I was recently in a large church. Posted in the back of the church was a large map of the world listing all the workers they supported. All but one worked in North and South America, Europe, Central and South Africa, and Australia. That one exception worked in the Muslim world.
Did you know that 90 percent of the unreached people groups live in the Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu worlds? This is over two billion people- comprising more than one quarter (1/4) of the world’s population. Yet, only 3 percent of all Christian workers work among them. The church’s map visually demonstrated this imbalance.
The tragic consequence of this imbalance is this- over 1/4 of the world’s population has no personal relationship with a follower of Jesus.
Why is this so tragic? How did you and I come to know Jesus? Most of us came to faith due to a series of ongoing relationships with followers of Christ. Since this is the case with most people, and since such a small number of Christian workers live and work among these 3 billion unreached people, most have little chance to discover what Jesus has done for them.
Why do so few Christian workers go to these areas? It seems that 1/4 of the world’s population lies beyond the vision of many in the Church. The unreached are unseen. Thus, we have The Unseen 1/4!
Let me highlight this with the example of the mission context in India. The July-Aug 2013 Issue of Mission Frontiers pointed out that India, even though it is one of the largest countries in the world in terms of population and it contains 1/3 of the world’s unreached people groups, receives only 6% of the world’s full-time Christian workers. This 6% includes Indian and foreign workers. India has approximately 8,000 foreign Christian workers (7 workers per million), and most of these workers work with the Indian Christian population. By comparison, Latin America (with less than half the population of India) receives over 100,000 foreign Christian workers, or 172 per million people. Africa receives over 90,000, or more than 90 per million people.
Addressing this imbalance is our goal in Interserve. Since these 3 billion live in the Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu worlds we concentrate all of our attention on these regions of the world.
Is the Lord drawing you to care about and to help reach this Unseen 1/4? If so, please contact us. (#unseenqtr)