Prioritizing the Great Commission: Reaching the Unreached

6. Missions Priorities Where are the people who have not heard about Jesus? Where should we prioritize taking the Gospel?

7. Prioritization of the Great Commission (Overview) • There is a great need to prioritize the Great Commission. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on bringing the awesome truth of Jesus to the least reached. • 80% - 90% of missionaries are among evangelized (nominal) Christian people groups and a very large portion of Christian resources are in the U.S. • There are many people who have heard little or nothing about Jesus and have almost nobody praying for them (by name) or who can tell them about Jesus. • We need to prioritize these unreached people so we can obey our Master and complete the task He's given us all to do. • We can pray more for those who have not heard the truth about Jesus and we can reallocate the resources at our disposal in order to more significantly impact the world for eternity.

8. Past Fruitful / Successful Missions • Christian missions have been successful in many places like sub-Saharan Africa • Just like a successful investment portfolio requires reallocation to strategically distribute resources (especially when do well in some areas and not in others), effective Great Commission outreach requires reallocation of resources.

9. Completing the Great Commission • Jesus told us to make disciples of all ethne / ethnos (people groups) • In order to do this, we Christian disciples must be engaged with all ethne • At present, there are many peoples with little or no Gospel witness • In order to fulfill Jesus’ last command, we must make it a high priority • This requires that we send people and resources where they are currently sparse but in very great need

10. Where are the majority of gospel / Christian resources?

11. If resources were distributed equally, they would be distributed according to: Source: Barrett, David, and Todd Johnson. World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2001. (WCT)

12. Actually: Source: Barrett, David, and Todd Johnson. World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2001.

13. 0.51 x proportional share 7.4 x proportional share 0.017 0.0018 0.0083 Data Source: World Christian Trends, Barrett & Johnson 0.049 1.3 Afghanistan 0.000072 x proportional share Lowest Ratio (less than country’s portion) < 1.0 (Has less than country’s fair share per person) = 1.0 (Has country’s fair share per person) > 1.0 (Has more than country’s fair share per person) Ratios of Countries’ Portions of the World’s Christian Income on a per Person Basis Highest Ratio (more than country’s portion)

14. Source: Barrett, David, and Todd Johnson. World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2001.

15. $130,000 $1,551,000 $15,800 $9,800 Data Source: World Christian Trends, Barrett & Johnson $40,800 $171,800 Afghanistan $30,400 Most Effective Mozambique $1,400 Cost Effectiveness of World Missions Based on the Cost to Lead to the Baptism of a New Convert Least Effective

16. David Barrett on Good Missions Stewardship “Dollar for dollar and hour for hour, the harvest coming from the 10/40 Window nations outstrips that from the rest of the world 100 to 1,” Barrett says. “That is, if the same money and time spent to win one person to the Lord in the West were put to use in the 10/40 Window nations, the effort would yield a harvest of 100 souls added to the kingdom of God. It is 100 times more cost effective, therefore, to reach those in the 10/40 Window. But for a sizable number of ethnolinguistic groups, cost-effectiveness reaches 1000 times more than in Western countries.” World Christian Encyclopedia

17. Source: Barrett, David, and Todd Johnson. World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2001.

18. 1.6 x proportional share 0.034 6.0 x proportional share 0.0097 0.090 0.022 0.33 Data Source: World Christian Trends, Barrett & Johnson 0.29 0.97 Afghanistan 0.0035 x proportional share Lowest Ratio (less than country’s portion) < 1.0 (Has less than country’s fair share per person) = 1.0 (Has country’s fair share per person) > 1.0 (Has more than country’s fair share per person) Ratios of Countries’ Portions of the World’s Christian Workers on a per Person Basis Highest Ratio (more than country’s portion)

19. What if Lord intended equal access for all to Good News? • America has 6 times our proportional share of pastors and ministers • Of the 1,533,000 Christian workers in the U.S., 1.28 million or 83% of these Christian workers could perhaps become missionaries in another country in order to achieve global equity

20. Source: Barrett, David, and Todd Johnson. World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2001.

21. 0.18 x proportional share 0.054 5.0 x proportional share 0.0078 0.0070 0.056 0.21 Note: Most of the red or orange nations are islands 0.33 Data Source: World Christian Trends, Barrett & Johnson 0.52 Afghanistan 0.0035 x proportional share Fewest < 1.0 (Has less than country’s fair share per person) = 1.0 (Has country’s fair share per person) > 1.0 (Has more than country’s fair share per person) Ratios of Countries’ Portions of the World’s Christian Periodicals on a per Person Basis Most

22. Source: Barrett, David, and Todd Johnson. World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2001.

23. 268 2 368 16 <1 <1 13 562 29 Afghanistan 0.03 Fewest Data Source: World Christian Trends, Barrett & Johnson Number of Evangelism Offers per Person per Year Most

24. Needed in the U.S. • Clearly the U.S. has more than her share of Christian finances, resources, and ministers. • Thus, the U.S. does NOT need more money to obey the Great Commission in this nation • Obedient followers of Jesus with vision (from the Lord) are needed

25. The Great Need for More Emphasis on Reaching the Unevangelized with the Gospel

26. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” Romans 15:20, 21 And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Revelation 5:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9

27. From “World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200” by David Barrett and Todd Johnson • Current Missionary distribution: 2.4% (among) unevangelized, 24.5% evangelized non-Christians, 73.1% Christians (pp. 40 & 55) • 1990 AoG missionaries – 2.0%, 34.2%, 63.8% (p. 57) • 1990 Pentecostal/Charismatic missionaries – 1%, 25%, 74% (p. 56) • Foreign mission money p.a. – 1.7%, 11.7%, 86.6% (p. 55) • Full-time workers – 0.4%, 23.7%, 75.9% (p. 55) • Tracts (leaflets) p.a. – 0.2%, 4.0%, 95.8% (p. 55)

28. From “World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 2200” by David Barrett and Todd Johnson • Only 8.7% of all Christian personnel, outreach, and evangelism ever gets through to the evangelized non-Christian world/peoples and only 0.3% to the unevangelized (p. 81) • 91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non-Christians but targets other Christians in (60%+) Christian countries, cities, peoples, populations, or situations (p. 3) • It costs Christians 700 times more money to baptize converts in rich Christian countries (Switzerland) than in poor unevangelized countries (Nepal) (p. 3)

29. Windows International Network “Only five pennies of every $100 given to missions goes to the 10/40 Window!” That's 0.05%!!!

30. Pioneers (Missions Organization) “Worldwide, Christians earn $12.3 trillion a year.Of that $12.3 trillion, only 1.7% is given to Christian causes of any kind.Of this 1.7%, only 5.4% goes to foreign missions.Of this 5.4%, only 1% goes to people without any opportunity to hear about Jesus!” Let's break this down:  0.092% of all Christian earned income goes to missions.  0.054% of the money of Christian causes goes to unreached peoples. 0.00092% of all Christian earned income goes to people with little or no opportunity to hear about Jesus! Core Value: Unreached PeoplesWe believe that our primary calling from God is to proclaim Christ among unreached peoples--those groups remaining in the world who have the least opportunity to hear and understand the life-giving message of the Gospel. There are still many hundreds of ethno-linguistic groups who do not have their own churches. Our passion is to bring the first spark of light to these dark places. <http://www.pioneers.org/Portals/0/UltimateImpact.pdf>, page 5 <http://www.pioneers.org/Default.aspx?tabid=39&PrevTab=1>, Core Values Matter

31. Imbalanced Evangelistic Activity There IS enough evangelistic activity to reach the whole world: • Enough activity for every one in the world to hear a 1-hour presentation of the Gospel every other day all year long • Over 1,430 billion hours of evangelism generated by Christians every year: personal witness, radio, TV, Internet, literature, etc. But this evangelistic activity is unevenly targeted: mostly at other Christians • As many as 86% of all Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists do not personally know a Christian. From: Justin Long, www.Momentum-Mag.org, Aug. 2007 Source: World Christian Encyclopedia

32. World Population Foreign Missionaries From: Operation World, State of the Gospel, YLG 2006, Malaysia

33. Cross-cultural Missionaries per Million in Major Blocs From: Todd M. Johnson & Mission Frontiers Magazine, June 2000; Stan Park, Ethne ’06

34. Christian Ministers’ Focus • 95% of Christian ministers focus on their own people • Of the 5% who become missionaries, 80% - 90% focus on ethne which are majority Christian • Only 2.5% – 4% of missionaries are focused on the unreached From: Stan Park, Ethne ’06

35. Status of Urgency for the Unreached • Majority of Christians still not aware of the challenge of the unreached • Many that are aware feel it is not their responsibility • Many church and mission leaders feel that missions to the unreached has been over-emphasized From: Stan Park, Ethne ’06

36. Will We Change? If current patterns continue, the unreached will still be 23-28% of the world’s population in 2025 “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein From: Stan Park, Ethne ’06

37. The number of missionaries amongst the unreached remains terribly low. 9% 36% 55% 2% 25% 73% No Access 50,000 Evangelized Non-Christian 10,000 24% 40% 200,000 36% 100,000 15,000 Christian 25,000 300,000 300,000 22,000 1975 1900 2000 2050 1925 1950 2025 From: Justin Long, www.Momentum-Mag.org, Aug. 2007 Source: World Christian Encyclopedia

38. Where Are Missionaries Needed the Most? • Unreached people groups • Least evangelized world or unevangelized world (“World A”) • 10/40 Window

39. Christians and the Unevangelized From: Operation World, State of the Gospel, YLG 2006, Malaysia

40. Missionary presence From: Operation World, State of the Gospel, YLG 2006, Malaysia

41. Percent Unevangelized Per Country From: Operation World, State of the Gospel, YLG 2006, Malaysia

42. Countries with Largest Populations of Unreached People Majority of the Unevangelized World Unevangelized Population 1.2 billion 143 million 178 million 149 million 75 million From: Operation World, State of the Gospel, YLG 2006, Malaysia

43. Countries with the Most Unreached Peoples Country # Peoples # Unreached Peoples China Nepal India Pakistan Bangladesh From: Operation World, State of the Gospel, YLG 2006, Malaysia

45. Where Are the People Who Have Not Heard About Jesus? • Most Christians can more easily locate countries rather than people groups • Joshua Project* and WCT missions information was used to prioritize the nations using ten criteria • Data for 15,893 people groups and 222 countries were used to evaluate the status of Christianity in the nations • The results have many possible applications about world evangelization efforts *<http://www.joshuaproject.net/download.php >

46. Prioritization Weighting

47. Data Source: Advocates for the Unreached Lowest Priority Note: Most of the purple nations are (small) islands Great Commission Prioritization of Countries Highest Priority

49. Country Great Commission Status / Prioritization Scores

50. Top 40 “Priority” Great Commission Countries