangelism is restricted to deeds, it is equally inadequate. But there is a way forward that provides a meaningful synthesis, built on the following beliefs:
Matthew 24:14 is both a statement of what God will do and of what will happen when Christ’s body is obedient. God is looking for people who will be on the front lines with Him as He fulfills this. But our disobedience can delay its fulfillment. Israel experienced this with the 10 spies and the 40-year delay caused by their disobedience, bred of timidity and rebellion.
Thus, obedience-based discipleship is essential. Unless reproducing congregations of obeying disciples emerge to help transform their society, then our efforts are not only inadequate, they are counterfeit. Jesus’ command is to make disciples of people groups (ethnê), not create clubs that meet on Sunday.
While this discipleship process is always costly and takes a lifetime to develop fully, real change can begin to happen quickly, as followers are taught to obey in word and deed in their community. Actual movements have emerged in China, South Asia and Africa that are rapid, deep, and transformational. (See below)
The Spirit calls us to follow him on a macro-level even as each of us serves locally. God is a God of order and he is equally able to lead in both micro- and macro-planning. Yet any plans, if not inspired by the Holy Spirit, are useless.
Most importantly, the fact that the forgotten fourth are missing the joy of knowing and loving Jesus for even another day must create in us a sense of urgency. Our urgency comes from the fact that we are so in love with Jesus that we want to introduce every people group to Him as soon and as fully as possible––to give people access to abundant life in Jesus and enable them to escape their powerless, futile lives outside of him, now and in eternity (Ephesians 4.19ff).
Lessons Being Learned
The challenge of reaching these Missing Peoples is huge. But it has compelled some to rethink radically their approaches and to pray fervently for breakthroughs that would lead to discipleship that is deep, transformational and community-wide. Some of the lessons being learned from new approaches to ministry among least-reached peoples are counterintuitive and defy conventional missiological wisdom (7).
1. Those who look like the wrong people to start with may be the right people
2. Trust the Scriptures to speak (even among people who have no Bible background)
3. Trust ordinary people to do extraordinary things
4. Expect reproduction through multiplication, not addition
5. Expect the hardest places to yield the greatest results
Reflecting on these lessons could enable us as representatives of the global Body of Christ to be catalysts for effective ministry among the world’s Missing Peoples. As we consider our own contexts, which of these counter-intuitive lessons might we adapt and apply to the ministries we are already involved in?
Transformational Movements to Christ
As a result of putting such lessons into practice, amazing things are happening among least reached peoples, especially in China, South Asia and Africa. God is raising up multiplying groups of Christ-obeyers who are changing their communities, unencumbered by programs, buildings or administrative overhead. Over 100 such movements have emerged in recent years.
These Christ-ward movements, also called transformational Church Planting Movements (CPMs), blend all aspects of the gospel—encompassing social transformation, verbal sharing of the Gospel, obedience-based discipleship, miracles, worship and more. For example, in parts of Latin America, cell churches have stepped in to provide health, welfare and education where governments have failed to do so (Jenkins, The Next Christendom).
Three characteristics of such movements are reproducibility, synergistic mesh of ministries, and sacrifice and difficulty (see Garrison, Church Planting Movements). As cross-cultural witnesses enter a group and people respond, new congregations of disciples emerge, often meeting in homes. These congregations are taught to obey the Scriptures, to start new congregations and to minister in their community and beyond. Emerging disciples are trained to be leaders in the congregation and in the community, and to train immediately other leaders who will train other leaders. For more information on the characteristics of transformational church planting movements that have been documented in a wide variety of different contexts across the globe, see the following articles:
What God is doing in the Hindu World (2622 Missing Peoples, 987 million individuals (8))
Nepal: The strong breakthrough in Nepal that crosses caste lines throughout the country is one of the amazing works of God. In 1950, there were no known believers. The first church was formed in 1959 with 29 believers (9); there were an estimated 7,400 Christians in 1970; (10) by 1985 there were about 50,000 believers. At the climax of persecution in 1990 there were 200,000; (11) 574,000 in 2000; 904,000 in 2010. (12)
India: In a place historically known as a “missionary graveyard,” a church planting movement among the Bhojpuri people over 20 years resulted in more than 80,000 new churches and over 4 million baptized, obeying believers. (13)
Madhya Pradesh State in India: a church planting movement produced 4,000 congregations in seven years. (14)
What God is doing in the Buddhist World (575 Missing Peoples, 617 million individuals) (15)
Mongolia: In 1989 perhaps four former Buddhist believers could be found. A church planting movement in the 1990’s in Outer Mongolia produced more than 10,000 followers of Jesus while a subsequent movement in Inner Mongolia has resulted in more than 50,000 new believers. (16)
Thailand: In central Thailand a worker started with community and economic development and continued with intentional church planting, leading to the beginning of transformation in the local community.
What God is doing in China
In 1949 there were some 1.5 million Protestants in China. Now there may be more than 100 million or more Christians (17) who have grown in number through sacrifice and commitment in sharing their faith, prayer and worship despite persecution.
What God is doing in Africa (21)
What God is doing in the Muslim World (3354 Missing Peoples, 1.46 billion individuals (22))
Turkey: In 1960 there were 10 known believers. In the year 2000, there were an estimated 2,000. In 2010 the World Christian Database shows 14,000 believers. (23)While many see openness, there is still a long way to go.
Bangladesh: From 1998 to 2003, the Isa Jamaat Movement produced more than 250,000 Muslim background believers worshiping in an estimated 8,000 contextualized churches. (24)
The Arabian Peninsula: Progress has been slow in this area since Samuel Zwemer’s efforts beginning in 1890. Key prayer focus upon this area since the 1990s has resulted in some beginnings. Despite the challenges, there are an estimated 74,000+ Arabian Peninsula believers. (25)
STOP SPIRITUAL INJUSTICE
While these stories are encouraging, over one quarter of the peoples of the world still have no opportunity to hear the message of God’s love or see it demonstrated in action. Dare we call this lack of response on our part, which leads to needless suffering and hopelessness on their part, anything less than “spiritual injustice?” Today these Missing Peoples have virtually no choice with respect to the gospel. They have yet to follow the One who said, “Follow Me,” not because they have rejected His call, but because they have never heard it.
Whenever someone goes missing, especially children and youth, the whole community quickly mobilizes to search for them. Why hasn’t that happened with all these Missing Peoples? What does it say about our priorities as a global Church when 3% of workers and less than 1% of the finances given to mission go toward seeking out these Missing Peoples?
Most people come to faith through a relationship with someone they know and trust. Yet over 8 out of 10 Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists do not personally know a single Christ-follower. What are the implications for the Kingdom? Every day which passes without reaching out in friendship to these Missing Peoples means they miss out on the opportunities we all take for granted—to know Jesus personally, to be filled with his joy and peace, to have his Spirit in us, to experience abundant life and have his power to help change society.
Imagine the impact if, rather than simply continuing to justify our own arenas of ministry, we invested our collective energy in addressing this spiritual injustice, and said, “Yes, we as a worldwide church are not going to allow this to continue.”
LOST AND FOUND? NOT YET!
Remember the Apostle John’s vision of the slain Lamb? Later he saw another vision of “a great multitude… from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb… They serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9-17)
What a beautiful picture. But have we missed the trauma that makes the triumph in this vision so powerful? These peoples have been hungry and thirsty. They have not had enough food or clean water. The sun has beat down on them with scorching heat. They have lacked protection from the elements. They have had no shepherd to lead them to fresh water. They have had much to weep over. How powerfully that describes the Missing Peoples in today’s world.
Listen again to Ralph Winter’s words to the first Lausanne Congress in 1974:
We must have radically new efforts of cross-cultural evangelism in order to effectively witness to 2387 million people. And we cannot believe that we can continue virtually to ignore this highest priority. (26)
We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of continuing to ignore these people. Yet this is exactly what has happened. Here we are thirty-six years later, and many of these same groups are still Missing Peoples.
At the most recent major Lausanne gathering, the 2004 Forum in Pattaya, Thailand, the participants affirmed that:
Major efforts of the church must be directed toward those who have no access to the gospel. The commitment to help establish self-sustaining churches within 6000 remaining unreached people groups remains a central priority. [bolding ours]
What does it tell us today if our “commitment to help establish self-sustaining churches within 6000 remaining unreached people groups” has made so little impact on our behavior or on these communities?
What will it take for us to make this central priority truly central to the mission of the Lausanne movement and the worldwide church? What are we willing to commit ourselves to—individually, organizationally, regionally, and collectively?
What will it take for us to re-allocate the resources available to us so that these Missing Peoples no longer have to face a hopeless, Christ-less life now and in eternity? What relationships, skills, capacity, intercession and influence are we willing to bring to bear?
And finally, what will it take for us to make this the last Lausanne Congress where we need to highlight Missing Peoples? Not because we’ve given up and turned our backs on them, but because they are no longer missing and have taken their places around the throne as priests to serve our God.
The two billion people who make up these groups don’t know they are missing. But Jesus does. He knows every one of their names. And he is inviting us to join him in places like India, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh where the highest concentration of unreached peoples live—reaching across culture and language, discomfort and danger, and often great distance, to befriend them and share the good news of the Kingdom.
Why should we do this?
Not because it is our duty,
though it is.
Not because it will bring eternal life to many,
though it will.
Not because it will improve the living conditions of the poor,
though it will.
Not because it will improve stability in the world’s institutions,
though it will.
Not because it will improve environmental stewardship,
though it will.
Not because we will be rewarded,
though we will.
We should disciple the nations because Jesus is worthy to receive their honor, glory and praise.
(Revelation 5:12 and 7:9) From Joshua Project, “Status of World Evangelization – 2004”
© The Lausanne Movement 2010
Keywords: Missing peoples, hidden peoples, Ralph Winter, orality, Bible poverty, isolation, culture, resources, ethne, Matthew 24:14, discipleship, church planting, transformation, injustice
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Views: 82906
Comments: 33
Recommendations: 9
Conversation Post Comment
United States
I find it interesting to hear the various stories coming from the Muslim world where so many seem to be getting the Good News of Jesus through dreams. If you hear those stories from one or maybe two people, you can often discount them, but it seems that the stories are coming in from several places around the Muslim world. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is working in places where believers simply cannot go due to the overwhelming persecution.
04.11.2011
United States
@ gwu_stevens:
The barriers are not insurmountable which is a wonderful thing. These people need Jesus just as much as we do if not more and I am gladdenned to hear plans on how best to approach this problem. I enjoyed hearing from a person at Sat 7 who broadcasts the Gospel message into Muslim countries from beyond their borders. This ministry is a blessing and can operate by bypassing the barrier of geography. Jesus speaking in dreams without our aid just tells us that we need to be at the ready when these people seek our help in understanding the message.
21.11.2011
United States
@ TomTharpGW:
These closed countries are doing more and more to stamp out efforts to spread the Gospel via technology. Pakistan recently created a list of obscene words that cannot be sent via text message to or within the country; one of the terms was Jesus Christ. Obviously this is not an obscene word, so the only reason to outlaw it is to stop Christian mission work from being done.
But we have to take heart and remember that every time the world closes a door on the Gospel, the Holy Spirit opens up another door that we have to be looking out for.
21.11.2011
United States
@ gwu_stevens:
No matter how Orwelian they try to become they can’t stop single individuals from sharing the Gospel with each other. Even when the punishment is Death by punji stick people will still spread the word by mouth. We need to be making and equiping disciples to go into all these places where we are not welcome. People of the ethnicity and dialect who will be able to move uninhibited.
22.11.2011
United States
@ gwu_stevens:
We join you in praising God that He does indeed continue to give dreams and visions to Muslims -- and people of other religions. In the vast majority of the stories from around the world, God seems to be sticking to His main plan - He sends someone to interpret those dreams. As we train cross-cultural witnesses to go, we train them to know they will face persecution. God’s Word tells us that fact. So, yes, the Holy Spirit is working now as he has forever by both sending visions followed by sending people to interpret God and His dreams in places that are very challenging. In fact, if we believe the Holy Spirit, there are no places His followers cannot go -- only prices we may disobediently refuse to pay. So, let’s celebrate the dreams and visions -- and those who obey God by being like Daniel by "showing up" in spite of danger to tell people what these visions mean -- and who Jesus is.
15.06.2012
United States
As far as unreached and hidden people are concerned I like what Lesslie Newbegin said in the book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, "Christian Churches have taken to fighting over the remaining athiests and agnostics instead of attempting to convert those of other faiths." If this is true then it is a huge loss for us as Christians and for the people we should be converting. The problem that Newbegin says is that the Christians are often not nearly as devout or good as those of the other religions in their neighborhoods. So, before we can reach others we have to take back Christians and get them to stand up for Christ as much as Buddhists are standing up for Buddha. The we can approach the missing fourth with some hope of success.
21.11.2011
United States
To call these people the ignored peoples is a challenging statement because it recognizes how we have put our monies and energies into less important ’projects’ instead of focusing on God’s Mission. 95% of the churches’ money goes to the church while only 1% is spent on making disciples of the quarter of the world that has never heard the name of Jesus?? Wow. We have to be better stewards.
04.10.2011
Mexico
Thank you for this challenging paper. The lack of progress since 1974 and the lack of Christian resources being spent to take the gospel to those who have never heard it are cause for corporate repentance. I hope that we may hear more at Cape Town 2010 about the strategies that have been proving fruitful among unreached peoples recently, as well as ideas about how to encourage individual Christians, churches and missionary organizations reach out to those who are currently beyond the reach of the gospel. For the sake of clarity, what do the 1% of Christian and 2-4% of missionaries include? Do they represent all Christian money worldwide and all cross-cultural missionaries world-wide? For example, would they include the work of India Inland Mission, which sends thousands of Indian missionaries to do pioneer work amongst unreached Hindus in the north of India?
13.10.2010
United States
@ Charlie_Fletcher:
Once you get down to that level of granularity it becomes a little problematic for the accuracy of what are essentially global statistics. The case of the Indian missionaries would "depend." If they are working cross-culturally, then yes, they would be included in that general stat. If they are not working cross-culturally, then no, they would not. But those kinds of estimates are generally made at a national level and then aggregated to regional/global.
13.10.2010
Mexico
@ justinlong:
Thanks for your reply Justin. I’m just getting around to some post-congress replies. I agree that we can’t expect compete accuracy in every detail of these lists, given the complexity and dynamic nature of the task. At the same time, the devil’s in the detail, as the saying goes. If we can’t be confident about the accuracy of the research at the granular level, it’s difficult to affirm the global estimates. With the benefit of hindsight after the CT2010 session on unreached and unengaged people groups, hearing that more than 100 updates and corrections were offered to make the list more accurate, I was left wondering how the list initially presented at the congress was researched. On a more positive note, it was marvellous that so much additional information could be collected at the congress, and hopefully, as one of the fruits of gathering leaders representing the whole church, the partnerships and contacts arising from CT2010 will help provide a clearer picture with regard to unreached and unengaged people groups. I hope the updated list will be made available soon.
24.11.2010
United States
Thanks for this paper. We need to be continually reminded of this until they are no longer lost. Early in the Lausanne movement, there was much contrition and repentance over the fact that so few resources and effort was going into reaching the missing peoples, an example would be LOP 4 on Muslim Evangeliziation. Since then there has been an increased effort in some areas but your paper still points to the reality of huge imbalances and people not being reached, or even trying to be reached.
Guilt is not a good motivator but we must still be called to repentance over the situation until we examine our priorities and make the adjustments to reach them.
Jesus is worthy.
17.10.2010
Jordan
I am intrigued about the fact that 95% of our giving goes to church internally while we should be focusing on external work of the Church and believers. I think it’s a big challenge to make a paradigm shift in many concepts: giving, looikng at scattered groups, development of evangelistic methods. Great article.
16.10.2010
United States
I am so grateful for the way you have articulated the lessons you have learned when it comes to the work of reaching the world’s unreached peoples. While I am sure they still work at times, I have grown increasingly frustrated by the old ways that are still presented as models for missions to unreached peoples. Much of the training I received in preparation for spending a summer teaching EFL at a college in an unreached nation was unhelpful. (For a great explanation of some of the changes in missionary models, I suggest Fritz Kling’s book, “The Meeting of the Waters...”, which came out in the last year.)
One key you mentioned here in the lessons you’ve learned is so important: “Disciple to conversion, not convert to make disciples.” Yes! This is so important. It means that we teach people what it means to be a Christian, even before they have been born again or made a decision for Christ. It means letting go of the agenda to get people to “pray the sinner’s prayer,” and instead, invest time in modeling and exploring Kingdom values and traits.
Of course, this requires more time than handing out a tract and inviting someone to pray. It requires months and sometimes years of investment in genuine friendship. It requires us to take time and become known for our love, compassion, patience, joy, etc. And it probably means that we do not have large numbers to report as our trophies of the mission field. Yet it is the way. As you said, “No mass evangelism so the masses will hear,” and, “A new/inexperienced insider is more effective than a highly trained, mature outsider.” This is counter-intuitive to our usual models of missions and evangelism, but it is, I think, more effective today.
Thank you for the great paper. I’m looking forward to hearing more and learning from others at Lausanne!
16.10.2010
United States
Kudos for a powerfully written piece on this essential topic. As we are together in Cape Town, may God pour out on us a spirit of repentance that we may weep between the altar and the courts. May we not finish weeping until our rebellion is purged and there is no more fight left in us to focus on ourselves.
15.10.2010
Italy
Thank you for such a thoughtful and passionate paper!
I would encourage to also add something of the "missing peoples" who come to "Christian" nation to study as an international student or as a refugee. As a Brazilian missionary serving in Italy (supposed to be a "Christian" nation), I have been finding wonderful possibilities to share the gospel with international students and refugees from the "missing people." They might come back to their country as a much more equipped missionary (knowing language and culture) than I would ever be there.
Blessings!
13.10.2010
United States
@ Sarah_Breuel:
Thanks Sarah. You’re absolutely right: reaching out to "diasporas" (Google for diaspora missiology, and you’ll get a lot of links) is a critical part of reaching unreached peoples. In fact (not to toot my own horn--grin) but I recently talked with a guy who’s doing ministries to refugees from unreached countries in this interview: http://www.justinlong.org/2010/09/2010-podcast-no-8-trent-deloach-and-ministries-to-refugees/. Many European countries are gaining large populations of immigrants & refugees, all of whom come from these kinds of situations. It’s a growing opportunity to bless people!
13.10.2010
United States
On behalf of the authors of the paper, thank you to each of you for taking the time to respond to this paper. We look forward to seeing you in Cape Town and continuing our prayer, discussion, and strategy development there! See you in just a few days!
11.10.2010
Netherlands
This paper is a right challenge to the Church, to Christians, to me. Thank you! It also brings sadness, for it seems so hard to get people interested in others other than themselves. There so often are so many ’excuses’ of things not quite right yet, to reach out to others that do not know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. And then, in several countries, there’s the effects of tolerance. Binding people, keeping them quiet. How do people fall in love with Jesus again? And then stand up and speak out.
Thank you for the encouragement of all the examples. It encourages to pray and praise God.
07.10.2010
Mexico
Mes siento muy retado a ver mi compromiso y mi respuesta hacia la proclamación del evangelio. Sobre todo porque muchas veces se nos olvida la razón de compartir..."Debemos discipular a las naciones porque Jesús es digno de recibir la honra, la gloria y la alabanza de ellas"
05.10.2010
United States
This paper is so challenging. We are in a world where everything is so centered around ourselves, including the church and missions. It makes me so sad to see these statistics of how few of our resources and finances are going towards the unreached-- this should be the place where MOST of our resources are going! We need to be reminded that reaching lost people is GOD’S mission and priority. If we really love God with all our heart, it will be our priority and mission too. It is so true that the greatest reason to seek and save the lost is because Jesus is worthy to recieve the WHOLE world’s praise! That is something I need to remember.
I love the emphasis of making disciples, not just converts. Missions is not limited to simply proclamation, improving living conditions, or social justice. These things are good and are a part of mission, but I think the greatest priority needs to be making followers of Jesus who have a personal faith and will be able to share and spread that faith in their own worlds-- disciples, who make disciples... The Spiritual injustice in the world is more critical than the social injustice. The greatest change occurs by the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself sent us to "make disciples of all nations." He, who is our Lord and greatest Love, should be our motive and source of bringing the lost to Him.
I am definitely challenged to constantly keep my passion for missions of the unreached in line with the heart of Jesus!
04.10.2010
United States
Thank you for the paper! This so stirred my heart. Father give us understanding and revelation that we will grasp the situation. We ask for strategies and blueprints from Heaven. Father break our hearts for "missing people", show each one of us our part, in Jesus’ Name. Holy Spirit thank you that You are our Helper. I ask for a birthing of excitement to partner with Heaven.
Marguerite
03.10.2010
Australia
One point that we should not forget is that many of the unreached people live in the WEST. There is a huge opportunity and responsibility for the Christians in the West.
Perhaps it is easy to think that those in the West are minimal compared to the ones who are overseas; however, we should remember that each unreached person has family and friends overseas. These can be reached through the relatives who have immigrated.
Mission has now shifted from overseas to home and overseas. However, the perception of most evangelicals is that the missionfield is only overseas.
Another point is that a new phenomenon is happening....Millions of unreached people from Islamic background are leaving Islam and the majority are becoming Christians. There is a big need to disicple them and train them to be evangelists to others.
The unreached are becoming the evangelists and disciplers. It is no more us and them but it is TOGETHER in Christ.
The whole paradigm is changing and a new situation is developing globally. Churches and missions here and overseas should wake up and prepare to become welcomers, encouragers and disciplers.
28.09.2010
United Kingdom
SUCH a challenging paper...thank you. I would love us as the worldwide church to have much more regular education on this subject, leading to action of course. I share the suggestion that we perhpas need to become increasingly ’strategic’ in how we accomplish this.
21.09.2010
Jamaica
Wow! This presentation is a rallying point for some serious commitment. Lost coin, lost sheep, missing people – why are we spending so much time on the 99? Because we have been programmed to do so. That’s what church with 4 walls and ministry schedules does. Discipled differenetly we would respond differently. Recognising the problem, how do we address it? Does everyone suddenly get up and go find these people? Certainly we can’t! So how do we decide who does? And, when that is decided - should we not support them by providing them with the resources they need, including the much needed prayer support?
When we gather in a month’s time to share and reflect may God give us direction and infuse us with the spirit of wisdom so we may discern who should in fact “go!”.
17.09.2010
United States
Excellent paper. Thank you for it. I wonder if one of the reasons why there are still hidden peoples-unreached peoples is that when we give our lives to Christ we are looking to him to make our lives happy and blessed. We are not necessarily entering into a love relationship where we want to learn what inspires and moves him. We don’t think about our hearts being shaped like his heart, his passions becoming our passions. Not everyone is wired to go to the hard places where a lot of these unreached are. However, I am sure there are many that are potentially wired that way, but they never thought about letting Jesus shape their hearts and their desires in his image.
14.09.2010
Ghana
Much thanks to the authors for this informative article that connected the start of the people-group movement to where we are today in relation to reaching those who have no access to the Gospel. God bless the writers for their thorough understanding of the subject.
13.09.2010
United States
This has been the most challenging and stimulating advance paper I’ve read yet. I share your urgency about missing peoples, and appreciate the vigor with which you make the argument.
I especially appreciate your point that Bible Study is about discovery and obedience, not preaching and knowledge. We must learn new paradigms in which we as missionaries stop "spoon-feeding" the "right" answers to indigenous believers. We must help them discover truth in Scripture for themselves, trusting the Holy Spirit in the process. This may lead to conclusions that are uncomfortable to our own sensibilities! We also must emphasize obedience - the living out of the mandates of Scripture - rather than simply collecting knowledge without transforming daily life and behavior.
Letting the lost lead Bible Studies is a brilliant concept, and one that many might be uncomfortable with. But if we trust the Holy Spirit to draw seekers and enlighten truth, what better way to get people actively engaged? We must relinquish control. Our role should be that of prayer warrior, friend, and - here’s the key - good question-asker. When missing peoples begin engaging Jesus and the word, they will have questions. Rather than giving the answers ourselves, let’s ask them good questions in return - questions that point them back to the Scriptures and to Jesus himself! We can’t shortcut the process!
I personally am excited to rise to the challenge of missing peoples - the vigorous challenge you present here. I am currently gathering a team of believers who will address that challenge amongst Arabic speakers.
19.08.2010
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