Where Do We Need Churches?
John Piper tells us that we should be planting more churches. He says that there is a problem with the fact that there are only 11 churches for every 10,000 Protestants in this country. If that's a "problem" then the unreached peoples are pretty much out of luck. Let me share with you a few facts concerning churches for the unreached throughout this world:
- Over two billion people live in these unreached people groups and every day some 50,000 of them perish without having heard the Gospel. That is about 26 million a year.
- There is 1 Christian missionary for every 1,000,000 Muslims, 1 Christian missionary for every 368,421 Hindus, 1 Christian missionary for every 200,000 Chinese, but there is 1 Christian "missionary" for every 200,000 reached Westerners.
- The 10/40 Window contains 2/3 of the world's unreached yet only 8% of the world's missionary force and 0.01% of the income of the world's Christians (12.3 trillion) goes to blessing the unreached.
While John does mention that churches need to be planted world-wide, and that missions-mobilizing churches need to be planted; I can't help but think that the very paradigm we have for church planting should start in reaching the unreached. We already have enough churches in the U.S. that every single unreached people group can be adopted by about 6,000 churches. This could finish the Great Commission in 100 years.
Be passionate about what God is passionate about. Be filled with the joy of knowing what He has planned to accomplish. Be driven to be a part of it.
"Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
Psalms 46:10
Statistics provided by The Traveling Team.
Feb 19th 2006 
11 Comments 
Feb 20th 2006
Thanks for the hard-hitting facts! It's definitely a crucial issue to pray about.
Feb 20th 2006
Interesting stats... Here is another one: There are more Christians in Communist China then there are in Washington State. Some places in the US need churches! Still I couldn't agree more with your words.
Feb 20th 2006
Population of China: 1,306,313,812
Unreached People Groups in China: 499
Population of Washington State: 5,894,121
Unreached People Groups in Washington State: 0
Feb 20th 2006
Ha! WA state huh...we are a post-Christian society, but we do have churches in every town!!
Feb 21st 2006
Bear in mind that there are Christians who are not called to Ministry outside of Western Culture. Just because you aren't ministering in the depths of Africa or on the steps of a Mosque doesn't mean you aren't doing mission work.
Incidentally, I think there's a hearty difference between "reached" people groups and saved people groups. Namely that a large portion of the first half is going to hell in a handbasket. Especially in western culture.
Feb 21st 2006
Actually, missions is only working with the unreached. Didn't you read my article?
"Reached" means that there is at least 2% evangelical (i.e. "saved") with 5% professing (i.e. that extra 3% might not be saved). I'll post a new article soon about why every Christian is called to the unreached.
Feb 21st 2006
“Reached†means that there is at least 2% evangelical (i.e. “savedâ€) with 5% professing (i.e. that extra 3% might not be saved).
So... what about the 95% that's not a part of that 5%? "Welp, we told 'em, that's all we can do, I guess, Back to Africa, guys!" What about follow up?
Also, what happens when all the evangelicals from those groups *leave* to go to the unreached groups?
By the way, the article isn't loading.
Feb 21st 2006
The goal of missions, if you will in one sense, is for people from reached groups to go and win converts from unreached groups and teach them to spread the Gospel amongst their own people. The missionary's job is to work himself out of a job. This is usually only accomplished in long term missions not short term.
Think about the model of Paul. Over three missionary journeys he planted churches in unreached groups and help sustain them through correspondence as he went to plant others. In his great systematic work (and the best treatise ever in Old Testament scholarship) takes care to summarize his missions philosophy:
Imagine if the Church worldwide would catch this vision! (PS. The article loads for me.)
Feb 21st 2006
Must be something with the servers here then :/ I keep getting a connection timeout.
I agree that that makes sense, but not everyone is called to be Paul. To me, missions is reaching the lost *where ever* they're at. And a lot of times, there needs to be more clarity from an outside source than an original missionary can give. For example, those people who Paul raised up to lead the people in cities, that he wrote to: Their mission was to win people at home, and to help people grow.
Just because someone isn't called to World Missions doesn't mean they're slacking.
Feb 21st 2006
Ok Ashley, I'll let you be wrong this time.
Feb 21st 2006
*lol* Once in a while I'd like to have a conversation with you when I can walk away and feel like that's not how you feel about it ;D