This past Sunday we observed World Mission Sunday, a province-wide observation in our church. On this day we remember Jesus’ call to be his witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We remember that we are called not just to gather on the Lord’s Day for Word and Sacrament, but we are also sent out into the world with a purpose. We have made changes to our habits as we go about our lives here in Sioux Falls so that we might be witnesses of Jesus Christ to those who don’t know him. But we never want to forget the call to the nations.
Those in the missions field have counted 16,800 distinct people groups in the world. Of these almost 17,000 people groups, almost 7,000 of them remain unreached. Just what exactly does this mean? An unreached people group is a group in which fewer than 2 percent of the population are evangelical Christians. By evangelical, I don’t mean adherents of a particular church or creed or confession, but Christians who are working to evangelize the rest of the people group. When a people group has no effective outreach to the rest of the group they are considered unreached.
But more than 3,000 people groups are not only unreached, they have no church and no missionaries working to evangelize the population. This is all to say that there is work to be done. God desires that all might know him, and there are still billions of people who don’t.
This is a reminder of our call to be a part of the mission of God. There are many things we focus on locally, but we can never lose sight of our call to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ.
What does this mean for you? Well, pray about what the Lord is calling you to. Not all of us are called to cross-cultural missions, but more are called than go. Is the Lord calling you to be his witness to an unreached people group? If not, what are some ways you can participate in the Missio Dei. Is God calling you to commit to supporting a missionary?
I’d like to call each of us reading this to pray for the nations, to pray for the Holy Spirit to prepare the way for the Gospel. I’d like to call us to heed the words of Jesus who told his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.” Would you join me in prayer for the Lord to raise up laborers to go into the harvest?
One thing we are doing as a church is selecting the 100 largest unreached people groups and praying for 2 of these groups a day until we’ve gotten through the list. Consider it a pre-Lenten discipline that we are starting now and continuing through Lent. You can find a list of the 100 largest unreached people groups here. Would you join us in prayer for these groups and for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest? Let us never lose sight of our call to the nations.