From the beginning, ABWE’s missionaries have been bringing the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth, in obedience to Jesus’ command:
“Go and make disciples of all nations” Matthew 28:19
Our vision is to fulfill the Great Commission by multiplying leaders, churches, and missions movements among every people group.
What is a People Group?
“For evangelism purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.”
(Source: 1982 Lausanne Committee Chicago meeting)
The Joshua Project defines “people group” to mean:
- all individuals in the group understand each other reasonably well
- cultural / relationships barriers aren’t so high that the transmission of the Gospel is seriously impeded
The Joshua Project estimates that there are 7,391 unreached people groups in the world, representing over 3 billion people. A people group is designated ‘unreached’ when less than 2 percent of the population are evangelical Christians, and there is little or no history of Christianity. Many of these live in hard-to-reach places where it is difficult for missionaries to enter.
Last year, ABWE launched its “Open Initiative” – an effort to access unreached people groups with missionary teams focused on starting churches.
The Open Initiative aims to rekindle a missionary spirit among individuals and local churches – and remove obstacles that often hinder Christians from serving in hard-to-reach contexts.
ABWE, working alongside North American evangelical church partners, plans to gather the teammates and resources needed to establish new churches among:
- The nomadic Fulani people in West Africa
- An Islamic people group in Southeast Asia
- Syrian refugees throughout Europe
- Majority religion expatriates in the Caribbean Basin
- Shinto and Buddhist residents of Japan’s greater Tokyo area
- A large Islamic unreached people group in South Asia
We want to help people overcome the barriers they might be facing as a missionary to the unreached, by providing training, strategy, and the support they need to go and share the good news of Jesus.
