There are 3.58 billion people on earth today who have never once had a real chance to say yes or no to Jesus. Not because they rejected Him, but because no one has ever told them about Him. These are what the missions world calls UPGs or “Unreached People Groups.” Understanding what that means, and what it asks of us, may be one of the most important things a Christian can do.
Jesus named this reality two thousand years ago. Looking out at the crowds, He said the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few (Matthew 9:37). Nowhere is that gap more visible than among the world’s Unreached People Groups.
A Village Elder Named Onwas
Onwas (Uno-wass) was the village elder in the first village I went to among the Hadzabe in Tanzania. At the time we met, he was in his late 60s or early 70s. No one really knows their age, especially the older generation. The Hadzabe live a semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle around a massive salt lake called Eyasi. They speak an isolated partial-click language, and until very recently they had little to no access to the Gospel.
A few years ago, the Hadzabe would have been categorized by the missions world as one of the Unreached People Groups: a people group that is less than 2% Christian. There are thousands of groups just like this one in the world today. Though numbers vary slightly depending on your source, based on numbers from Joshua Project, there are about 4,500 Unreached People Groups in the world. Of those, about 3,200 belong to an even more restricted status called Frontier. A Frontier People Group is a group that is less than 0.1% Christian: meaning for every 1,000 people in the group, one (or fewer) is a Christian.
During our time among the Hadzabe, Onwas became our village grandfather. He would often join us for breakfasts around the campfire where we shared bowls of oatmeal. He was also one of the first Christian believers among the Hadzabe and joined us daily for training on how to follow Jesus and share His message with others.
Over several years of ministry among the Hadzabe, Onwas became a thoughtful and prolific messenger of the Gospel. He would share the Gospel with others and then train them to do the same. One year, we happened upon a village where a man named Ankia shared that he had recently decided to follow Jesus. When we asked how he heard, he told us that a man named T’soko (Fire) had shared with him. Upon further investigation, T’soko had followed Jesus when Onwas shared with him. All that to say, Onwas was a vital part of reaching the Hadzabe for Christ.
He was passionate, thoughtful, and loved Jesus.
The day I heard that he died was a difficult one. He really had become a dear friend and bush-grandfather to us. I remember reading the news and seeing the picture of his casket as they buried him. It was hard. My heart ached.
As I prayed that day, what brought me peace was the realization that Onwas was with Jesus. I really do remember the peace that realization gave me.
A peace that led me to celebrate the fact that Onwas had decided to follow Jesus. A peace that reminded me of the importance of sharing the Gospel with the unreached.
Because here is the sad truth—though Onwas is with the Lord, he is one of the “lucky” ones. And I use that word very intentionally. I want us to be disturbed by that word. Because Onwas should not be lucky. But that is the only word to describe the statistics we see.
The Numbers That Should Disturb Every Christian
The truth is there are billions—according to Joshua Project, 3.58 billion to be exact—on earth today who have not heard the Gospel, and they may die before they get the chance.
I’ve tried a lot of ways to make such a large number feel real. Here’s the one that gets me. If you stacked 3.58 billion people head to foot, you could get from the earth to the moon over 14 times.
If I personally preached to 10,000 people a week, it would take me 6,885 years to reach them all—just once. That’s something like 200 lifetimes.
3.58 billion seconds amount to 113 years. Hear me on this. Each second for over 100 years is a lost person with little to no access to the Gospel.
That’s another reality that disturbs me about this number. The unreached are not people who heard about Jesus and said no. They are not people who had a bad church experience and walked away. They are not people who have had any real option to choose. Instead, they are people who will be born, live their whole lives, and possibly die without ever once having the chance to say yes or no to Jesus. Because nobody ever told them. (Romans 10:14)
The clear truth of Scripture is that God loves the world. It’s the one Scripture almost every Christian has memorized. John 3:16 (NIV), “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And this is a truth that is echoed from Genesis to Revelation. God loves the world, especially those who don’t know Him. And He is on a mission to reach them with the Good News. You might say that reaching the lost is the heartbeat of our King. (Revelation 7:9)
What Went Wrong?
Something must have gone horribly wrong, though, because the numbers don’t lie. There are so many people on earth today who are unreached, who have no access to Jesus, and the reason is we haven’t taken Him to them. I don’t want to bog you down with numbers, but you need to know a few more.
For every $100,000 Christians earn, they give just $1.83 to reaching the unreached (Check out The Traveling Team to read more about these statistics). That means for every dollar Christians earn, they give a fraction of a cent. Truly, it would be like taking one penny of that dollar, cutting it into 1,000 pieces, and giving about one and a half (1.83) of those tiny pieces to the unreached. That is insane.
Here is another number that will likely turn your stomach. We only send 3.4% of all cross-cultural missionaries to the unreached. The unreached make up 43% of the world’s population, and we only send 3% of cross-cultural missionaries to them. If anything, those numbers would be equal: 43% of missionaries sent to 43% of the world. What would make even more sense is sending 97% of the missionaries to the unreached, who need them most. Sadly, that is just not what happens.
What are Unreached People Groups if not the clearest evidence that something has gone horribly wrong among God’s people? God’s heart for the nations is on every single page of Scripture. Jesus’ last words before He ascended were a command to go make disciples. (Matthew 28:19–20) So why are 3.58 billion people still waiting?
Three Honest Reasons the Unreached Remain Unreached
I think there are three honest answers.
The first is ignorance. People just don’t know.
The second is laziness. We know. We just don’t act.
The third is fear. And honestly—I get it. Fear is real. But here’s the thing. The nation of Israel walked toward literal giants because God told them He was with them. He is with you too.
Four Ways to Participate in Reaching the Unreached
If you are anything like me, once you really understand what Unreached People Groups are, you can’t just do nothing. We need to do something. Here are four ways to participate:
- Give. Finances move missions forward. And I encourage you, when you give, make sure it goes specifically toward the unreached. They are the ones who need it most. If you’re wondering about a place to give, Forge is a good option. We have many initiatives among the unreached. Check out ForgeNations.org.
- Pray. Real prayer, not the polite Christian version where we say “I’ll be praying for you” and then forget, but specific, named, intentional prayer. Go to JoshuaProject.net. Find an Unreached People Group. Learn their name. Pray for them by name.
- Use what you’ve got. Think creatively about your skills. Developers, business owners, doctors—there are ways into closed countries that don’t involve a mission visa. The possibilities are wider than most people realize.
- Go. God may be calling you! Ask Him!
Ready to run? Mudrunner by Charlie Marq is a raw and honest resource for anyone who wants to stop sitting on the sidelines and start moving toward the mission God has for them.
