Evangelism 9, How are we doing?
It is interesting to get glimpses into the progress of sharing the Gospel around the world. In this post we will share some timely and current statistics. They may surprise you.
The world is a very complex place. We sometimes think of it in terms of its geographical and political boundaries. With that view, it would seem that we should be nearing completion of Christ's mandate to us, his great commission –
Mt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
For purposes of evangelism, the world is more complex. Within a single country, even a relatively small country, there can be many peoples of distinctly different languages and cultures. Consider a couple of examples.
Guatemala – there are over 50 ethnic groups of people. Spanish is the official language, but there are between 40 and 50 spoken dialects and languages in this Central American country.
India – This is the most ethnically diverse nation on earth, with over 2500 distinct people groups within its 1.2 billion population. There are 22 official languages and over 456 languages in total.
When thinking about completion of the great commission, we often define it in terms of whether or not these distinct people groups have a viable and moving church within them. That more or less would define them as "reached" with the Gospel.
Here is a current status point.
Number of language/culture groups – 16,350 distinct people groups in the world
Number reached – 9705
Number yet to be reached – 6645 (these are classified as unreached or least reached) In these population, less than 1/2 of 1% are Christians. On average, 0.4%.
It is an ever changing picture, too. People groups change, sometimes merge. The people of the world have always tended to migrate, also. The complexity is not static. But Christ's instruction was straight forward and clear – reach all...
Are you surprised that in this day and age of technology and instant communication that so many peoples still do not have the Gospel message? Well, it is a good news – bad news story. It is bad that so many still remain, but so good that technology advances are accelerating the progress as never before.
Our work must continue.
Blessings and thanks,
Larry
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