the unreached of the world

who are they and how can they be reached?

global summary

an overview of the people groups of the world.

Source: joshuaproject.net

A people group is an ethnic group where the various members share a common culture, language, and self-identity. For strategic purposes, a people group is the largest group through which the gospel can flow without encountering significant barriers of understanding and acceptance. There are approximately 17,440 unique people groups in the world today.

A people group is considered unreached when there is no indigenous community of Jesus followers able to engage them with the message of Jesus Christ. According to Joshua Project, there are 7,400+ unreached people groups representing 3.23 billion people (over 41% of the world’s population!)

Technically speaking, less than 2% of the population actively follows Jesus. Most missiologists consider 2% of the population becoming Christ followers as the “tipping point” at which the group can effectively spread the gospel throughout their community without outside assistance.

Many unreached people groups are located in regions where speaking the name of Jesus is forbidden. Others lack the ability to access the Bible in their language. Others still wait for local believers to cross cultural divides. Simply put, unreached people groups have little or NO ACCESS to the message of Jesus.

AIMS is committed to sending local missionaries who already know the language and culture of an unreached tribe to share God’s love and plant churches among them.

Approximately 90-95% of unreached people live in the 10/40 Window. Christian missionaries coined this term to identify the geographical region between 10 degrees latitude and 40 degrees latitude covering North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The dominant religions within this region are:

why is aims so passionate about upgs?

In some of his final words on Earth, Jesus gave his followers the Great Commission, instructing us to:

“Go and make disciples of all nations [ethne]”
Matthew 28:19 (NIV)

Jesus was not referring to our modern political nations, but the Greek translation, “panta ta ethne,” indicates people groups. In Matthew 24:14, he uses the same language, declaring:

“This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations [ethne], and then the end will come.”
‍Matthew 24:14 (ESV)

AIMS exists to get the message of Jesus to those who have no access because we want to fulfill the words of Christ. With the body of Christ working together, all 7,000 unreached people groups can be reached with the gospel making the Great Commission the Great Completion!

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