Unreached and Unengaged

This is one of those posts that is a work in progress. It has been coming together for awhile now. Some comes from reading assignments I have completed as part of my departure requirements. Some comes the book Radical by David Platt, which I recently read. Finally some started last year about this time when I took the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class. This class was required as part of my preparation for serving with WorldVenture. I wrote a blog post on it shortly after I finished, which you can read here if you want. Part of this class gave me the latest information on what missions is doing around the world and the chance to interact with missionaries serving around the world and hear their stories. One of the videos we watched in class is the video above. Before that time I had heard the terms unreached and unengaged around but only understood them in general terms. So maybe that is a good place to start...

Unreached means that a people group does not contain an indigenous community of Evangelical Christians with adequate numbers and resources to spread the gospel within the people group.  
Unengaged means no church or organization is actively working within that people group to spread the gospel.

There are lots of statistics out there to give us an idea of how many groups are unreached but in general it is thought that about 6,000 people groups totaling around 2.8 billion people are unreached and of those 5,000 people groups totaling 1.5 billion are unreached and unengaged. As David Platt says in his book Radical, "that means for these 1.5 billion unreached and unengaged peoples, almost every individual within them is born, lives, and dies without ever hearing the gospel. Even worse no one is currently doing anything to change their situation. No one."

Indonesia is a unique country with its 17,000 plus islands and 768 people groups. It ranks as the country with the third most people groups (India and Papua New Guinea are the first two). About 127 major unreached people groups are present in Indonesia. 39 of those people groups are unengaged and three of those live on the island where I will be serving.

I have two expected roles in Indonesia. One is obviously to serve as a nurse and midwife to those at the hospital and through our village health outreach team. The second is to mentor and disciple young nursing students and nurses who have made the commitment to serve as missionary nurses in Indonesia through our MedGo program. Together with your support we hope to reach out to the many unreached and unengaged people groups in Indonesia with good health care and the Good News.

God has a plan for reaching those unreached and unengaged. He outlines it in Romans 10. God sends His servants, His servants preach, People hear, Hearers believe (not all but some), Believers call, Everyone who calls is saved. So why hasn't the goal been reached? There is really only one possible spot this plan breaks down - when servants of God do not preach the gospel to all peoples. As David Platt says in his book Radical, "we are the plan of God, and there is no plan B." Maybe it is time we stop asking that all too famous question, "What is God's will for my life" and realize that He has already told us. The will of God is for you and me to give our lives for the gospel and glory of God among all peoples but especially those who have never heard of Jesus. This is a cause worth living for and it is a cause worth dying for. So the question becomes "Will we obey God's will?"

So as you look at your New Year's Resolutions this year I challenge you to consider how the Lord might be asking you to help reach those unreached and unengaged. 

Pick up the book Radical by David Platt to read a lot more on this topic. At the end of that book he challenges us to an experiment. It is one I plan on working on this year. Want to join me? You can also read a lot more about this topic on The Joshua Project web page here. Or maybe you could take a Perspectives class. Many start in January and you can find one near you through their web page. You can also pick up a copy of Operation World which helps you read and pray through every country in a year.

Check out the video above for some interesting facts and challenging questions. (For those reading this in your email or RSS Feeder you might need to click on the "read more" button at the bottom of the email to go to the blog to see the video) Please take the time to view it! 

Happy New Year!