From Every Tribe

For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" 

-Romans 10: 13-15

The unreached.  There are so many.  The Joshua Project states that out of the 16,349 people groups in the world, 6,644 are completely unreached with the gospel of Christ.  Thats a lot of the world population---somewhere around 40%.  I'll be honest, I didn't even realize how huge a percentage it was, until looking it up just now.  40% of the world has never heard the gospel, never held a Bible in their hands, has never heard the name of Jesus.  wow.  

Its almost unthinkable to those of us who live in the U.S. and hear the name of Jesus thrown around here and there, often so flippantly & even as a swear word.  But its true---there are almost 3 billion people out there who have never had the privilege of hearing the name of Jesus Christ.  

And yet in Revelation, it says that from EVERY tribe and language, people & nation, men were purchased for God by the blood of Jesus.  Ok, so we know that eventually people from every tribe, tongue & nation will know the Lord, but...

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

These are the questions that Ben & I have been presented with by our pastoral leadership.  We have been digging through the first several chapters of Revelation for a couple of months now, and have found ourselves in the middle of chapter 5 with some big questions.

Why, as a church and as individuals aren't we doing something to reach the unreached?  Why haven't we been praying for the unreached? Why do we worry so much about our comfortability and our lives here in the US, our job, our future, worldly possessions, and yet don't even think about the souls those that have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ?


And after coming out of the "slap" of conviction all I can ask is: 

What are we waiting for?

The only way the unreached will be reached is through the preaching of the Word by those who are sent ("and how are they to hear without someone preaching?") and through praying-- for His glory, for His kingdom to come, and His will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.   This is not an "only if God calls you" sort of thing.  We are all called to make disciples, we are all called to pray for the glory of God to be made known, we are all to pray for His kingdom to come & His will to be done.  As Christians, we all have a part(s) to play in this.  

Ben and I realize that we can't go physically (yet)--but we can help send (how are they to preach unless they are sent?) people to go & we can pray, pray, pray.  

I found this neat little website badge on Holly Southerland's blog and am going to add it to mine.  It is a badge describing a different unreached people group every day.  This will be a good reminder to me to pray for the unreached daily, and by name.

Will you join me?