Reached vs. Unreached?
Yesterday I posted some numbers from an article that stated that only 10% of missionaries are working among unreached peoples.Among other things, the author speculates that the reason 90% of missionaries are not among unreached peoples is because of "selfishness" & "zeal for me." He suggests that this can be fixed in the future by two ways:
1) Future missionaries should wait and
pray that God would give them a heart
willing to go anywhere.
2) Mission agencies and churches should
assign these willing new missionaries
to Unreached People Groups.
First, do not nearly all or at least most missionaries start off praying that God would give them a heart willing to go anywhere? What do you do then if that has genuinely been done & the future missionary is convinced of a call to a reached people (keep in mind reached is considered over 2% of the population).
The second idea I like too, as long as it would keep the freedom for missionaries to simply obey God. I think sometimes people know they are called to serve overseas, yet have no idea where to go, & are willing to go anywhere in the world. Encourage them & educate them on the most needy areas for the Gospel.
But to say that the missionaries are selfish & among reached peoples because of "zeal for self" is unfair I think. First of all, what about the millions of Christians who aren't even willing to go overseas. Second, though I have met missionaries on the field who are there on an extended vacation, a lost person is an unreached soul, no matter what category or people group they fall into.
Can we seriously wag our fingers at those in the US who are genuinely trying to reach the lost in San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, or even the poor & decrepit rural towns of the deep South? Do they not need Christ simply because 80% of Americans claim to be Christians?
God has called us to the largest unreached people group in the world - the Japanese - who have about 130 million people & less than 0.5% are Christian. Most people consider South America a place that is reached - yet there are 355 million lost people there, & only 6% of the population is Evangelical.
While I agree with the greatest needs being in the most unreached areas with no missionary presence, it shouldn't be put in comparison to the lost in the other parts of the world, whether they are rich or poor, Asian, African, or American. So many maps show South America as a reached region - so do we forsake the 335 million lost there, who are relatively easier to access than the lost of Iran or North Korea, just because the need in those countries is greater? Obviously not. Pray for laborers for the harvest in your neighborhood & the nations.
- read A Prevailing Lostness That Will Surprise You & South America: Reached? Not Yet, 2 articles about the looming needs of the unfinished task in South America.
