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Just 3% of global missions focus on unreached people groups

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Only 3% of Christian missionaries globally are focused on trying to share the Gospel with the three billion people living in communities that have never been reached or have been reached the least, with Christ’s message of salvation, the Christian Post (CP) reports.

Research shows that some 42% of the world’s population of around 7.7 billion belong to Unreached People Groups (UPG), CP reports. Around 7,000 UPGs have been identified worldwide.

According to the international evangelism ministry East-West, there are a number of reasons why so many people have not yet heard the Gospel, CP said. Reasons naturally include UPGs living in extremely hard-to-access parts of the world on difficult and treacherous terrain.

Another major barrier is that many countries throw up strong cultural and political opposition to Christianity. Countries such as Iran and Pakistan, for instance, are dominated by Islam and their governments have put believers in prison and even sentenced them to death for evangelistic work.

The same is true for Afghanistan, which ranks number one in the world for Christian persecution. In India, Hinduism stands as a powerful opposing force, as does communism in North Korea and China.

Encouraging Christians to engage with outreach and join the 400,000 missionaries worldwide in sharing the Gospel, East-West founder John Maisel said in a blog post: “God’s greatest delight is when His children choose by faith to get out of the safety of the boat to meet Him and follow His leading. You show me a Christian without a passion for those around them who are outside of Christ, and I will show you a Christian without vision who is playing it safe,”