The Austin Stone Community Church

In this series of blog posts, we bring attention to people groups around the world with little or no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We call these groups of people, “unreached peoples”. The main point we make is that we as individuals and as churches should make engaging unreached peoples with the Gospel one of our top priorities.

Part 1 introduces “problem” of the unreached. Part 2 explains who are the unreached peoples of the earth. Part 3 below illustrates the contrast between the life of a person with access to the Gospel and a person with no reasonable access.

Today we ask a simple question. If you’ve never heard the good news about Jesus Christ, how will you become a follower of Jesus Christ? Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”. In this series of posts, we are highlighting those peoples who have the particular problem of not having a chance to hear the Gospel.

A PERSON WITH NO ACCESS TO THE GOSPEL

Let’s just say that you are one of the Asahan people that we referenced in a previous post in this series…

..... You are a Muslim.

..... You live in the area known as Batubara, on the island of Sumatra.

..... You are one of 541,000 Asahan people.

..... There are no known Christians among your people.

..... There are no churches among your people.

..... There are no missionaries living among you.

..... There are no missions agencies that have committed to reach you.

 ..... How [KEEP READING]

In this series of blog posts, we bring attention to people groups around the world with little or no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We call these groups of people, “unreached peoples”. The main point we make is that we as individuals and as churches should make engaging unreached peoples with the Gospel one of our top priorities.

Part 1 introduces “problem” of the unreached. Part 2 below explains who are the unreached peoples of the earth.

What Are Unreached People Groups?

There are different categories of “unreached”. We describe below 3 categories of unreached, from most general to most specific.

1. Unreached people groups: This first category is the most general. An unreached people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group. [definition: http://www.joshuaproject.net/definitions.php#unreached]. The criteria for this is that there are less than 2% Evangelical Christian and less than 5% Christian Adherents. There are 2.7 billion people who fall into this category! That is 41% of the people around the world!

2. The least reached: These are the most unreached peoples. I point these out because of the incredible numbers of people in this group. The top 22 unreached peoples each have a population over 20,000,000!! The largest 100 least reached peoples each have a population over 5,000,000!! More than 25 of them have populations exceeding 1,000,000 [KEEP READING]

Matt spoke Sunday about the tremendous growth of the Chinese church. He called us to Get in the Fight! It will take every Christian knowing and applying their spiritual gifts to advance the Kingdom of God.

While the church is in decline in Europe and the USA, the church is China is growing exponentially. This growth is amazing especially since the Chinese church has very little resources, equipping, outside support, and education.

RESOURCES TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CHINESE CHURCH

Faith of our Fathers book: “Through engaging and gripping retelling of some of the most significant stories in China’s history, Faith of Our Fathers reveals God’s guiding hand upon the Chinese people from the very beginning of their existence….The burgeoning growth of the church in China is one of the startling trends in Christendom in the 21st century….The Chinese are rediscovering a God who has been a constant presence in their history and culture for more than four millennia.”

Chinese Missionaries: Check out this Newsweek article on how Chinese missionaries are playing their part in spreading the Kingdom of God. One of the most exciting movements among the Chinese is the Back to Jerusalem Movement!

The Heavenly Man: One of the most fantastic books that I have read in a long time is the story of Brother Yun, an annointed leader of the Chinese underground church movement, entitled The Heavenly Man. This book will challenge you, inspire you, and call you to radical discipleship of [KEEP READING]

Sign up HERE for one of the many short term trips that The Austin Stone is taking over the Spring and Summer 2009. We have trips headed to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, North Africa, and Central Asia. After signing the interest form, you will receive an email with the details of each trip, as well as our trip application. The deadlines to apply are approaching quickly: January 1 for Spring trips and February 1 for summer trips, so sign up now!

Questions? Email us.