Great Commission Prioritization of
Countries:
Helping to Make Completing the Great
Commission More Meaningful for All Believers
John
Pitterle <www.geocities.com/AdvocatesForTheUnreached>
Former missionary to
Current missions committee member and research engineer
![[]](http://ojs.globalmissiology.org/index.php/english/article/download/276/version/267/773/3148/image001.jpg)
ABSTRACT
Where are the
people who have not heard about Jesus?
This article seeks to answer this question and address the great need to
prioritize the Great Commission.
Because most Christians can more easily locate countries rather than
people groups, readily available missions information was used to prioritize
the nations using ten criteria.
Data for 15,893 people groups and 222 countries were used to evaluate
the status of Christianity in the nations.
The results have many possible applications about world evangelization
efforts. People in nations with
little access to the gospel especially need prayer, gospel tools, and new
missionaries. Greater emphasis
needs to be placed on bringing the awesome truth of Jesus to the least reached.
I.
INRODUCTION
In areas where there are no
hospitals or schools, most people would agree that it should be a priority to
provide medical help or education to the people who live there. In a similar way, where very few people
have heard the Gospel, most Christians would agree that we should prioritize
bringing the truth about Jesus. As
Paul said, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ
was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's
foundation. Rather, as it is
written ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not
heard will understand.’” (Romans 15:20, 21)
David Bryant said, “Today five out
of six non-Christians in our world have no hope unless missionaries come to
them and plant the church among them.”1 If this is true, perhaps we should do
something about it.
II.
WHERE ARE THE
PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD ABOUT JESUS?
Where are the people who have not
heard about Jesus? This is a
critical question that will be addressed in this article since there is a great
need to prioritize and strategize. Because
many Christians and churches cannot locate unreached people groups on a map or
target them with their missions giving, this article focuses on a
country-by-country approach. Thus
we will look at the status of the Great Commission in the nations of the world
to answer the question, “Where do people have the least opportunity to hear the
Gospel?” The nations will then be prioritized using available data. Such findings can be helpful for
praying, for churches regarding their missions program, for individual giving
towards the Great Commission, etc.
Possible next steps are offered. It is hoped that a country prioritization
approach will provide a more concrete, understandable way for more Christians
to emphasize the least reached in their Great Commission involvement.
III.
GREAT
COMMISSION PRIORITIZATION OF COUNTRIES
Excellent missions-related
information is available today. For
example, the Joshua Project2 (JP) has large amounts of data
available freely to churches, organizations, and individuals who can apply it
to their specific applications as was done in this paper. Similarly, information from the World
Christian Trends AD 30 – AD 22003 (WCT) book was also used in
this country prioritization.
There are numerous parameters that
could be used to evaluate the state of the Great Commission in the nations of
the world. The weighting of the
final ten criteria used here to evaluate countries and produce an overall score
out of 100 possible points is shown in Figure A1 and explained in the
appendix.
For 15,893 people groups, the
Joshua Project has scores for progress, ministry tools, and location
(identified as “Country Indices” in Table A1). The JP article
MFPrioritizationArticle.doc4 provides a description of these three
criteria. Using a simple computer
program, these three scores were separately multiplied by the respective
populations of all the people groups in a given country and then added
together. These country totals were
then divided by the total population of the people groups in each country to
provide an average score for these three categories in each nation.
The JP web site5 also
provides information about each country regarding the percentage of people living
in a least reached people group, the population in least reached people groups,
the number of least reached people groups, and the total population. Barrett and Johnson1 provide
data regarding the number of disciple offers per person per year, the number of
Christian workers per million population, and the cost (to lead to the baptism)
of each new convert.
Table 1 shows the resulting total
scores for 222 countries in common between the JP and WCT using the previously
mentioned weighting. The highest
scores indicate the poorest Great Commission status and the highest priority,
starting with rank / priority #1.
Scores for selected countries are shown in Figure 1.
These scores are not intended to
show minute differences that can distinguish between consecutive countries in
the list. Rather, one could
possibly say that countries within 20 places or ten points may have a similar
priority.
IV.
HELPING TO
MAKE COMPLETING THE GREAT COMMISSION MORE MEANINGFUL FOR ALL BELIEVERS
This study is based on
statistics. While it is certainly
very important to be led by the Holy Spirit, the data here most likely reflect
on the truth of the status of the Great Commission. Thus, such information can be used to
help make prayerful and objective decisions regarding world evangelization
efforts.
There are many possible
applications for data like these.
For example, the overall prioritization of the
People living in the countries with
the highest scores typically have little or no exposure to the Gospel or
opportunity to hear about Jesus.
For this reason, the people in these countries really need prayer
especially since there are few Christians there to pray for all the lost
people. It could also be strategic
to send new missionaries and focus more outreach on the higher priority nations
because many of the people groups in these nations have little or no
evangelical activity.
There is a great need to prioritize
the Great Commission and strategize.
There are many ways that this information can be practically applied to
prioritize participation in the Great Commission based on need. For example, we can all maximize our
investment in high priority nations.
Churches and individuals can evaluate the missionaries / organizations
they support and consider focusing more on countries near the top 1/3 of the
priority list. Churches could especially
think about adding more new missionaries in high priority nations. Churches can establish goals to increase
the percentage of their support in the top nations. Scripture / gospel literature support
could be earmarked for high priority countries. Lastly, greater emphasis could be placed
on international student ministry, in particular seeking to reach people from
high priority nations. It can be
very easy and strategic to befriend and reach out to future international
leaders who are studying in universities away from home.
As agreed upon by more than 2,300
evangelicals from more than 150 nations in the Lausanne Covenant of 1974,7
“We are convinced that this is the time for churches and para-church
agencies to pray earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to launch new
efforts to achieve world evangelization. A reduction of foreign missionaries
and money in an evangelized country may sometimes be necessary to facilitate
the national church's growth in self-reliance and to release resources for
unevangelized areas. . . . The goal should be, by all available
means and at the earliest possible time, that every person will have the opportunity
to hear, understand, and receive the good news.”8
V.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, in order to more quickly complete the task Jesus left the church to do, there is a great need to prioritize reaching people who have little or no access to the Gospel. Country prioritization like that done in this article can be used to help churches, ministries, and individuals prioritize their participation in the Great Commission. Many follow-up actions like more focused prayer and new missionaries or gospel resources targeted for countries with many least reached people can be pursued.
ENDNOTES
1“100 World Christian Quotes.” March 2007.
http://thetravelingteam.org/?q=node/196.
2“Joshua Project – Downloads.” April 2006.
http://www.joshuaproject.net/download.php.
3Barrett, David, and Todd Johnson. World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD
2200.
4“MFPrioritizationArticle.doc.” March 2007.
http://www.joshuaproject.net/assets/MFPrioritizationArticle.doc.
5“Global Countries Listing.” May 2006. http://www.joshuaproject.net/globalctry.php.
6“Great Commission Priorities.” March 2007, slide 9.
http://www.geocities.com/AdvocatesForTheUnreached/Great_Commission_Priorities.pps.
7“The
http://www.lausanne.org/Brix?pageID=12891.
8“The
http://www.perspectives.org/about/lausanne.html.
