But in the 45 years since the late US Center for World Mission founder Ralph Winter popularized the concept\u2014spurring maps, checklists, and stats toward a new goal\u2014missiologists have begun to update their terminology for targeting the unevangelized, with some rethinking the \u201cpeople groups\u201d idea altogether.<\/p>\n
The labels are not just a matter of semantics; if too broad or too narrow, they fail to identify the people who are most desperate for the gospel and won\u2019t accurately capture the church\u2019s progress toward making disciples of all nations.<\/p>\n
Critics of the traditional definition of an unreached group, one where evangelicals make up less than 2 percent of the population, note that it ends up including peoples at disparate ends of a spectrum: some that already have a strong Christian presence, and others that have almost no exposure to the gospel. \u201cUnreached people groups with no believers among them will not receive the witnesses they need if they are not clearly distinguished from those with thousands of believers,\u201d wrote<\/a> missionary and scholar Rebecca Lewis, Winter\u2019s daughter, in the International Journal of Frontier Missiology <\/em>last year.<\/p>\n Plus, \u201cthere is now significant status associated with mission efforts among unreached people groups,\u201d said Robby Butler, general director of Missions Network. \u201cThis translates into prayer and financial support for such efforts, so no one wants their people classified as reached.\u201d<\/p>\n Missions experts agree that the categories could be more precise, with some opting to focus on \u201cunengaged unreached people groups,\u201d those that are less than 2 percent evangelical and have no existing missionary efforts among them.<\/p>\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Evangelizing “unreached people groups” has mobilized Christians for decades.<\/p>\n But does that term still work anymore? https:\/\/t.co\/yS7Z3AiBvf<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) May 9, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n