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

21st Century Christian Trends

• Persecution and martyrdom of Christians will sharply increase as non-christian religious forces are threatened by the mass conversion of unreached peoples to Christ. Nationalistic Islamic and Hindu political parties such as the Taliban and BJP/RSS will continue to experience popularity as their leaders react to American foreign policy and the success of church planting movements and Christian aid workers.

• The local church is reclaiming the initiative as the main sending force in global missions. Movements of local churches networks will arise across denominational lines. They will play a major role in mobilizing, training, placing and caring for workers on the field.

• The 21st Century will see an increase in clashes between major civilizations. Samuel Huntington identifies those civilizations as Western, Orthodox, Chinese, Latin American, Islamic, Hindu, Japanese, and African. This factor makes it vitally important to train and send out missionaries who have both an adequate understanding of the civilization they work in, but also the character necessary to withstand opposition as they plant churches and give aid to the poor.

• Global sending will replace the 20th century paradigm of First to Third World mobilization. Globalization will be facilitated by the ascendancy of the local church as a missions force in Africa, South America and Asia. This will be aided by communication technology, and easy access to international travel. English will continue to be the international language of communication.

• The role of the Holy Spirit will continue to be a major theological perspective in the 21st century church, along with the growing awareness of God

Prayer Request and a Testimony

I am writing to ask you to pray for the international leadership team of All Nations. We are meeting for six days, starting tomorrow morning, June 17th. We need God's wisdom, his grace and sensitivity to hear his voice. Thank you!

I received this very amazing news this morning about a radical Muslim man name Earl who came to Christ when I preached in a high security prison in South Africa in February:

"Earl would very much like to write to you. He's got your name, as well as Sally and your children, in his journal with the list of people that he prays for every day... I continue to stand amazed at the absolute change in him and his complete dedication/devotion to Jesus no matter what! One of his biggest frustrations at the moment is the fact that he doesn't see the people around him in the body of Christ living towards/with one another like the Word teaches, and he cannot comprehend why this is while the Word is so clear and we obviously just need to do exactly what the Word teaches!! And only almost four months old in the Lord..."

Please pray for Earl. He was the leader of a large, violent gang in the prison. He is having a major impact for Jesus!

Yours for his glory in all nations,

Floyd McClung