Seth Udinski, FISM News
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The International Missions Board (IMB) is focusing its efforts to reach the most unreached people groups in the world, according to a recent report from the Baptist Press.
The report mentioned a July article published in The Christian Post which shared a rather shocking statistic – only 3% of worldwide mission work is devoted to reaching cultures that fall into the “completely unreached” category. According to IBM, these “completely unreached” people groups are those with a population of fewer than 2% who identify as Christian.
Certainly, the gospel must be preached in all places and at all times. Christians must never be quick to downplay the significance of gospel-growth in regions that are not considered unreached, especially in Western countries that were once dominated by Christianity and have now become completely secularized. The efforts of IBM, at the same time, should be commended as they resolve to take to heart the Lord Jesus’ final command to “go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone.”
The Baptist Press report revealed that in 2021, IBM devoted 81.2% of its ministry resources and initiatives to reach unreached people groups, with over 90% of all its work devoted to at least one unreached group.
“Together, we get to do the most important work in the world to address the problem of lostness,” IBM President Paul Glitwood recently told the Southern Baptist Convention. “Together, we get to share the Good News of Jesus with people and places who have never heard the Gospel. Together, we send, sustain, and support missionaries to be steadfastly present around the globe to share that message and plant healthy churches.”
Though Christianity remains the most popular religion in the world with over 2.3 billion people claiming to follow Christ in 2022, a massive portion of the world is still unreached. The previously mentioned Christian Post report revealed that out of the almost 8 billion people in the world, over 3 billion of them are categorized as either “unreached” or “least reached.”