Defining Missions :: Deeper Devotion

By Chris Poteet

“Missions” is one of the most abused words in Christianity today. We speak of missions in a sense that has convoluted both its intent and purpose. In an average church today, you will find almost no distinction between reaching those who have access to the gospel (“reached”) and those who do not (“unreached”). Let me explain the difference.

Defining the Reached and Unreached

According to The Caleb Project, there is at least one church in every political nation of the world. But when Jesus commanded us to “make disciples of all nations,” is this what He meant?

“So when the term nation is used in the Bible, it means different ethnic groups…”

Our confusion over missions stems from a misunderstanding of what “nations” means. The Greek word ethnos and the Hebrew word gôy had specific meanings. We get the English word ethnic from ethnos. Ethnic groups are defined by language, culture, and geographical location; but it does not refer to a political nation. So when the term nation is used in the Bible, it means different ethnic groups (usually ethnic groups outside of ethnic Jewish descent).

While there are over 200 socio-political nations in the world, The Joshua Project tells us that there are 16,010 ethnic groups. You will often hear the term ethnic groups used synonymously with “people groups.” A reached people group has is traditionally definition as being a group that has at least 2% evangelical Christians and a self-replicating church. An unreached group will have neither of these characteristics. The unreached have no access to the gospel.

When Jesus says, “make disciples of all nations,” He is asking us to find representatives from each people group. We will examine this more in the second and third parts of this series.

The Numbers

The Joshua Project has currently identified 16,010 people groups throughout God’s creation. Of those people groups, 6,782 are still unreached (42.4%). These people groups include 2.51 billion people, which is 39% of the world’s population. Most of the unreached (95%) live in an area called “The 10/40 Window,” which is a box from 10 and 40 degrees above the equator, spanning from North Africa to Asia.

“…only 8% of the world’s cross-cultural Christian missionaries are reaching the unreached!”

There are even more staggering statistics: only 8% of the world’s cross-cultural Christian missionaries are reaching the unreached! So 92% of all the world’s Christian missionaries are, in the language of Paul, “build[ing] on another man’s foundation” (Romans 15:20). The Traveling Team states that of those building on another man’s foundation, 74% of them are witnessing to nominal Christ