A little over 500 years ago, Martin Luther began what the church and world has come to call, “The Reformation.” Seeing a major problem with the church of his day (the problem being a dichotomy between the theology of the Roman Catholic church and what Scripture teaches), Luther posted his 95 Theses, which outlined these problems, on the door of All Saints’ Church in Germany. What eventually came out of it were churches who received their doctrine from Scripture alone, which then turned many back to the true Gospel, as God reveals it in Scripture. Today, the church faces another major problem that needs reforming.
The Problem
In Matthew 28:19, Jesus gave Christians a clear commandment to “make disciples of all nations,” the fruit of which is later described and prophesied about in Revelation 7:9, which John describes as “a great multitude… from all tribes and peoples and languages.” According to joshuaproject.net*, there are approximately 3.4 billion people (42.4% of the population) making up approximately 7,398 people groups (at the time of writing) who are completely “unreached.” The clearest definition in Scripture of what it means to be unreached comes from the apostle Paul. In Romans 15:23, after starting self-sustaining churches in the regions of his mission trips and with countless who had yet to hear the Gospel there, he says, “I no longer have any room for work in these regions.” He considered a region to be reached and his work done when there was a self-sustaining church there that could then evangelize and disciple their own community. Therefore, I believe to be “unreached” means to be without a Bible-believing church within a reasonable traveling distance. These people are without His Word and without anyone to teach it to them and this is the current status for almost half the world’s population. To make matters worse, approximately only 1% of “missions” resources and 3% of sent out “missionaries” are devoted to these unreached people, meaning 99% of our resources and 97% of our missionaries are going to already-reached people. David Platt calls this predicament, “The Great Imbalance.” As evidenced in Revelation 7:9, God’s will is that all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages are eventually joined together before the throne of Jesus. By neglecting to prioritize reaching these unreached people, the church is failing to follow Jesus’s direct command.
So, what is the cause of “The Great Imbalance?” Is it outright disobedience? Is it too hard to reach them? Although these may be factors, I believe due to how great the imbalance truly is, the problem runs deeper than that. I believe it comes down to what the church has defined a missionary as and what most churches believe their missional duty is.
In recent decades, the philosophy of, “everyone is a missionary,” has permeated the church. This philosophy teaches that if one is following any aspect of the Great Commission, that person can be considered a missionary. An example of this would be “making a disciple” of one’s neighborhood or workplace. Yes, this is a part of the Great Commission and it is important for every Christian to strive to do, but it is not obeying the entire Great Commission and it does not make that person a missionary. It makes them an evangelist and/or discipler of their community (again, this is important and should be done). If a church believes their missional duty is accomplished by simply reaching their local community, there is no need or urgency for them to go any further and that is a problem. In more recent years, this missions philosophy has been pushed against enough that it appears to be slowly dying out, but in reality it has really just been replaced with a slightly wider scope.
Today, the predominant view of missions is simply going across one’s home country border for the sake of giving the Gospel. Most churches agree that going to any people group (reached or unreached) in any country that is not one’s own in order to share the Gospel would qualify as missions. This again gives churches a sense of fulfilling their missional duty by simply sending a gospel-sharing person over a border, which gives them no sense of urgency to strive to go to the unreached. What has happened is that the scope of the previous missions philosophy has simply widened and this is not enough to attack the problem of “The Great Imbalance.” Again, going to reached people groups around the world is important and should be done if they need support, but this should not be defined as missions. Rather, supporting reached people groups around the world should be called international discipleship or evangelism.
The Solution
Since I believe the root of this problem comes down to poor definitions and missional philosophies, I believe a reformation of each is needed in order to eradicate the problem. Although Christians should study and respect church history and tradition, once it begins creating problems, Christians should look for the root of those problems and adjust according to Scripture. Because “missions” is not a biblical word, but rather a word the church created to describe a biblical idea (another example of this being the word “Trinity”), doing this is not a simple task. We see attributes of what God-glorifying missions looks like all throughout Scripture, especially in Acts, but there is nothing that clearly defines what missions is and should be. What is evident in Scripture is that in most cases, if not all of them, the “goer” prioritizes going to completely unreached people groups while stopping by already-reached groups on the way to strengthen and encourage them. As alluded to earlier, the most evident example of this is found in the apostle Paul’s trips. His primary goal was to share the gospel and build self-sustaining churches out of those unreached groups, which could then evangelize the rest of their local community. His secondary goal was to revisit and build up the churches he already established. This philosophy allows for strengthening weaker churches in foreign lands while still prioritizing establishing new ones. I believe this is how the church should define missions today as well.
If this definition and philosophy of missions were to spread and be utilized, I believe at least a few things would happen. Firstly, I believe churches would emphasize the importance of discipling people to be missionaries specifically to the unreached, which would then result in more missionaries going to them. Secondly, I believe churches will put more funding and support towards the unreached. Thirdly, I believe some, maybe many, already-serving missionaries may feel the call to go to the unreached. Lastly, because of the first three and through the work of God, I believe the unreached will become reached. God has chosen to save His people through the means of preaching and hearing, and they cannot hear unless someone goes (1 Corinthians 1:21, Romans 10:14-15). I believe this reformed missions philosophy would cause churches and missionaries to feel the urge to finally send and go to the unreached, rather than remain satisfied with sending them to the reached just because they are in a foreign land. I believe churches should feel like they are failing at being a “mission-minded” church if they fail to prioritize going to the unreached, and this definition should cause that.
Disclaimers
After writing this, I want to make some clarifications on what I believe. To begin, I believe sending people to foreign, reached people groups in need of support is important and should still happen. Just as one can glorify God living their lives in their home country with their secular jobs, one can glorify God by going to a reached people group in need of support or an unreached people group in need of the Gospel. Being a missionary to the unreached is not a higher calling than the calling of any other Christian. Both callings are good and both should be done if that is what a person believes God desires them to do with their lives.
Next, I believe God is fully sovereign over salvation and the current state of missions. The troubling reality of the The Great Imbalance is also a part of God’s good, sovereign plan. If God chose His people out of these unreached nations, they would be reached by now. Our failure to evangelize does not thwart God’s sovereign purposes and plan. Although this is true, this does not negate the fact that we, as His church, have the responsibility to go and reach them and have chosen not to thus far.
Lastly, this was not written to offend any current missionary to the reached or to say they are wrong or in disobedience in any way. The goal of this essay was to point out a problem that exists, to try and narrow down the root of that problem, and to present a possible solution. In short, reforming the church’s current definition and philosophy of missions is a small change that I believe could change the world completely.
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