Reaching Unreached Peoples and Places with your Youth Group
Do you have big dreams of changing the world for Jesus? Many people are called to go to the foreign mission field, but many more are called to stay at home. The global population of people that don’t know Jesus need Christians to live as a faithful disciple of Jesus in their local churches, just as much as they need people to be sent out as missionaries. Why? Because every disciple can fight unseen battles against the spiritual forces of darkness1 through a commitment to pray for unreached peoples and places.
What are Unreached Peoples and Places?
The phrase “unreached peoples and places” is not specifically defined in the Bible. Our definition comes from observing the ways that Paul and the early church obeyed the Great Commission. By the end of Paul’s third missionary journey, he said:
For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”
Romans 15:18-21
Paul’s goal was to take the gospel to people that had never heard it before – people that didn’t know who Jesus was or what He did. This is the base of our definition of “unreached peoples and places.”
Nations
When Jesus gave the Great Commission,2 he commanded his followers to “make disciples of all nations.” The Greek word for “nations” is “ethne” – where we get our term “ethnic group.” There’s a difference between countries/nations and ethnic groups/people groups. There are 195 countries in the world today, but thousands of people groups.
PEOPLE GROUP
- An ethno-linguistic group with a common self-identity that is shared by the various members.
- 11,934 people groups in the world = 7.9 billion people in the world
- Generally speaking, it is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.
UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUP (UPG)
- A people group is considered unreached (UPG) when there is no indigenous [native] community of believing Christians able to engage this people group with church planting.
- 7,314 UPGs in the world = 4.7 billion people in the world (59.5% of the global population!)
- Technically speaking, the percentage of evangelical Christians in this people group is less than 2 percent.
UNREACHED UNENGAGED PEOPLE GROUP (UUPG)
- Unreached people groups are unengaged (UUPG) when there is no church planting strategy that is consistent with evangelical faith and practice (Bible believing, Gospel believing Christians).
- 3,179 UUPGs in the world = 282 million people
- Gathering believers and planting churches are the keys to establishing an effective and multiplying presence among these people groups.
10/40 WINDOW
- The rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia approximately between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude.
- Often called “The Resistant Belt” and includes the majority of the world’s Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.
Our Driving Ambition & Participation
Now the question is, how do we reach these people? If Jesus commanded every disciple to make disciples in all the nations of the world (or people groups), how can we in the Philippines do this?
First, we must understand that we each have a role to play. You may or may not be the person that goes to these places, but you still have a role to play.
Practical Ways to Be Involved in Reaching the Unreached:
- Pray – commit to praying regularly for unreached peoples and places. Use the links below to discover specific people to pray for and how to pray for them.
- Give – give what you have, give cheerfully, give faithfully.
- Send – be a faithful member of your local church and find ways to help send out missionaries to unreached peoples and places.
- Go – ask God if He wants you to go out to the mission field. Pray about it, as your church leaders if they see that potential in you, and serve faithfully in whatever ways you can until you go.
Websites for Discovering Unreached People Groups:
You can use these websites with your youth group to discover unreached peoples and places throughout the world. We challenge you to pick a people group each week or month and pray consistently for them!
Discussion Questions
- We can easily become insensitive to large numbers and statistics. What are some practical ways we can remind ourselves that these are people created in God’s image, and that eternity is at stake?
- What makes the task of reaching the unreached so urgent?
- What should be our driving ambition as we go to the unreached?
- Getting the gospel to unreached people groups can be difficult and dangerous. Why is this mission worth giving our resources and our lives to?
1 Ephesians 6:12
2 Matthew 28:18-20
