I’m growing increasingly tired — and maybe a little frustrated — with bad rhetoric that’s being used in relation to Christian missions. You’ll read it as Finish the Task, Finishing the Task, the Unfinished Task, or Finish the Mission.
Depending on who you ask there are between 6,600-6,800 unreached people groups in the world today. An unreached people group is a grouping of people with a common language and culture that have less than 2% professing Christians. Recently, missions organizations have decided to further break down the world’s population by tracking UUPG’s (Unengaged Unreached People Groups). UUPG’s are those groups that have no present Christian witness. Again, depending on who you ask there are between 1,000 and 3,600 UUPG’s.
Setting aside the argument that this is a terrible way of tracking “lostness”, it tends to give the impression that something can be done about it. Somewhere along the way we thought that God’s reconciliation with His creation was about us, and that if we try hard enough, and travel to the unreached places, we can usher in His return. What silly thinking.
I’d love to live long enough to see each UUPG “reached”. I wonder, the day that happens will the sky split open to see God’s Kingdom return?
Coming Next: A Better Way (in my opinion)