You probably remember the first time you heard about Jesus. Or maybe you were so young that you can’t remember the first time. Unfortunately, 3 billion people have never had the chance to hear about Jesus. It’s not that they were too young or forgot — they’ve just never heard the name of Jesus or what He’s done for us.
People who’ve never heard about Jesus are often part of something called an unreached people group (UPG). Keep reading to learn what unreached people groups are, why they’re important, where they live, and how you can get involved without leaving your house.
What Is a UPG?
While there are various definitions of unreached people groups, we describe them as an indigenous people group that has little to no access to the Gospel message and contains less than 2% of professing evangelical believers. If there are any evangelical believers, they often lack the resources to fully evangelize their own people.
This small group of believers may have heard the Gospel message when they traveled to a more diverse area, welcomed a traveling missionary, or discovered a Christian radio or television program. While the method that reached them may work on others in their people group, the process is often slow and difficult. It may take years or even decades for 2% or more of their people to hear and accept the Gospel message.One reason for this slow evangelization is that the people we traditionally think of as missionaries, Christians from the global West, cannot travel to UPGs most of the time. They’re predominantly located in the 10/40 Window in countries with government restrictions. Government restrictions, either on travelers, religious activities, or both, often prevent a missionary from outside of the country from sharing the Gospel with UPGs.
Where are UPGs Located?
There are over 7,000 UPGs around the world, representing 3.2 billion people out of the earth’s total population of 8 million. That means 40% of the population is part of a UPG. The ten largest UPGs are located in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Nigeria, and Turkey.
Bangladesh’s Shaikh people are the largest UPG in the world. Some are practicing Muslims while others merely claim a Muslim identity based on their culture and family. Although there are 134,989,000 Shaikhs, only 8,099,340 are evangelical believers.
8 million people sounds like a big number, but in reality that’s just 0.06% of the Shaikh population. Evangelizing the remaining 99.94% is difficult because Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim country. Their constitution protects religious minorities like Christians, but religious conversion is often socially unacceptable because of culture and family ties.
Why are UPGs Important to Believers?
No matter where a UPG is or how many people are part of that group, they are important to God. We know that all people matter to God because He knows every detail about us, even the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:29–31 NIV). Also, we know that He cares about us regardless of location because He commissioned the apostles and all believers to go “to the ends of the earth” with the Gospel message of salvation (Acts 1:8).
Since UPGs are important to God, they should be important to believers as well. We should try to learn about them, just as God knows them intimately, and we should follow through on Jesus’ commission with missionary support.
How Is ANM Reaching UPGs?
Advancing Native Missions supports native missionaries working on the ground among many UPGs. For example, we partner with a native missionary who’s reaching the Shaikh population in Bangladesh and helping them understand that Christianity isn’t a Western threat.
Some of the native missionaries we partner with are among that first 2% of believers in their people group and are now reaching their own people. Others are from the same country or a nearby people group, but are not part of the UPG they’re reaching.
Native missionaries don’t need a passport to work with a UPG. They already live in the country, often in a local area close to the UPG. Since they don’t need a passport and live so close, they don’t have to worry about extra paperwork like visa sponsorships. Instead, they can focus their energy on reaching their unreached neighbors. Without the need for a passport or international travel, their transportation costs are also lower.
Living in the area at the local economic level doesn’t just lower transportation costs– it enables financial support to go further too. Since the missionaries are from that area, they also already know the local language and culture. Language and cultural knowledge improves communication, so there are fewer barriers to the Gospel presentation. Our native missionaries are currently sharing the Gospel, starting churches, and making disciples among 1,100 of the 7,220 unreached people groups.
Now that you know the what, where, why, and how of unreached people groups, you can get involved. Our native missionaries’ most frequently requested form of support is prayer, which you can start without even leaving your house.
