This blog has been adapted from original post at eurasianorthwest.org
Imagine you are the Chief Operations Officer at a charitable foundation. Your CEO assigns the important task of feeding the “Hungry” in Indonesia. But as he provides the details of the operation, you become increasingly confused. “Pencils, books and computers are all essential for the Hungry,” your CEO explains. For clarification, you ask him to define “Hungry”.
“Why, those who crave knowledge and education, of course!” he tells you with surprise.
Broadened Assumptions
This hyperbole illustrates the importance of a definition, and applying that definition to your strategy. We don’t always define words in the same way in Evangelical Christian circles: Unreached and Unengaged are two primary examples.
Everyday, Christians encourage their friends with testimonies, scriptures and messages to spur us on toward the mission field (especially in social media and blogs). In doing so, many define unreached as unbelievers:
- In their backyard (my neighbor)
- At their school (my friend)
- “X” Religious group (Muslim, Hindu, etc.)
Unknowingly, Christians mislabel unbelievers and assume all are unreached. To add to their blunder, they think of the unreached as those that they share a connection with. Unreached aren’t the weekend partiers who go to church on Sunday. They’re not even the atheist professor with a Bible on his shelf for historical reference. Let’s look at how they’re defined.
Definitions of Unreached and Unengaged
Unreached People Group (UPG): A people among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers of resources to evangelize the rest of its members without outside (cross-cultural) assistance.
That’s the official definition In simpler terms, a UPG lacks native Christians with resources to evangelize all group members without outside help.
Another term takes it a step further:
Unengaged Unreached People Group (UUPG): UPG’s lacking a church planting strategy consistent with Evangelical faith and practice under way.
Important Difference
All Unengaged are also Unreached, but not the other way around. The primary characteristic that distinguishes these two groups is that no one is even attempting to actively work among the Unengaged, thus leaving any chance of gospel access obsolete.
As Christians, we all have a part in evangelizing the world. Most of us live in our native culture, but we partner with others who share Christ in cross-cultural settings (like Within Reach Global missionaries). When we use unclear definitions of UPG’s and UUPG’s, we falsely declare that gospel access is universal.
Many places in the world are saturated with Christian churches, Bibles and other gospel outlets. Though all unbelievers are equally lost, not all have equal access.
Now that we’ve clarified the definitions between unbeliever and unreached, let’s finish the work together. Let’s #countforzero by going to where the zeros are. Let’s partner together to reach the true unreached!
This blog has been adapted from original post at eurasianorthwest.org
