“He had compassion on them” (Matthew 9:36)
After earlier noting the need for workers (Matthew 9:37-38), Jesus told His followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). “All nations,” or “ta ethne” in Greek, refers not to countries but to distinct ethnic groups, or people groups. People groups differentiate themselves by their distinct languages, cultures, ethnicities, and other characteristics that supersede geographical boundaries of nation states.
of all people on earth, are unreached*
The world’s population is over eight billion people making up about 16,000 people groups (“ethne,” often “nations” in English).
Over 3.5 billion people, almost 44% of all people on earth, are unreached* with the Good News of Jesus.
These 3.5 billion make up over 7,000 people groups, each group of which likely will need a cross-cultural encounter to understand the Good News.
About a quarter of the earth’s population, over two billion people of the 3.5 billion unreached, are part of “frontier” unreached (least reached) people groups. (Generally, in a frontier unreached people group such as those concentrated in South Asia, less than one person in a thousand identifies with Christ.)
* Unreached: Generally less than 2% followers of Jesus
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21)
Surveying the crowds, Jesus told His disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest “to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:38).
Workers are still needed to go to the vast majority of unreached people groups today. Even Christian workers are, for the most part, not going to the unreached.
of missionaries are sent to unreached people.
Roughly 97% of the world’s 450,000 missionaries “are sent to people who already have access to the gospel.”
It follows, then, that fewer than 15,000 cross-cultural missionaries are tasked with reaching out to the earth’s 3.5 billion unreached people.
If just 15,000 missionaries are reaching out to 3.5 billion unreached people, the average is 200,000 people per missionary.
“...assist me on my journey there” (Romans 15:24)
The task of reaching “all nations” requires more workers. (And workers, by the way, need to eat.)
Not everyone can go to the nations, but most can assist the people who go. Just as Paul needed funds for his missionary work, so do God’s harvest workers around the world. How are we doing?
is donated to Christian mission work annaully.
Church members annually donate about $78 billion to general missions.
Less than 2% of that $78 billion goes to reach unreached people.
In total, we believers donate about $1.3 billion in a year to reach the world’s 3.5 billion unreached people.
Bottom line, that’s under 40 cents per unreached person per year.
If you’re supporting a cross-cultural worker with more than the cost of a partial gallon of gas so he or she can share Jesus with an unreached friend, well done. God bless you. Yet as a group, we could stand to raise the bar. Any way we figure it, 40 cents per person is not much. How can we make a bigger difference?
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19)
How can we move the needle toward more than two percent of each unreached people group following Jesus so they can impact others? Over 40% of our earth’s people are considered unreached. They need someone to go and tell them about Jesus. That means that to fulfill Jesus’ plan, believers need to cross cultures, as Jesus’ twelve apostles did and many others have done.
The Navigators are called “to advance the gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of laborers living and discipling among the lost.” While it’s wonderful to see a person from an unreached people group come to Christ, we aim to go further, to help that believer become a disciple of Jesus who can multiply his or her life among others — spiritual generations.
When Navigators serve cross-culturally among the lost, we disciple new believers, passing along our passion: “To know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same.” Someone from the same culture can usually understand, reach, and disciple a friend or family member better than someone from a different culture. We labor toward equipping disciplemakers who can reach others within their own culture and beyond.
By making disciples “next door to everywhere” — to the ends of the earth — and helping others do the same among their family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers, we can be used by God to advance Jesus’ Kingdom among the unreached peoples of the earth.
We are The Navigators – a Christian ministry that shares the gospel of Jesus and helps people grow in Christ through Life-to-Life discipleship, creating spiritual generations of believers.