On May 1, it’ll be 1,369 days since the last time I was on the mission field. Nearly 2 million minutes have passed by. But all of that will change this summer.
I’m going back.
The Joshua Project, a renowned research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the fewest followers of Christ, has estimated that, out of the 16,600 distinct people groups of the world, 6,700 people groups are considered unreached. An unreached people group is a people group within which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to evangelize this people group. The criteria for a people group to be classified as “unreached” is that there are less than 2% true Christ-followers within that people group.
According to Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, in 2010 there were 1,636 congregations in the Orlando area alone. That means it would only take 5 people from each church to reach the rest of the world that hasn’t heard the Gospel.
Think about that.
Let that sink in.
The churches in Orlando alone can fulfill the Great Commission.
The problem isn’t that the Great Commission is impossible.
The problem is us.
The infamous preacher Leonard Ravenhill prophetical said,
“Today Christians spend more money on dog food then missions.”
This is absolutely sobering, because statistically, Ravenhill wasn’t wrong.
Statistics show that 95% of all missionaries work among already reached peoples. That means only 5% of all missionary work is within unreached people groups.
The annual income for all church members is $42 trillion.
$42,000,000,000,000.00
Of that amount, only $45 billion went to missions. That’s only 6.4% going to Christian causes of any kind.
In 2001 only 1% of giving to “Missions” went to unreached – if that trend holds true today it would be $450 million.
The $450 million going toward unreached people groups is only .001% of the $42 trillion Income of Christians.
For every $100,000 that Christians make, they give $1 to the unreached.
THINK ABOUT IT:
Evangelical Christians could provide all of the funds needed to plant a church in each of the 6,900 unreached people groups with only 0.03% of their income.
The Church has roughly 3,000 times the financial resources and 9,000 times the manpower needed to finish the Great Commission.
If every evangelical gave 10% of their income to missions we could easily support 2 million new missionaries.
When was the last time you or I contributed to the completion of the Great Commission?
I don’t mean to sound condemning. Sure the “mission field” is wherever we’re at. Sure our children are our “mission field.”
But we are at a time in the history of Christendom where the Great Commission is at our fingertips of accomplishment.
There’s no excuse. There’s no justifiable explanation.
God cares about people groups. God desires every people group to worship Him
God is most glorified when His grace and love are seen and savored among many different peoples. In Revelation, the worthiness of Christ is sung precisely because it ransomed not just lots of different individuals, but ransomed individuals from lots of different people groups:
Worthy are you … for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
– Revelation 5:9
And after 1,369 days, I’m ready to go back into the field.
In July, I’ll be a part of an Adventures in Missions’ team that’ll be traveling to South America, to an undisclosed location where we’ll be trekking roughly 20 miles deep into the jungle to an indigenous, unreached people group.
It is in partnership with a long-term missionary who has spent a considerable amount of time building relationships with local villagers. It is only within recent years that the Gospel has been accessible in their own native language. But now that the people group has been engaged, my team and I will be sent to evangelize and present the Gospel. This is an extraordinary honor, which comes with a sense of eager expectation to what God will do, and in all honesty, a sense of anxiety and sobriety to the dangers ahead.
God is doing amazing things in our day. But the mission is not finished. And there is a place for every person in the mission. Will you join me in joining in on the mission of God to the unreached?
Would you join me in spreading the Gospel to the jungles of South America, to the indigenous of South America?
Because of the confidentiality of this particular trip, I cannot disclose the specifics publicly. But there are specific needs that I have, both financially and prayerfully, that you can help with!
If you are interested in more information about how you can help me, feel free to contact me:
Jacob Portillo
https://www.facebook.com/jacob.shari.portillo
There are 6,700 unreached people groups in the world, and we have an opportunity to change that. Please join me in fulfilling the Great Commission and spreading the Gospel to the ends of the world.
Soli Deo Gloria – To God be the glory.
For more information and statistics on global missions, visit:
