Post on 29-Dec-2015
The unfinished Task
Lets look at the world as God see it
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Two types of mission
1. Unengaged and Unreached People Groups
– 3 of the 5 Great Commissions target here– Totally without hope of salvation
2. Unevangelized and Undiscipled Peoples
– Nominal Christians needing the gospel– Multiple opportunities to hear but need more
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1/3non-Christians
living in already reached
people groups
1/3non-Christians
living in already reached
people groups 1/3non-Christians livingin unreached people
groups
1/3non-Christians livingin unreached people
groups
1/3of earth’s peoplecall themselves
Christians
1/3of earth’s peoplecall themselves
Christians
The WORLDThe WORLD
2,200,000,0002,200,000,000
World Religions
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The unengaged and unreached in the Americas
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Definition of an Unreached People Group
• A unique ethnolinguistic people among which no indigenous community of believers adequate to evangelize themselves.
• Usually this is <2%
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Number of languages without Scriptures
Number of languages
North American Continent
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N. America a mission field• Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem _____________ ________ and in all Judea ___________
and Samaria ___________________ ____________ and to the end of the earth” ___________________ ______________
• It appears He expects us to do all four simultaneously
[hometown], [non-church in area ]
a different culture],
[nearby people from
culture and land]
[strange language,
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North America: Our home, state and Samaria• Has most of N.A. heard the gospel repeatedly?
– 4 million religious programs annually– 130,000 Christian radio and TV stations
• 67% of United States consider themselves “Evangelical”
• Source of Growth of Conservative Churches:– 51% Transfers from other churches– 27% Biological: Children of members– 22% “Sinners” from marriage and friendship– “If evangelicals are serious about recruiting ‘real live
sinners’, the best approach is either to befriend or marry them!” Riginald Bibby
(www.bible.ca/evangelism/e-stats.htm)16
Ethnically Diverse Population
• US is becoming an ethnically foreign country• Churches/Leaders are not equipped to reach a
diverse population– Few have any training in cross-cultural ministry– Fewer care to have a cross-cultural ministry!
• Separate churches for every homogeneous group is huge
• The “melting-pot” syndrome has become a smorgasbord of cultures.
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Home Missions are Essential to Foreign Missions
• Effective outreach demonstrated at Home ministry before sending to Foreign
• Reaching out cross-culturally at home is key training ground
• Need for multi-ethnic churches
• Often now returning missionaries focus on same ethnic group in US
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Ethnic Ministries in the US• Native Americans
– Of 50+ indian languages in US only 35 have parts of the Bible– 40% consider themselves Christian (yet only 3-5% are evangelical)– 28 interdenominational mission boards & 300 missionaries, but
very few indian pastors!• Afro-Americans – about 20% of US pop.
– 60%+ affiliated with Protestant Churches– Gospel understanding often clouded with baptism and social
agendas– Liberalism permeates black pastorates (only 25% of black
seminaries are evangelical!)– Little focus on missions to black community – except by Muslims– Major obstacle to integration was White’s attitude, now it is the
Blacks!– Three groups:
• Culturally black North Americans• Integrated blacks• International Black immigrants: West Indians, Samoans, etc21
Ethnic Ministries• Hispanic Americans – about 24% of US pop.
– Illegal immigrants over 30 million!– 80% do not attend any church– Spanish radio, publications and music are effective
• Established ethnic groups (15 million)– Jewish American (8 million) with over 100,000 Hebrew
Christians in NA– Chinese-Americans (3 million) with 1,000 churches – Japanese-Americans (4 million) (1 million in Hawaii)– French-speaking Americans- 19 million in Canada,
300,000 immigrants from Haiti, 1 million Cajuns in Louisiana. Quebec is least evangelized area of NA!
– European immigrants: 1 million Portuguese speaking Brazilians, 3 million Slavic's.
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Religious Groups in US• Muslims (More Muslims than Jews) – 9 million, 40% of blacks are
Muslims!• Hindus (esp. NY and NJ), 600,000 with over 400 temples • Sikhs: a syncretistic religion of Islam and Hindu number over 2.4
million• Buddhists, number over 3 million with over 1,500 temples• Koreans are the most evangelized ethnic group in the US – not
because of US missions, but Korean missions to their own people• Roman Catholicism number over 100 million with few ministries
focusing on them• Eastern Orthodox Americans are 5% of the population (14 million),
but no known ministries to them • 368 Cults in the US represent 7% of the population (21 million)
– Mormons are over 12 million world-wide, obligating every male in short-term (2 yr) missions, and about 6 million in US
– Jehovah Witnesses have about 1 million– Others are Christian Science, Unification Church, 7th Day Adventism
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Maybe its time to start thinking about reaching N. America instead of just building a big and famous church of people like us!
Do you have the courage to think out of the box? Whatever else you may do in N. America focus on all the people groups that are here, not just the ones that can make you famous! Jesus cares for them too.
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Latin America as both unreached and unevangelized
Mega Cities in the Americas
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140 million140 million in animistic tribal groupsin animistic tribal groups
140 million140 million in animistic tribal groupsin animistic tribal groups
Still Unreached
Amazon Headwaters
Amazon Headwaters
• Southern Colombia
• Western Brazil
• Eastern Peru
• Southern Colombia
• Western Brazil
• Eastern Peru
60 + groups
Does anybody care?
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