Let’s be clear, the unreached are by definition outside of our normal Christian experience. They have to be intentionally brought into our experience or we will not see or hear them, at all. Fifty years ago, Ralph Winters helped Lausanne recognize the vital need to see the unreached peoples of the world. Today, we need to clearly hear their voices.
The lack of a compelling and persistent call to the unevangelized and the unreached at this Congress left me deeply saddened. The church desperately needs a restored mission vision. While being open to changes in patterns and strategies for holistic mission, a persistent evangelistic focus on the lost is an enduring call that we need to hear now more than ever.
The Unreached Still Exist
In a recent survey trip through a large area of the Sub-Saharan/Sahel region of Africa, we discovered that the mission work in this area has almost completely disappeared in the last 10 years. Our hearts were broken as we went through vast areas with virtually no Christian witness. Talking with the few missionaries still there, we learned about how shockingly few people were now working in that entire area to bring the gospel. We estimated that even if every single one of them would share the gospel with a new person every day, it would take thousands and thousands of years for all the lost in that area to hear the Good News. That is simply unacceptable!
Billions of people are dying with virtually no opportunity to hear or understand the gospel, and tragically, the church often turns away from this dreadful dying. Are we distracted, unmoved, or simply unwilling to make the sacrifices needed to bring them the good news? Perhaps we prefer the sweeter, easier ground than the hard unreached and unpleasant places that remain. Whatever our hesitation may be, we must remember that the growing number of unreached people out there are not just numbers. They are people with names and faces. People like the woman with the tumor.
The Gospel Still Matters
Mariama, the woman that my wife cared for those many years ago, was dying. But amid that death and decay, the Lord reached down and revealed himself to her. After an intense spiritual battle, she was finally set free from the various forms of oppression that had held her captive for so long. Although death constantly stared her straight in the face, she was able, because of Jesus, to face that imminent death in complete peace, to the shock of all her neighbors. She would often ask us: “Why haven’t I ever heard about this Jesus before?”
“Everyone should know about him!” she would exclaim. “Why doesn’t everyone know about him?”
That is an excellent question, one that I wish we could have intentionally talked about at Lausanne in a more impassioned and personal way. If the lost are to be found, they first need to be seen and heard.
