Adopt A People Group

What is a people group?

A people group is a significantly large ethnic or sociological grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another. For evangelistic purposes, it is the largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church-planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance. Although there are other types of people groupings, in the context of this program, the word people refers to ethnolinguistic people groups.

What makes a people group unreached?

Also known as hidden or neglected peoples, these groups have no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize their people without requiring outside (cross cultural) assistance.

When is a people reached?

A group is considered reached if it has a viable, indigenous, self-reproducing church movement in its midst. This includes strong churches, led in their own language, actively evangelizing their own people and planting daughter churches.

Why Are Church Planting Movements Key For Reaching Unreached People Groups?

One of the primary strategies in reaching unreached people groups is to launch church planting movements. A church planting movement is movement of rapidly multiplying small, indigenous house churches. Church planting movements are dependent on a model of church planting that encourages small, simple, easily reproducible churches that are not dependent on buildings, paid leaders or formal educational requirements for leaders to serve.

What does it mean to adopt an unreached people group?

To "adopt" means to focus on one particular people which has had little or no access to the gospel. This approach to mission involves five activities which may be included in an adoption, but your church* may emphasize or eliminate certain ones based on your desire, gifting and ability. These five are: deciding to adopt, prayer to find the right people group, research, partnering with the right network/agency, and church planting.

Why is adopting a people group an effective, Biblical way to reach the world?

Adopting a people group is biblical because it is patterned after God, who is calling and adopting sons and daughters from every tribe, tongue and nation, "He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will" (Eph 1:5). When we adopt a people, we are His agents or ambassadors. Adoption is effective because it makes sure that every group has a group of Christians praying for and reaching out to them. Adopting a people is a "doable" piece of the Great Commission, where each church, large and small, can play a part.

- Adapted and Edited by Floyd McClung