Missions Focus: Unreached
An unreached people group is a society among which there is no established local community of believers. This small to nonexistent Church often also lacks the resources to evangelize their people group.
“When we say unreached, we’re not just talking about lostness, we’re talking about access. Unreached means that they don’t even have access to hear the gospel. There’s no church, no Christian, no Bible available … God has not just commanded us to make the gospel known among as many people as possible. He has commanded us to make the gospel known among all the peoples.” —David Platt
A people group is considered unreached based on the following criteria:
- Less than 2% Evangelical Christian
- Less than 5% Christian adherent (on who claims any form of the Christian religion)
While these exact percentages can be somewhat subjective, unreached people group resources suggest that at least 2% of a population is needed for an entire group to be reached.
Of the 6.7 billion people on planet Earth, 2.74 billion are considered unreached or least reached. 4,029 people groups are classified as unreached. That’s a staggering 40.9% of the total population.
Because of the great number of people who have yet to hear the name of Jesus, East-West has made reaching the unreached a priority in our ministry. By targeting areas with unreached people groups and penetrating countries with limited access to the gospel, we are seeing the Kingdom of God multiplied.
In the last decade, we’ve penetrated 103 people groups in pursuit of our 1% Factor vision. As we move forward with our new vision in the fall, we will continue to dedicate ourselves to reaching the unreached. Our goal is to plant at least 25,000 churches among unreached people groups in the next 5 years.
For more information about unreached people groups and how to pray for the nations, visit:
Learn more about where East-West ministers and how we’re spreading the gospel among the unreached here.
