REACHING THE UNREACHED
No chance of hearing the good news.
The least reached are the people of the world who have no chance of hearing the good news about Jesus Christ. They have no churches nearby, no Bibles in their language, and no witnesses that can tell them the good news about the Kingdom of God. 80% of Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in the world today do not know one single Christian.
God’s heart aches for this injustice. It is not right that Jesus died for people and they do not know that they can receive His forgiveness. The Bible is full of scriptures talking about how God wants to reconcile all people and tribes back to Him. Missions are not a man-made ministry to keep us busy, it is the command by God to see His glory cover the world as the waters cover the sea (Hab 2:14).
Where?
When discussing the least reached, we often talk about the 10/40 window. This term refers to a geographical window extending from latitude 10°N to 40°N of the equator. These countries make up Northern Africa, the Middle East, and almost all of Asia. Roughly two thirds of the world population live here and most of them are Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim.
Although countries in this window are not the only places that are home to unengaged and unreached people groups, it does give an impression of the cultures, societies, and religious groups that have not yet had the opportunity to hear about their Savior.
What can I do?
There are three main ways to spread the gospel into these areas. They are ‘send’, ‘go’, and ‘pray’.
At different times in your life God may be asking you to participate in different or multiple ways. But as Christians we are always called to participate in missions.
Send.
Be someone who sends missionaries out into the field. Support financially and practically, be a spokesperson for them in your congregation.
The life of a missionary can be challenging and we need support from people and congregations at home that are actively involved in our work.
The Unreached
Go.
Be the feet on the ground. Doing what Jesus commanded us: going into all the world, baptizing and teaching. How can they know if no one goes? Being Jesus's hands and feet often comes at a high cost. The unreached are not just unreached, they are often also hard to reach.
Pray.
There are seasons for sending and there are seasons for going, but we can always be praying. Adopt a people group to pray for regularly, introduce them to your small group, and pray for the least reached together.
Learn about the people you are praying for. What is their life like? What do they need? Prayer is so powerful and opens doors for God to do miracles. Pray that more workers will be sent and that hearts will be opened.
Great resources to meet the Least Reached.
There are many resources you can use to learn about the least reached. One we particularly recommend is joschuaproject.net. This website gives you information on all 17,425 people groups on earth that we know of.
A ‘people group’ is a group of people who all share the same culture. Often this includes language, belief system, and traditions. One nation can have thousands of people groups inhabiting it. (India alone has more than 2000 people groups.)
The reason we need to be aware of this diversity as missionaries, is that the gospel can not naturally jump across from one people group to another. Because of cultural and linguistic barriers we need to be intentional in committing to one people group to be able to evangelize effectively.
Diversity in God's creation.
Think about it, if I as a Swede wanted to tell the gospel to an Australian, I would have to know something about Australians. I couldn’t speak Swedish for one thing, and I would have to be aware of the values, beliefs, and norms in Australian society before convincing them of anything (fika is not nearly as important as a sausage sizzle for example). The same is true for different people groups even if they share the same passport.
So jump onto joschuaproject.net and learn about the diversity God has created in humans, and pray that they would all be given the gift of the gospel. But be careful, God may just ask you to be the solution!
At YWAM Småland we want to be a part of the solution when it comes to the inequality of the gospel. Below is a video we find to be particularly convincing when it comes to our priorities as the body of Christ.